Please note before reading: I apologize in advance if this problem does not tackle a specifically work-related issue, but I think that the same advice can apply to this situation as well. Also, I lack any experience in work field and I feel very confused in this situation and all the stress is causing harm to my other activities, so I would gladly appreciate any kind of help from more expert people.
First, a bit of background
I'm currenctly at the second year of electronic engineering. Three years ago, I partecipated in an extracurricular training program in a field not strictly related with my course, but of personal interest. Eventually, with some fellow peers we created a student team (not a legal entity, but recognized and supported, also financially, by the university).
We take part in competition and even hosted a pretty big event (300 people) with great success. We are now around a dozen students and our teacher (who could be considered our "boss").
Issues
I'll give a little example of a particular difficulty I had: we accepted to do some job for other people; there was no deadline, just some work to do "eventually". I very happily took the job (thus making me the project "manager") and started working with a couple others, but because we don't have scheduled meeting, and because everyone is very much busy with other manners, it was difficult to coordinate and it quickly became a personal work: everyone was just going on its own and we did not talk.
I tried to confront my colleagues: "I've written this piece of software as a base, have a look and please work on this from now on so we have a common place to add our ideas", but this was pretty much ignored by most. I kept working every now and then, and every time I contributed something relevant, I tried to make sure that everyone was aware of my updates.
After a couple of months, one of my colleagues showed us his work, which he worked on in these months, without really telling anybody. I was quite upset, but because we did not show the "clients" anything for months, and because his code did pretty much all we needed, I decided to just go on with it. We tried to schedule a meeting with this guys but we had all kinds of problems and it went horribly.
Now exams are coming and I feel absolutely zero interest in working on this matter, and I would not have any real advantage in doing it other than experience and fun, but at this point it's just stress and frustration.
I 100% recognize the failure of my management skills, which obviously need improving, and solving this problematic situation would probably be a great exercise, but I resolved that right now my time is better employed if focused on other activities.
Resigning
Long story short, I've decided that I want to "resign" from the team, for the following reasons:
- mainly, I've decided that I want to focus on my study and spend more time for myself
- while I'm interested in the work of the team, I know that I'm not going to pursue in this area for my future career, plus I feel the activity I do is not particularly rewarding
- the workflow of the team is extremely fragmented and randomic, with little to no organization, even arranging a meeting where half of the poeple are there is difficult; every time I need to do something I feel it is a burden, rather than a job
I've not yet resolved the best way to approach my team and tell them that I'm not interested in working with them anymore (although I do not deny the possibility of doing so in the future, I don't want to burn the bridges). Should I talk with everyone or is it better if I have a talk first with our teacher? Heck, I don't even know wether doing it personally or by email is the better choice.
Most importantly, I do not even know what to say about the reason of my leaving, nor how to address the delicate issue of the project not being completed under my lead.
I would like to point out that the relation with everyone is rather friendly and confidential, there is no formality or contract, just a group of friends working together (the teacher is just one of those friend, even though he is the person of authority and our reference), so I almost feel a sense of "betray" in leaving them, possibly in even more difficulty than we are now, but I guess I'm just not being rational in this.