There are only a few two word phrases that would strike fear into my school-aged heart. As for the overall winner, it’s a hard choice between “pop quiz” and “group project.” Actually, who am I kidding, group project wins.
In school, this phrase would elicit a chorus of subtle groans from my classmates and myself. Group projects were the WORST! Unlike the rest of our schooling, you have to rely on other people, realize a lot of people don’t pull their own weight and, if you were one of the unfortunate ones who gave a shit, (guess what camp I was in…) you ended up doing even more work than usual.
Solo work in school was AWESOME and the norm. Group projects were like some strange torture the teacher seemed to foist on us when bored (I doubt that was actually what was happening – apparently it was about something something teamwork something).
I was walking along the beach recently thinking back on my years in school and my years in the workforce and I had an epiphany. Work is a never-ending group project! I’ve removed everything possible from my work that annoyed me to try and create the ‘perfect’ job that people who say “I love my job” seem to describe.
I eliminated my commute by choosing my apartment based on where I could walk to work in 30 minutes or less. I moved to a company that allowed me to work from home, which eliminated my need to pretend to be a happy, functioning person in society and allowed me to focus on what should matter most to receive my salary: The Work.
Rushing through a morning routine, packing lunch and being in an office for the best hours of the day has instead become me leisurely making tea in my pjs and settling down to a morning of work or conference calls. In case you haven’t worked from home let me tell you: not having to school your face into a fake smile for hours of conference calls is AH.MAY.ZING! My voice is cheery, but my face doesn’t have to be. It saps so much less of my introverted energy!
But despite all these surprising and awesome wins, a fly remains in the ointment. It’s the fact that the work I do involves teams – it’s all a group project. Instead of getting clear instructions and a set timeline like we did in school and setting off to complete the task on your own, we must coordinate between people, rely on them, bother them/remind them of their jobs and basically do what I had to do during group projects in school.
I’ve discovered the foundational problem – no matter what I remove from my workday and the changes I make, at its core, the kind of work I’ve done my entire career gives me flashbacks to the groans I would emit when learning about group projects in school.
I look back fondly on my high school years despite the insane amount of work I had because school was structured and had everything that work doesn’t: clear instructions that do not change, set timelines and mostly individual work that provides instant feedback (grades) based on your effort. In contrast, jobs are a dumpster fire with constantly changing expectations, instructions and timelines in addition to most of the work involving having to wrangle other people (and sometimes do their work for them).
I’m confused by how our traditional school structure is set up in that it does not at all seem to prepare us for what jobs are actually like (assuming that’s the purpose of school). It’s the complete opposite and the fact that I went through school before I started working seems to have given me a taste of the ‘good life’ and now work is a big letdown in comparison – it’s not just a group project, but a never ending one. Group projects in school had a due date – this is just my life.
I suspect there are jobs out there that act more like school (set deadlines, solo work), but I don’t know what they are. If you know of them please let me know in the comments! Overall I feel relieved that I finally put my finger on a reason why after eliminating every negative about my job that I can think of, I still don’t want to keep doing it. It’s the flashbacks to group projects.
Did you enjoy group projects in school? Do you see a correlation between those and the workforce?
Definitely a correlation between group projects and the 9 – 5.
Hate both of them.
Luckily I found FIRE and awesome blogs like yours to guide me through!
Keep up the good work the last months, Purple!
Glad I’m not the only one that sees the correlation and so happy blogs help to guide you through! I love how you say “last months” like there are few of them – I need to be more like you in my mindset 😉 .
As someone whose earliest memories of group projects were the popular kids clamoring to join my group so I could do all the work and earn a high grade for everyone, yes – I can’t stand group projects. Been loving the solo work from home life since 2011!
Oh that’s an interesting dynamic! I haven’t been a school with cliques or popular kids and I had no idea kids would be that strategic! I’m sorry you had to earn the high grade for everyone – yuck. And solo work from home life = I’m insane with jealousy! Time for a career pivot…
Interesting take Purple Life. I agree that everything is a group project. I also think success in the workforce in the future will be even more so about influence than individual results as technology and access to knowledge gets cheaper and easier. I think its good advice to never do someone else’s work unless the teacher or boss knows that you are doing so. Fight for the credit in the form of grades and salary. With this and some financial savvy then you get to live the purple life or mine outside the maze right?
Thank you! And that’s an interesting take on the future of the workforce – I can see that transition already happening in my company actually. Totally agree to never do someone else’s work without credit and compensation! And yes hopefully with these tips people can live a purple life outside the maze 😉 .
Yes on the work-from-home no fake smile energy-life saver and I totally agree that work is a never-ending group project.
My specific University had us do at least 1 or 2 group projects per course. These were 5 people projects and often corresponded to half of your mark for that class. It was initially terrifying, then often annoying and awful, but once I started my career I quickly understood why these were so important. The skills learned while doing them greatly prepared me for all of this never-ending group-projects that is work.
Doesn’t make that part any more enjoyable, however I feel like it gave me some tools to navigate this reality. Luckily my current job as a lot of solo work but there is definitely no escaping this group project aspect.
Yaaas so glad you’ve experienced the conservation of fake smile energy too. Save that introvert juice!
HALF YOUR MARK for a group project?! AH! I’m so sorry – that’s my nightmare. I’m glad you were able to turn it around and see the correlation to helping with your career while I’m just over here complaining lol!
I feel this. I think a lot of software engineers hope to be able to go rogue and build their own things once in a while. It really depends on your job if that’s possible, though. I noticed that there was a switch in college… up until then I carried most of the project for every group project I was in. Once I was in engineering school, I had to work extra hard to feel like I was carrying my own weight! I’ve never been on this side of the equation before, so if you wanted a career shift you might want to try coding 😉
So glad you feel it! And that’s good to know about engineers – sounds like even some more ‘solo’ careers aren’t always solo. And that switch in pulling weight is really interesting! It sounds like the first half (pre-college) people didn’t pull their weight because they were lazy or irresponsible but in college it sounds like everyone (including you) were doing their best, but the material was legit difficult. And yeeeah right on me trying to be an engineer. I took a C++ class in high school and it put me off coding forever…though I did just play with some HTML code so maybe I’m a hypocrite 😉
you might have found a less than ideal line of work for yourself, outside of it paying well and working from home. I do 95% of my work on my own right now. i get the samples and report back what atoms are on the surface and point out if something seems unusual. it’s just great for me as someone who doesn’t suffer fools easily.
i’ve had projects in my past where i had to coordinate some and they were ok when i was young and naive. now that i’m old and cynical i’m not sure i would have the patience. you know what i like saying? “leave me alone. i got this.”
Yes indeed I did 🙂 . Your job sounds awesome – maybe I should have gone down the chem road after high school. If you say that’s your response because you’re old and cynical than add me to the club 🙂 that’s basically what I say more often than not 😉 .
I’ll say this… if you are on a consistent and good team at work, then life can be grand. But if your team is ever- changing and rife with duds, then yuck!
Wise words! I seem to be in the yuck phase of life sadly.
Fortunately your yuck phase is getting shorter every day!
I like the way you’re thinking about this 😉 . So true!
I agree! Everything about being in the office, even those chats by the coffee machine, are part of the group experience of working together. There is little room for not getting along in corporate America.
Hi There! Glad you agree and that’s an interesting point – expanding the group aspect to more than the work. You’re completely right. Though I have seen one exception that allows you to not get along with others: bringing in a lot of money or being very high in the company. I’ve met some horrible characters that match that criteria and no matter how many complains are filed against them or people who quit because of them they’re still there.
I’m with you: I hated group projects because I was always one of the ones who cared the most about the grade. The only exception was a group project full of honors students. But then that just led to a bunch of Type A personalities bickering over the best way to do the project. So it STILL sucked. I much prefer being on my own and doing my own work.
Say what you will about customer service, but it’s rarely a team effort. My bosses trust me to deal with the customers without much oversight, and I only take stuff to them if I need permission to make a courtesy exception or whatnot. Of course, in customer service you have to deal with people, which is its own special form of hell, so there are tradeoffs, obviously.
Oooh an honor student group project – interesting! I never experienced that sadly. Sounds like it introduces a whole new set of problems sadly. I completely agree that it’s rarely a team effort and I’m glad you have trusting bosses – it’s great when they have your back. And I feel you on dealing with people being its own form of hell – ughgh why did I choose this profession again? 😉
Group projects in school suck because you work on something you don’t really want to, with people you didn’t choose. That’s a JOB in a nutshell. Most jobs anyway. There are lucky exceptions.
But in hindsight, the ‘easy mode’ version in school kind of served as the soft introduction for work life. so it kinda works in that regard.
And boiling it down, if we didn’t like group projects in school, why would you do it until you’re 65? That’s why we have FIRE.
I think you’re onto something here: early FIRE initiation in high schools! “Hey kid – don’t want to do that group project? Well guess what that’s what the next 45 years of your life will be like after college graduation.” Instant FIRE supporter!
This is why next generation FIRE is so important. It should be part of foundational education. We must break the wheel!! 🤣
Let’s get on it!!
This is a bit of a conundrum. If everyone subscribed to FIRE, the economy (as we know it) would collapse. Then what?
You are so right! I also generally despised group projects because I was the do- gooder who did like 90% of the work most of the time. I worked from home for my last job and I miss so much being able to work in whatever clothes I want, in whatever position I want (usually the couch). I had never thought of work as sapping my introverted energy, but you’re absolutely right, it does! It takes so much of my energy to say hi to people in hallways, make small talk etc. I just want to do my work!!
There seem to be a lot of us do-gooders in this community 🙂 . I’m sorry you were stuck in that position. And yes working from home does help (I am typing this from my couch now 😉 ). I’m totally with you – I’m here to work so just let me work! I don’t know how I used to get anything done at an office…though maybe that’s why I used to work late every night…I just got back from a goodbye happy hour for a colleague and even though I was only there an hour smiling and looking nice and talking to people was SO tiring. Maybe it’s a muscle I need to build back up because woah. Anyway, thank you for stopping by!
Hey this is Shin, the one who stumbled upon your blog by typing ‘purple blogs’ on Google! Haha. In the end, I could not give up the color purple and that’s also how I found you in the first place 🙂
I agree group projects suck, especially in brand marketing where decisions seem to depend more on someone’s preferences (rather than data) and takes foreverrrr to arrive on a consensus. Wbu?
Btw since my last comment, I’ve since launched a site. Can I ask your recommendations on building a blog readership if you don’t mind? I remember you mentioning Twitter somewhere haha – although I’m not sure because you are involved more in the finance community while I’m more into marketing. Thanks!
Hi Shin! Happy to have you back. And ugh yes I agree with you about brand marketing. Insanely preference based – I wish people would listen more to data. We have it so why shouldn’t we include it in the decision making??
I like your site! Nice choices (not that I’m biased towards that theme or anything 😉 ). I don’t think I know enough to give advice on how to build blog readership actually. Mine has happened by accident. I just write what I want and sometimes people seem to like it 🙂 .
As for Twitter, it is a great place to interact with other personal finance enthusiasts and bloggers so if that sounds interesting to you definitely get on that platform! We’d be happy to have you. Also to clarify I’m only in the finance community through this blog. My career is in marketing. Good luck!
Oh sure I know your career is in marketing, I was just commenting how you seem to be more involved with the finance community online (this thing called FIRE? Learning new things through your blog 🙂 ) I was interested on getting more involved in the marketing community, so wondered if you had go-to community for that haha.
Anyways, thanks for inviting me to Twitter (should work on that) and complimenting my site! I have since revamped the design to not replicate your hard work 🙃. Also really like how you’ve finally monetized the site, wanted to let you know I’ve subscribed to Finimize and already find it useful for my poor finance knowledge!
Oh I see! I don’t have a marketing community to recommend sadly, but I’m sure one is out there. There seem to be pockets of the internet for everything.
Definitely let me know when you’re on Twitter. It’s a fun time! Glad you don’t mind the affiliate link and I’m so happy you’re enjoying Finimize! I love their emails.
You are always learning so much about yourself and it is hilarious!
I HATED group projects when I was younger. My entire 8th-grade journal is just a complaining session about people I had to study rocks with and build a Navajo diorama with. Seriously, it’s a whole notebook, front to back, seething with anxiety about how they were going to cause me to get a bad grade.
I was such a dork. Still, am. Only I don’t journal anymore. I just write cryptic songs/blog posts.
Haha – y’all inspire me into self-reflection. That is so interesting you have a whole notebook about that. Wow – I wish I had done that. I’m sorry those group projects caused you anxiety – ugh. And hello fellow dork. Nerds unite! Fair on not journaling – I journaled every day for 5 years and then I stopped. Work got in the way (or maybe excuses got in the way…) And I love your songs and blog posts and don’t think they’re cryptic…or am I missing some hidden messages?! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by lady.
This is probably how I ended up doing accounting work. Lots of solo projects. A daily conference call would have me in tears. Nice idea and post!
Maybe I should have been an accountant…I do love number. Time for a career pivot! Also A daily conference call as in one?! That would be a DREAM for me 🙂 . Yep – I definitely picked the wrong profession. So glad you liked it!
Unless you’re the leader and get to hand pick your team… these are the worst!
Oooh did group projects in school have leaders? Or do you mean at work? If it’s at work how did you get into the position to get to choose? Even when people say it’s ‘my call’ there is always some dumbass political nonsense that means everyone in the team isn’t ACTUALLY my choice. Curious to hear about your experiences.
Gotta say, of all the FIRE blogs, i think i might connect with yours the most personality-wise. I hated group projects. I hate corporate life and when i reach FI i will gloriously enjoy not working. Im an introvert. Etc etc… Keep up the good work!
That is so wonderful to hear – THANK YOU! Sounds like we’re on the same page. Not working and dealing with corporate nonsense or the adult version of group projects sounds lovely. I’m also an introvert and I’m so curious how much more energy I’ll have when I don’t have to interact with people all day…I suspect it will be substantial. And thank you – I’ll do my best!
This is interesting, especially now when it seems that we are moving more towards this opportunities of working remotely. It seems like you are more comfortable and you feel more efficient at what you do working form home. It also seems like there is much more left of you at the end of the day to carry on with your life without the office interaction.
As a teacher, I always think about the little time it would take a lot of students to learn what they are supposed to learn in school if they didn’t have all the distractions that come along with being in a classroom.
Today more than ever, with the level of dysfunction that many kids come in, translated in disruption after disruption and dragging a whole class, time is the most wasted resource.
No doubt in my mind that any kid in school could learn a whole day of regular school in just two hours.
On the other hand, for teachers and apparently for everybody else it looks like the tendency is to over-complicate everything with clerical and bureaucratic tasks that take everybody on a spin of unnecessary meetings and conferences. Just like when we were in school; wasting the most valuable resource.
Totally agree – I’ve seen a lot more remote work opportunities pop up recently. There are apparently entire job boards dedicated to only remote positions – I had no idea. And yes I feel SO much better and am a lot more productive working from home though the actual work still has that group project aspect unfortunately.
Hearing about your work as a teacher is really interesting. What kind of distractions are in the classroom? Other kids being disruptive? I went to schools with really small class sizes.
You’re completely right about the tendency to waste time. I’m so confused by it and wonder if it’s linked to people thinking busy = productive. I’ve worked with several people who want to have unnecessary calls ALL the time and then complain about how busy they are…like they’re doing it on purpose to make themselves somehow feel important. Completely fascinating. Thank you for stopping by!
I don’t remember any group project in high school. Those years were pretty hazy, maybe I blocked them all out. 😀
In college, I love labs. That’s the funnest part of engineering. Usually, we worked in a small group of 2-3 people and it was great. You pick your own partners and there aren’t too many lazy people in the program.
I can imagine a big group project would be like work. Too many chefs in the kitchen always ruin it.
Haha – I like your mind’s style of blocking out traumatic events. Engineering lab sounds fun! All I know about them is that I went from seeing my partner every day to every few days because he basically slept in that comp sci lab.
Picking your own partners, having a small team and not a lot of lazy people sounds awesome though. “Too many chefs in the kitchen” could be the title of my career autobiography 🙂 . Thank you for stopping by!
Oh good lord yes ! Work is like one long running group project.
I find I gravitate towards working alone wherever possible. I’m pretty sure this has slowed my progression at work, but I have accepted I can’t make myself be something I’m not (not for long periods of time, while remaining sane).
I tried to re invent myself last time I changed jobs, and two years later I notice I’ve scaled down back to an acceptable-to-me level of sociability/inter personal communications. I’m much happier like this.
I am WITH you – I try to work alone as much as possible as well. Why do you think it’s slowed your progression at work? Because you’re not ‘smoozing’, but getting the work done 🙂 ? Totally agree that making yourself someone you’re not to progress in a job isn’t a recipe for sanity. So glad you’re staying true to yourself and are all the happier for it! Thank you for stopping by 🙂 .
The problem with working from home is the high paying work and the high paying jobs are not work from home jobs. VP, exec VP, C suite officer for a Fortune 500, those are the high six and seven figure jobs and they aren’t worked remotely, ever. So limiting a career to a work from home position, unless you are an entrepreneur, is putting a glass ceiling over your own head. You may like the conditions but the money will never hit the higher end of the pay scale.
Interesting. I guess it’s a good thing I’m planning to stop working at 30 then 😉 . But seriously, that’s an interesting point for people to consider. For me personally I have never wanted to be at a higher level – I have no interest in getting past the Director level I’m at now. Anything higher seems to expect and require being able to infringe on your personal life/time and that’s not worth any amount of money to me.
well said, purple.
Thank you! 🙂
I’m a recruiter and career coach so my job is about jobs. All jobs will have some element of people interaction b/c of the transactional nature of getting business done. But there are many roles that don’t depend on other people to get day-to-day work done. While my work has a lot of people interaction, it doesn’t feel like a group project b/c I’m not waiting on other people for my piece to move forward or cajoling people into doing their piece (sometimes but not the majority of time). So keep looking for those jobs — they’re in all departments.
It’s funny you say that 🙂 – I interviewed to shift careers and become a recruiter a few years ago. Maybe I should look into it again if I get too frustrated with my situation. I’ll keep my eye out for those jobs – I just have a bit of a block in my mind because my best skills are ‘people focused’ : client service and project management. If you have any ideas on how I could leverage those skills in a solo career I’m happy to hear them! Thank you for stopping by.
You have commented a few times that you miss school because you found that you were able to set boundaries, meet deadlines, get your schoolwork done on time, and have the rest of your life for whatever you wanted, while work is much more stressful because it blurs boundaries and does not have set timelines – you feel you are never “off”. This is so interesting to me because I am exactly the opposite. I struggled with major procrastination issues throughout school and was looking forward to working 9-5 because I thought the set routine would do wonders for me. And it has! I feel so much more confident and productive now that I have a set time in which to get work done, and the rest of my hours are my own. In school (college at least), there was almost no structure and I was responsible for setting the times in which I did work – and to me, that meant that in school I felt I was never “off”!
I am guessing that part of this difference is that I fortunately work in a place where I do not need to be available after hours to anyone. I don’t have work email on my phone and no one has my cell number. I may occasionally need to stay late or work weekends but it is very rare. Of course, I am early in my career (just started my first FT job in March) so I think as I get more responsibility it may be harder to keep those boundaries. But I am working hard to create healthy habits now! Like always taking a full lunch break, not checking work email at home, etc. I feel like I would also be stressed and unhappy if I had a similar work situation to you where clients could contact me and demand responses anytime.
I bring this up because I have read most of your blog over the past few weeks (started at post one) and I have actually been struck a lot by how different we are! I have been reflecting recently on how the FI community draws in a lot of diverse people with different values (which I first realized when I saw far right climate deniers and super left climate activists, all clearly regular readers, commenting on the same MMM post). It’s fascinating to reflect on *why* the FI ideology can appeal to so many different people. I am torn between thinking that there is something at the core of FI that appeals to all humanity (time is our most valuable asset, focus on community and time with others, etc), or thinking it’s because FI has many different attractive aspects that appeal to different types of people (spending more time with a “traditional family” vs entrepreneurship vs sustainability, for example). Or maybe it’s both! Thoughts?
That’s so interesting! College was my absolute favorite because it wasn’t just sitting in a classroom all day and I could make my own schedule and just get shit done. How different people feel in the same situations is so fascinating. YOU READ THIS WHOLE BLOG?!? Woah – that is a first. As for FI I think it’s the former: that at its core it’s about giving you back time, our most precious resource. What people do with that newfound free time is up to them. Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your perspective!