A slice of me yearns to be regarded as vital, indispensable, and unique.
Once, I had a friend who despised team assignments. He was a top-tier student with an impeccable 4.0 GPA. He was acknowledged as the star scholar in every course he undertook in his business school, as well as his graduating batch.
As you might surmise, he invariably wound up leading every group assignment. The majority of his peers would enjoy their time while he toiled endlessly. The group consistently secured top marks, glowing praises and reviews, which were majorly his doing. He had a sense of his colleagues exploiting his hard work and dedication in their academic journey.
Today, I find myself in similar circumstances more often. Currently, I’m a special education teacher during the day and a law student at night. Alongside, I also juggle freelance writing and marathon training in my spare time. More often than not, I end up shouldering the lion’s share of the team assignments, which gives me a feeling of carrying an extra burden. Even though I feel like this, I rarely voice my feelings to keep the atmosphere congenial.
However, I’m acutely aware of my personality traits. I have a tendency to be excessively meticulous when it comes to work and academic tasks. This attribute occasionally pushes me to take on more work than necessary, often making me the primary contributor in team assignments.
At work, I interact with colleagues who are older than me with families and aren’t willing to immerse themselves into their work as I do due to their life commitments. They usually view me favorably, and I guess I would appreciate the efforts of a younger colleague when I have a family. I strive to help my colleagues in high-stress situations and ease their workload without expecting anything in return.
No one voices any complaints about this arrangement. In fact, most are grateful for my help. Although, I’ve noticed a significant number of people who prefer to shoulder most of the responsibility in my academic setting than in my professional environment.
If the work isn’t completed up to my standards or promptly enough, I take it upon myself to complete it, often overloading myself because I hesitate to seek help or delegate tasks.
However, in the real world, everyone should contribute evenly to maintain harmony in a team, and if that balance is disturbed, it should be addressed within the team before involving any higher-ups.
The key to this is compromise. I frequently have to compromise and shoulder more than my fair share to ensure that the work is completed the way I want it. However, some prefer even distribution of work over the quality of the project. If you prefer less control over the final project and trust your team members, that’s certainly a viable approach. This is most definitely the case with lower-stakes projects for me.
My control tendencies while working in groups reflect deeply upon my personality type. When my reputation is at stake, I cannot sit idle. The only way I can be content is by giving my all. Of course, it is unrealistic to pour everything into everything I do, but this is my mindset when the stakes are high.
The group project appeals to my vanity. There is a part of me that loves to flaunt my intelligence and capabilities. When my efforts are recognized and someone says, “yeah, Ryan did the whole project,” it boosts my confidence and fuels my ego. This self-perception and ambition have propelled me to places I never imagined I would reach.
The competitive streak I have as an athlete naturally extends to my academic and professional life. I always aim for the best results, quickest times, and the top accolades. My ambition is balanced with my tendency to keep everyone else happy and ensure a good time for all involved.
This often results in me taking up most or all of the project responsibilities, often not because I feel obligated to, but because I want to challenge myself to see where my limits lie, and I relish the feeling of surpassing my own expectations.
Others might take up all the work in a group project out of a sense of duty and secretly resent the lack of contribution from others. I love stepping up and assuming responsibility under pressure. My obsessive streak is not just about control but pride as well.
In the workplace, if I do all the writing and assessments, how will the newbies learn? While I may strive to be viewed as crucial and irreplaceable, the long-term survival of all parties is better served by equal contribution rather than one or two people doing all the work. This is a difficult reality for someone like me to accept.
