Group Dynamics

When I was in high school, I worked at a fast food restaurant in a mall near my house.  It was a decent first job; I enjoyed working there.  There were a conflict between two employees, we’ll call them Jake and John, that occurred while I was employed there. 

                  Jake had been working at this store for a long time, and he was a really hard worker who preferred things done a certain way.  In my opinion, he was a hothead and probably got in conflicts with people all the time.  He was more respected by the management because he had been there a while, and he enjoyed working there for the most part.  He was the most knowledgeable and valuable member of the non-management team.

John had started working there at the same time as me, and he wasn’t the best at his job.  He didn’t put much of an effort into getting things done quickly, and sometimes we would be stuck behind after hours picking up his slack.  I’m not sure the reason for John’s lack of effort.  There weren’t really any qualifications to work at this store, and they hired a lot of 17 year olds who were looking for their first job.  John’s parents may have pressured him to start working, but he had decided early on that just because he had a job doesn’t mean he had to do a good one.  I’m sure you can see where this is going.

                  So a whole month goes by of John’s poor performance, and Jake is getting very frustrated with him.  John and another employee were told by our supervisor to take out all the trash, and that involved about 15-20 minutes out of the store bringing the trash down an elevator to the dumpster out back.  John leaves to do this. 

                  After about 30 minutes we get an unexpectedly huge rush of customers.  We weren’t prepared for it, people’s orders were taking forever to be made and customers were unhappy.  My manager and Jake were very stressed out and everyone was running around trying to pick up the slack from the two employees who had been gone ‘taking out the trash’ for way too long.  An hour after they had left, the two employees return just as we complete most of the orders and it’s slowing down.  My supervisor is very unhappy with them, and Jake is furious.

                  Apparently they didn’t think they would be missed, and really took their time taking out the trash.  My supervisor issued them both warnings (another stunt like that and they’re fired), but it wasn’t good enough for Jake.  

The manager left a little early that day and put Jake in charge for the last few hours until close.  He took advantage of this situation by laying into John and the other employee about how much they screwed everyone over, what a bad employee John was and how mad he was at them.  John, a blank look on his face, strode immediately from the store.  Fuming, Jake went into the back to brood. 

The other employee was pretty embarrassed, we all went back to doing our jobs and didn’t really talk about it the rest of the night.  I understood Jake’s frustration, but it was very uncalled for and rude.  He let his emotions get the best of them.  Other employees related to the manager exactly what happened, and he fired Jake for behaving that way.

Obviously, if John and the other employee were doing their jobs correctly, this never would have happened.  We also happened to become very busy at an odd time, which made their goofing off negatively affect the entire team.  Jake definitely should have kept his emotions in check; he didn’t have the authority to harshly reprimand them.

Team Production and Gift Exchange

I found the experiment in the article involving the marbles and the children very interesting.  The first example that came to mind of working as a team would be in school projects.  It has been my experience that, in college, the members of the team are usually all willing to do their fair share of work.  It wouldn’t be fair if one person did most of the work, but shared the grade with their partners.  I’m sure this has happened to most people in a school project at some point, and I personally wasn’t happy sharing a grade with other members if they didn’t deserve it.  To combat this, some teachers put in a place a peer review system where you could hold your team mates responsible, and grade them on how much they participated or helped the team.   This definitely provides more incentive for all members to participate, but for my projects in high school I don’t think it was ever implemented.  Thus, most of the workload fell to the more responsible students.  It’s strange, because I would think that the peer review system is even less necessary in college, as most people here are more ambitious and eager to learn than some of my classmates in high school. 

In one of my classes, the project grade had two parts: one for the project itself, and the other for the peer review grade.  Without this peer review, there is no way for students to be in control of who shares the wealth after the project is completed.  They are simply left most of the work but receive the same grade, which could stimulate feelings of unfairness and resentment towards other students. 

This may be projected on to a larger scale with the economy, to explain why the rich are uncomfortable sharing more of their wealth.  This could come down to plain greed (which wouldn’t be represented by my school project example), but they could also be under the impression that they worked much harder to gain their money, and therefore deserve it.  Do they?  If someone is working as many hours and is just as stressed out but receives a much lower wage, is that fair?

Going back to my example, it’s possible students wouldn’t participate because they weren’t comfortable with the course material, not because they were lazy.  I think there is a connection here with low wage earners who simply don’t have the capacity to be an executive.  They may work as hard to do their job, but they’ll never reach the 1% because of other challenges they face (e.g. where they grew up, their family situation).  The top earners know this, some decide to share...but a lot do not want to.  The article stated that 70% of the children who believed that they earned their marbles did not share when asked.  I’m not sure what percentage of adults would be willing to give up their marble, but it’s very interesting to think about. 

Risk

College can be very risky if a vigilant eye is not kept on the future.  There is a huge investment that comes with going to college.  Not only are you risking thousands of dollars on tuition, books, and housing, but also four (usually?) years of time.  For me, this would only be worth it if I came out with much better chances of a attaining a job where I could be successful.  A degree with low placement rates or one that contains subjects not interesting to me would be a waste of time, as I could not be successful.   I’ve always been interested in consulting, and from talking to various professionals in the field I found that majoring in Statistics and Economics would benefit me when looking for a job in this field.  By choosing a major suited to my career goals, I have reduced risk.

            Extra curricular activities often will improve students chances of receiving a job, as it shows they are involved on campus.  Having a leadership role in these organizations can also be very beneficial.  The job market for consultants is pretty competitive, and it helps to be as involved as possible.  I have joined three organizations on campus.  Freshman year I joined a fraternity, which has helped greatly in expanding my network.  Frequently Alum will contact the fraternity to make the current members aware of job openings or career fair appearances.  With these opportunities, I have increased my chances of getting a job and therefore reduced risk.  The other organization is Illinois Business Consulting.  This group handles real consulting projects for companies.   Although I haven’t participated in projects yet, I will before I graduate.  With this kind of experience, I will be a much better candidate for a position at a consulting firm.  Also, with the competitive admissions process, a lot of very skilled people are part of the organization, and I will have the opportunity to work with and learn from them.  This reduces my risk of not receiving a job as well. 

            Another decision I would like to touch on is behavior.  Having a degree from the University of Illinois can be very valuable, and doing something to jeopardize that is very risky behavior.  Students who behave inappropriately (fighting, mistreating other people, being arrested for illegal activity) risk suspension, expulsion, and/or legal consequences.  All of these can be a step backward in terms of career growth.  By not engaging in this type of behavior, I’ve greatly improved my chances of graduating, which I would definitely need to do to get a good job. 

            Lastly, summer jobs can be very important to future employers as well.  Gaining experience during college in the field you would like to have a career in can make you stand out to recruiters.  Most people I know are on the internship hunt by junior year, and some start earlier.  I was lucky to receive an internship at a consulting firm this previous summer, which gave me some real experience in the business world and working on a project.   During my interviews this semester, I have been able to highlight my experiences this summer frequently.  So not only does this boost my resume, but it also makes the interview process easier.  Because of this, risk of not receiving a good job decreases.  

Illinibucks

A couple situations come to mind when considering the use of Illinibucks on campus.   First, there are many restaurants on Green Street that have long lines during the lunch and dinner hours.  Illinibucks could be used to skip the line, which can sometimes take up to 25 minutes.   Also, the most popular bars on campus will have very long lines on Friday and Saturday nights.  I know having a way to skip them would be highly appreciated by some students.   Another would be at career fairs, where I’ve waited 20 minutes to talk to a recruiter.   Trying to talk to an advisor during the beginning of the year and when students are signing up for classes can be very difficult, due to the high volume of students needing advising.  The Illinibucks could definitely be useful in this situation.   Grocery stores have long lines at times, and getting on a Suburban Express bus first might be useful around the holiday season when the buses are at capacity. 

One must also consider that cutting some lines would be much more beneficial than cutting others.  Skipping a food line compared to getting into a much-needed class is less important.   Would Illinibucks be worth a standard dollar amount?  Or maybe they are worth different prices in different situations.

I would use my Illinibucks in different ways depending on how they were allotted, and what they would be worth in different situations.  If not many Illinibucks were given to each student, I would save mine to use in emergency situations, or when it would be really beneficial to cut a line like at a career fair when there is a limited amount of time remaining.   If they were more numerous on the campus, then it would be useful for cutting lines at restaurants and at bars, in my opinion.  But this also makes me wonder, if you can use the bucks for cutting more necessary/important lines as well as bar lines, and there aren’t many given out, would anyone waste them at restaurants?  Or would everyone attempt to cut the line for signing up for classes?  In that case they wouldn’t be worth as much. 

Succesful Teams

Thinking back on the many teams I’ve been lucky to be a part of in my life, I’d say the most successful was at Jimmy John's.  I worked at Jimmy John’s for two years (on and off), and in both a franchise and a corporate store.  The management was a little different for both stores.

The corporate store was very efficient and definitely more well run.  At the head was Alex, the General Manager of the store.   Below him were two other Managers.  All three of them had similar responsibilities, and each of them was very connected to the workers below them (all of which are at the same level on the hierarchy).  They all worked about the same number of hours per week (at any one time at least one of them is in the store), but Alex definitely had more on his plate.  Unless two of the three Managers were there at the same time, it felt like the simple One Boss hierarchy was in place.  When two were there, either could be looked to for help or leadership.    Day to day, the responsibilities (making sandwiches, bread, cleaning) were divided out to the various workers by the manager, who was aware of who could do which job the best and most efficiently (and if there was a down time, they would help by making newer employees better at each responsibility).  The managers would almost always be assisting the workers as well, which led to more comfort with the authority.  The manager’s made sure everyone knew their responsibilities, which led to a higher performing team in my opinion.   I think corporate Jimmy John’s fit the profile of a high performing team very well, and things ran very smoothly there.

At the franchise store, things were a little different.  I think this team was less successful.  At the top there was Jake, the Manager of the store.  Under him was one Assistant Manager, and below those two were a number of PCs (Person in Charge).   This type of management worked a little differently.  The Manager would work six days a week, almost always in the morning and lunch as that was when we were busiest, and when he would leave for the day the PC would take over his responsibilities.  This was difficult, because PCs were chosen from among the lower employees, and anyone who could close the register and was deemed responsible could be made a PC.  I knew multiple who were not exactly fit for the job, so this didn’t always work out that great.  The assistant manager was also a worker that had been promoted because Jake needed help, but I think she did a fantastic job.  We did run into a problem there.  People had a problem with Jake, and occasionally he would act inappropriately.  There was a Regional Manager of the stores in the area, but he wasn’t one to go to with complaints.  I think this led to resentment with the boss, because even the Assistant Manager wasn’t sure how to handle the situation.  People ended up quitting the job, and I think it definitely led to a less productive team.  Was this because of the structure? Possibly.  If there was someone else with the same job as Jake (another Manager, like at the corporate store), then the workers might have felt comfortable saying something to that person, and possibly resolving the issue.