Our core gaming group has been together since early 2006. We play somewhat regularly, usually Sundays for five or six hours. The last long-term game we had was in an ancient Mediterranean-themed homebrew world, and everyone was enjoying the way things were going. But events and whatnot saw the group expanding to eight players.
Two of them had no previous roleplaying experience, but that wasn't a huge issue - the rest of us have many decades combined experience, and questions got answered quickly.
The GM did not want two of the players in the group. One is the husband of his boss, the other a coworker of the player whose house we game at (Mark). GM (Jason) didn't want to tell his boss that her hubby couldn't play, and felt bullied into accepting the other guy. This other guy has no interest in roleplaying; he sits and texts throughout the game. I'm not sure why he shows up.
At the same time, Mark decided to start a game before our regular afternoon session. Most of the time, this early game ran into the accepted starting time of the original 'main' game. Jason was not pleased, feeling that it ate into his game time and was resulting in some players not being as fresh or attentive for his.
Because of some of this, and one or two real world issues, Jason ended the game. He wanted to cut the group in half and invite just a few of us to play at another location. This has yet to work out for any of those he invited.
Meanwhile, the early game has turned into the main game. It's made up of myself, one guy who is there every third week, two coworkers of Mark, and my cuz. The coworkers and my cousin are very new to the game. Their characters are a suicidal paladin, a dwarven monk with gigantism (he is 6'6''), and some aasimar-thing magus. None of them really know how their classes work. Sessions are now made up of disjointed combat, with me explaining class features, spells, movement rules, etc ad nauseum. The GM seems oblivious to these guys not knowing anything, and he is having a ball.
I know I should have a better attitude about helping the new gamers, but come on. This was my relaxing time, my fun-having escape from the rest of the week, and now it feels like a job.
I'm sure that some of the problems (all, probably) could be fixed with good ol' fashioned communication. Mark won't understand Jason's feelings about having a gamer forced on him. I don't want to get into an argument with Mark over his buddies, the fact that I think their characters are dumb, or spending most of my game session handholding.
I don't think I'm really looking for an answer here; mostly I just wanted to complain about my stupid problems to someone (my non-gamer wife tries to be sympathetic, but doesn't really get it).
Tl;dr - I'm whining about my friends.
The most revealing part is "it feels like work". Draw conclusions from that. Either make it fun for you or stop GMing.
He's not GMing... I hate being outnumbered by noob gamers, sux bro...
I know the feeling. However the txtn guy should be right out, if you are not at the table to play, you do not have a place at the table is my feeling, as a GM. Players should be attentive, and the GM here should be more direct. Tuff part is it is his boss, and that kinda thing does sometimes carry over. You should have a chat with the core group that is actually there to have fun and play and your GM, and politely remove the distractions, regardless of work rank etc. Being a good player does not get suspended because you are the boss elsewhere, and bringing bad players with you is even worse. If boss man doesn't like it, well then that's on him, and retaliation would be in very bad form IMO.
Let's see -- you seem to have fewer connections to the group than does Jason, who has already quit the gaming at this place. I assume that your cousin is an adult who can take care of himself or herself, so there should not be that much pressure on you.
So -- if you are not enjoying the game and cannot think of any way to make it better, find other things to do that afternoon, as the guy who shows up every 3 weeks or so has already done. If you are dreading rather than looking forward to your weekly gaming session, it just isn't worth the hassle.