My kids work in team projects at school. The issue is that many other pupils just want to work the least possible and procrastinate as much as possible. This drives my kids crazy because they want to have good scores and they much prefer having a nice evening playing games or watching TV instead of rushing for late homework. (note to other parents: my kids do procrastinate, of course, but not as much as the average :-) )
Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
11–20 of 88 posts
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#12I disagree with the notion of a "lone sheep". By the same logic I have known a few "lone wolves" who are outrageously arrogant and disorganized and so unwilling to accept when they're wrong that nobody wonders why they're never in charge. This article sounds like it's trying to make excuses for the shortcomings of the "lone" type by making a false distinction. I'm saying this as someone who used to be considered a "l…
> grew out of it by speaking my mind more often
Could you expand on how this helped you grow out of being a lone wolf? Was it because you just weren't participating in group discussion before?
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#13There is a small methodology mistake.
They ask people to self-evaluate and then call the people who evaluate themselves better than others as "top performers" and the people who evaluate themselves as not better than others as "poor performers". But self-evaluation is really bad to show how someone will perform, especially if you focus on a group who has difficulties (or bad past experience) with team work and socialization (because they are obviously biased when they compare themselves to the team).
In fact, I would be surprised if a big part of "poor performers" are not really good performers with imposter syndromes (which is more common amongst good performers) and a big part of "top performers" are not opinionated idiots who cannot accept that sometimes they get things wrong and therefore blame the team for their "good idea" (which is in fact a stupid idea) for not being taken on board.
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#14I prefer working alone but it can be even better to work alone, together. Alone together means that there's a deep understanding of the other party and an openness to finding just the right configuration and the best way forward, together.
But too often, people that prefer teamwork, really just want to be heard and receive credit for work done, together. But they're generally not very productive and their opinions not that valuable.
They're also often susceptible to group think in a way that makes them functionally below par. They don't really partake because they're too worried about being caught with the odd perspective or different idea, so they carefully follow the implicit consensus. And nothing was produced that day. Especially nothing novel.
I don't want to work with these people because they _will_ come out of the wood work and pass judgement when you've been caught having a different opinion. And they _will_ pile on.
So I don't hate teamwork. In fact: I love it. But more often than not, we get the mediocrity of consensus and violence towards novelty. Or just differences.
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#15My kids work in team projects at school. The issue is that many other pupils just want to work the least possible and procrastinate as much as possible. This drives my kids crazy because they want to have good scores and they much prefer having a nice evening playing games or watching TV instead of rushing for late homework. (note to other parents: my kids do procrastinate, of course, but not as much as the average :…
Nothing made my kids hate working with other people more than group projects at school. The projects were, without fail, a total disaster every single time.
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#16My kids work in team projects at school. The issue is that many other pupils just want to work the least possible and procrastinate as much as possible. This drives my kids crazy because they want to have good scores and they much prefer having a nice evening playing games or watching TV instead of rushing for late homework. (note to other parents: my kids do procrastinate, of course, but not as much as the average :…
It's the same in university (except maybe top ones). Most people want to do the bare minimum, such that in CS if you're competent it's often faster to do the whole project yourself than try to motivate/coerce/guide everyone in the group into producing a decent piece of work. Then this habit carries over into the working life; "if you want something done well, you've got to do it yourself".
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#17> a “lone wolf” (someone who works best on their own and has legitimate concerns for eschewing teamwork)
If the concerns are legitimate, does that not say more about the team than about the supposed lone wolf? The concerns regarding unfair workload, collective blame, unclear roles… these are characteristics of dysfunctional teams, not intrinsic properties of teams. They affect all team members.
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#18There is a small methodology mistake. They ask people to self-evaluate and then call the people who evaluate themselves better than others as "top performers" and the people who evaluate themselves as not better than others as "poor performers". But self-evaluation is really bad to show how someone will perform, especially if you focus on a group who has difficulties (or bad past experience) with team work and social…
[flagged]
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#19This might not be the intent of the piece but it's important not to think of preferences for teamwork to be a fixed attribute of a person. My own behavior varies a lot depending on the team, project, and circumstances and I've been upset to see people be branded one way or another because of some specific setting, even when evidence to the contrary is right there in plain sight.
Re: Lone Wolves: Why do some people hate teamwork? (2017)
#20Great post. Not sure, how much research is behind everything but the overall sentiment hits it pretty spot on.
Yeah, I don't know whether I believe they actually found 18,000 people and somehow sorted them accurately into high and low performers. I've worked with people who don't like teamwork because they're afraid of being discovered as not knowing what they're doing and others who can't compromise on literally anything, so claim they're the smartest and best and nobody can keep up. All have in common that in the long term,…
What even is a low and high performer? This depends highly on context and on the environment.
Something I do see though is that there is a trend towards more and more distraction. Always be available in slack, large offices where someone always wants something, etc.
Also, in my experience, some companies just love to have pointless meetings with many people that cannot contribute at all, because it's just not relevant to their work.
I do like to work in teams, in general, but it has to work for everyone at the end of the day.