My university has a module for software development with a real client. Some of my team members work in the computer lab all the time, which is an extremely noisy environment with lots of interruptions and distractions. There are about 30 people always talking. People always go on Facebook, YouTube, or tell jokes to each other in addition to doing work. Some of my team members work 3 hours every day in this environment.I attend our weekly team meetings and use our online project management system extensively. I address all emails and have a chat client on busy, but I do get messages. I use online resources a lot when solving my problems. However, outside the team meeting and pair programming sessions, I do most of my work in a quiet environment where I can focus and concentrate and I block out all external as well as internal interruptions. I focus on my task 100%. I find that I'm about 10 times more productive this way than in the lab and I can get a lot of work done.The problem is that our tutors or management don't see me doing work in the lab. Thus, I do not appear to be working to them. Thus they think I do no team work. How can I convince them that I do team work because I have lots of communication with my team, but at the same time I like to work on my own? I would like to prove that, just because I work alone a lot and don't necessarily do all of my work in the lab, I'm still a productive member of the team.UPDATE Management told me that the problem was that I spend working in a team 60% of my time, and I work alone 40% of the time. They told me I should spend 99% of my time working with my team face to face in the lab, aka office.Some relevant comments of some answers, that some might miss:Problem is I don't really need to ask my team anything, because I rather google it myself. And I trust Google a lot more than my supervisor or team members for some reason. Hence I often disagree with them. I'm not doing team work, because essentially I'm doing web work. I trust information that I find online (i.e. SE) more than my supervisor's or team mates' expertise.UPDATE 2I stopped doing any serious work at home, I just stay in the lab now and have fun with my team while also do some work occasionally. As the accepted answer shows, this isn't about me being productive but rather fulfilling my managers' and team mates' expectations. If I and my manager have different beliefs about how to do software development, it's the manager's that counts because they have the power to fail/fire me. In my opinion face to face meetings aren't as effective as online conversations, and working in a noisy lab isn't as productive as working in a quite environment. I think team mates shouldn't be able to interrupt me any time they want, while I'm in the middle of a task. I think one needs at least 50% of the time to do productive work alone and 50% of the time to synchronize with the team. Anyway, this is just my opinion, and that doesn't count in this case.
How can I demonstrate my productivity to management?
productivity;teamwork
What people perceive is more important than the truth.In the real world, perception is reality. If they perceive you as something because of your behavior, that is what you represent and it is very hard to change this perception by trying to argue with the person. What they perceive is more important to them than reality, because it is a belief system to them at that point, and beliefs are pretty concrete and hard to change.They have an idea of what they want you to be doing, feel lucky someone told you and didn't just kick you to the curb with no explanation. That is what happens on the outside, you just get let go for some amorphous reason, it is easier and cleaner for most people to deal with.Remember, this involves someone forming a belief system about you, this is tricky territory!For good or bad, you will have to do what this person believes you should be doing! Nothing else will be effective, and trying to prove them wrong is a no-win situation for you.At many places, old school managers like to see butts in chairs. Senior members that have proven themselves, don't have to worry about this as much, but that takes years to get to that point of trust with some people. This is changing very very slowly.And honestly, if you are working on a team and not in a position to be communicating with them all day long, you really aren't working on a team. You are on and team and working on your own which is perceived as being a loner and cowboy, neither is a team member personality.You can get a good set of ear plugs. Good closed back around the ear noise canceling headphones are a good investment if you like to listen to music. Personally I like to only hear the clicking of my Model M keyboard!But you need to learn how to work in a noisy distracting environment, or change your major. In the real world, cubes are the norm, and noisy environments are prevalent. This will be especially bad at the beginning of your career, you will be sat next to banks of copy machines, break rooms, in server rooms and next to sales and marketing people that talk about absolutely nothing all day long. Expect to work 8 - 10 hours a day in a noisy distracting environment in the real world.It isn't about demonstrating your productivity, it is about fulfilling their expectations. And in this case they expect you to be in the lab with your team mates.