research groups and politics

Well I recently joined a research group a few months back, and thought all was going well. I was actually helping to run the whole thing and doing a lot of work for the owner/director.
It started out as a misunderstanding over something silly a few days ago; and I assumed was resolved. Then blew up today into an entirely different animal. And as a result I have left, or been kicked out, im not sure which......but it was a mutual resolution, and likely for the best as something would have come up eventually in any event.

I guess im asking for other peoples general experiences or opinions on joining research or investigation groups. I know that like with all groups of any sort some will be bad and some will be good, but this had none of the warning signs of going to hell in a handbasket as quickly as it did.

[edit on 17-4-2008 by gluetrap]