The free rider concept

As per Wikipedia, free riders are actors who consume more than their fair share of a resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. I guess there is no one who hasn't encountered a free rider at some point of time. They come in a wide range of shape and kind. I for sure have had my share of encounters with them. After all I am doing an Yem Bee Aye, the official factory for producing polished free riders. The free rider is generally born in engineering colleges and comes out as a polished product, suave debonair and sophisticated, after undergoing the academic rigor of Bee Skewl.

A freshly minted Free Rider just out of engineering college

A cultivated and cultured free rider graduating from a Bee Skewl

The following are a few common traits generally observed across all kinds of free riders in Bee Skewls - The cool, confident, poised and cosmopolitan type :

a) (S)He will be around when (s)he is least needed but can never be found when you have work for him/her

b) (S)He will make you feel that (s)he is the busiest person in the group

c) (S)He will make you feel that (s)he is doing a favour on you by doing his/her part of the work

d) (S)He the most benevolent and charitable person in the group, always doling out free coffees to team members for turning up late for group meets.

e) In every group meet (s)he will admit that (s)he is not doing his/her part properly and promise to mend up for that in future only to say the same thing all over once again in the next meet.

f) After the work gets done, (s)he will let his/her group mates know that (s)he could have done a much better job had (s)he been in charge but allowed others to do the work as (s)he didn't want to be bossy and impose his/her ideas on the group

g) Generally (s)he acts as the coolest dude/babe of the group. And coolest (s)he is as (s)he manages to steer clear from the work leaving his/her group mates fuming

h) Finally (s)he will be the one who will stress the most on group work... Work well done? Group work you see.. the "whole" group did it!

But then all the above stated "group behaviour"(behaviour in a group that is) are subject to the condition that (s)he turns up for the group work which is again among the most unlikely things to happen.

This brings us to the all important question: How do you counter them? Well I am not entirely sure that many people have an answer to this question. I for one dont have the answer. But the day I get to know the answer I will make sure that the answer remains confined to me because any further dissemination of this information will put my survival at stake!