I have a project due 2 weeks. There are two group members that have done nothing till now, despite the many times I gave them something to do. Me and my friend did most of the work.

Today I even realised one of them lied about writing a research document when it was just copy-pasted from an article online.

Well I had enough and wrote an email to my teacher complaining about it. I foolishly forgot that 5 points for our final grade are for "collaboration", meaning how well we worked together as a team.

We were told we basically have those points scored as long as there are no complaints from the team. Now I'm scared I've sabotaged my whole group by complaining, when I could've just stayed quiet. I can't even unsend the email.

I hate that being too forgiving led me to bearing the consequences of their actions. Either that or they take undue credit for our work.

I hate that despite how much effort I've put these two months, it'll still not pay off like I wanted it to.

I don't know what to do anymore.

Undergraduate, engineering major. TONS of group work. I hate it. But I know its a part of the job. In most groups, we split up the work and each person does a different thing and then we try to put it all together a day or 2 before the due date. I am often the one turning in bad work, still working at the last minute or not knowing what's going on at all.

1. I genuinely don't know what to do and I'm too afraid/embarrassed to ask for help so I take forever to get my part of the work done. When I do its low quality or just straight up wrong/incomplete. I want to look like I know what I'm doing so I don't reach out for help.

2. I overbooked myself. Again, too afraid to admit that I didn't give myself enough time to work on our project. I am juggling full time school, part time work, 3 extracurriculars and doing chores at home. I like to believe I can do it all even thought I know most people couldn't. I'm not the brightest crayon in the box so I stack extracurriculars to pad my resume so I can get a real job one day.

3. The pressure of being the "weakest link" really gets to me. Especially when everyone has finished their sections and I am still working on mine. Looking at a blank/half finished page knowing that everyone is counting on me makes me feel so physically ill that I just curl up in bed and go to sleep wishing that things were different. That pressure and shame makes me procrastinate and turn in bad, rushed work.

4. I get overwhelmed at the constant flurry of messages in our group chats. It can be hard to keep up and keep track of all the important details, especially when 100 messages are being sent a day. Sometimes the notifications on GroupMe or Slack gets buried under notifications for other apps. While you guys are making rapid fire decisions, I'm staring at the screen like "wait, what? why are we changing that? whats wrong with the way we had it?" and the conversation moves so fast, I can't get a word in edgewise!

5. I just don't think or work as fast as others. That's how it is 80% of the time I work in a group. I can do my section. I can come up with good ideas. Just not at the speed of other students. I accept that about myself. Working in a group really highlights that fact. Even when I'm not procrastinating and I'm working hard, I am always working on problem #2 when the rest of the team is on problem #4. I don't know why I can't think faster and I don't wanna slow them down by asking for help.

I think I'm just destined to be the shitty group member. Don't hate me. It's not that I don't care about your time. I DO care about the project and getting a good grade. It's just a number of factors that makes group work very hard for me. I've even talked to a number of professors about letting me work alone. They don't care.

A short Introduction

I’m in a fully online honors dual degree program. I had to work my ass off to get into honors standing (my GPA is currently a 3.93). I haven’t gotten anything lower than an A. Since I’m doing a dual degree, I take 4-5 classes per semester, a mix of bachelor’s and master’s courses, all while working full-time.

This semester, I started with four classes. I’ve finished all my gen eds, so now I’m only taking courses related to my major and career goals. Out of those four classes, two had group work.

Class A

In Class A, we couldn’t pick our groups; we were assigned on Day 1. There were no synchronous class meetings ever. The professor has been mostly unresponsive, but, luckily, my group was decent. My only complaint was the ridiculous structure: we had to find time every week to meet for an hour, record the meeting, upload the full hour-long video (anything less and we’d automatically lose half credit), and then fill out an assessment summarizing the meeting—every single week. We discussed some deep and personal topics as per the assignment instructions, but at least everyone was respectful and flexible.

Class B

Now let’s talk about the dumpster fire that is Class B. This is the one that inspired this rant.

In Class B, we did get to pick our groups, but here’s the catch: this was based on interests and passions, and we didn’t know anyone in the class on Day 1. Hell, even after a week, we barely knew each other.

Class B has synchronous meetings at the most inconvenient times—midday, early afternoon. If you miss a session, it’s an automatic zero. This doesn’t account for people with inflexible jobs, and the meeting schedule wasn’t consistent—it felt random, with dates changing constantly in the syllabus.

In August, we had our first group meeting to brainstorm topic ideas. Only me and one other girl talked. The other three group members sat there silently like ghosts, and I had to repeatedly prompt these grown adults to contribute. That was the last time we met for months.

By October (yup, halfway through the semester), we had an outline due, and I realized we hadn’t met again. I’d been emailing them repeatedly, asking to meet or at least start working on the shared doc I created for the project. No one responded.

I didn’t stop there. I spent time finding and reading 35 sources about our topic and shared all the links. I sent reminders about the deadline approaching, still with no response. So, the day before the outline was due, I removed everyone’s names, completed the outline myself, and submitted it.

The second I submitted it, suddenly everyone woke up. I got an email like, “Hey [my name], I saw you submitted the outline without our input, but I have notes. How do we avoid getting a zero?” Then, the others chimed in, complaining it was “unfair.” Are you kidding me? I had been emailing since August. I gave them access to everything and multiple chances to participate, and now, now they want to care?

Fine. I unsent the submission and told them, “You have until tomorrow at 9 a.m. to add your notes.” They had one day. ONE. DAY. I’d been trying to collaborate for months... and they chose the night before.

Post-Outline Drama

After that, the group went quiet again. We finally had another Zoom meeting a couple of weeks ago. The tension was thick. We assigned tasks for the project, but, as usual, only me and the other girl talked. Her vibe screamed, “I don’t want to take over your project,” throwing shade every chance she got. Every sentence was laced with passive-aggressiveness, like, “I’ll suggest this, but only if [my name] is okay with it, I guess.”

She even suggested we exchange numbers for a group chat. I agreed because, at this point, whatever gets them to do their work is fine. Predictably, the group chat has been silent.

Yesterday, one member emailed asking us to review her slides. I thought, “This is due in a week; let me check if anyone’s actually done anything.” To my surprise, some slides had content. I started working on my part while my students (I’m a teacher) were doing independent work.

Then I noticed the slide numbering was wrong—this is a PechaKucha presentation, so it must be exactly 20 slides with minimal text. Someone messed it up, which threw some of us off. I fixed my part and moved on.

Later, there was an email claiming slides were missing. Before I could check, Miss Passive-Aggressive sent a long text blaming me. She ended it with, “Let’s try not to touch other people’s slides next time.” Mind you, I hadn’t touched anyone else’s slides, and hers was FUCKING BLANK ANYWAY. She just wanted to start shit with me. The edit history clearly showed I hadn’t opened the presentation since earlier in the day and had only worked on my own slides.

Final Thoughts

Now, I do want to note that I am aware that we’re adults with responsibilities, but if you know you can’t manage your time, why sign up for college? You KNEW you had a life and responsibilities before you signed up for (AND PAID FOR) classes — you knew you didn't have time for anything extra or that you had poor time management yet you STILL signed up for classes.

I’m a full-time student, a full-time teacher, and I practically raise my two younger sisters (who are both school aged and require different levels of care). I still manage to get my shit done because that’s what I agreed to when I signed up for this program. When I signed up I knew that college was time consuming and that I would have to manage my time effectively still did it

Online programs exist because people don’t have time for in-person classes. Professors need to understand this. Why should my grade be affected because someone else is a lazy dipshit and doesn't do their work? How is that fair?

The kicker? Our professor emailed us about the complaints and said it was “unfair” for me to tell her no one else did any work, claiming they still “deserve full credit.” Excuse me? I did the entire outline myself, but I’m wrong for saying that?

I hate this class. I hate group work.

Rant over. Thanks for listening and good luck to you guys as the semester is coming to a close :)

Post note: the recording of the presentation is due December 3rd, take a guess on when you think my group will meet to record the project (if we even meet)

When I was in middle school I was a shitty group member. It all started in science class and I was paired up with these two girls for a group project. They seemed nice at first. I didn't pay much attention in class so i didn't help much. I did very little work. When I did try to help they would get angry at me because i didn't know what I was doing. After The project was submitted they got a bad mark . Oh boy oh boy did they hate me after that.

They were so angry at me for being a shitty group member and causing them to get a bad grade, they went out of their way to bully me for the rest of the school year. They would spread rumors about me (that im a furry and a crazy sl*t). twist my words around to make me sound like a monster. They would go out of their way to point out how "weird" I was. They would even get other kids to bully and shun me .

They also tried to trip me in halls and would beat me up for days. I ended up becoming a pariah in my class. nobody wanted to associate with me.

I have been taking a lab course which is report and all the reports are group-based. I often find that the citations made by others in the document come from businesses instead of actual sources. The same information can be found from better sources that have an actual author and date, and instead, we end up with citations of some random business. I am not sure if others simply don't care, but I have always tried to avoid sources like this because they can change, and they are often trying to sell you a service which makes them a little bit unreliable in my opinion. How do you feel about citing sources like this when there is equivalent information from actual scientists?

I'm usually a semi-decent group member because I care about not letting others down even if I do procrastinate and do things last minute-- this time I guess it was just too much.
I had this one project that happened over the course of a week there were two group members initially (me, & guy A). Guy A reaches out to me initially and is doing a lot of the communication with the professor as well. And I was communicating back well, I made a powerpoint, sent it to the other guy, did a lot of initial research and found sources. Then a third guy, guy B, joins who barely responds, says super last minute that he can't show up to our group meeting with the professor after me & guy A are already waiting on campus and I kind of assume we can't start work until after that meeting because we need to meet the professor with the full group to get the exact parameters of the assignment. The teacher asks if we need an extension and guy A is like "nah", but the assignment is 4 days out, it seems like a major assignment, and I pipe up and say we do but she dismisses that. And like I still committed myself to doing my part of the assignment over the weekend but I freaked the fuck out and kept procrastinating and I guess I thought we needed to go a lot more in depth than we did which caused me to not feel "done" at any point in research and the day it was due I didn't have anything to show for it so I just went to sleep at 11pm because I hadn't slept well a shitton of nights before because I've been overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to do and the next morning I profusely apologized for not communicating & said I'd do it today but then I still procrastinated and did the same thing and I just feel like shit and I put so much pressure on myself over this assignment when it wasn't even a big deal and i didn't REALIZE that it wasn't a big deal and guy A ended up doing the part I was going to for me and guy B did a shitty job but at least he got it done y'know and I just have no idea how to proceed or apologize because this isn't a huge class and I'm gonna be seeing these guys for the rest of the quarter and I've just been the shittiest group member I've literally been SOBBING over this since I realized guy A did my part for me and I was crying the last two days two from overwhelm. WHAT DO I DO??

I would genuinely like to understand the psychology behind this. Is it they'll do it anyway, or grades don't matter to me? I'm get that not so great group members are always tending to things that are more important than anyone else's issues (sarcasm) but what's the self-justification? Do you sleep better knowing others will pick up the slack? Are you rocking the "Cs get degrees" mindset, which I totally respect (not really, but could tolerate if the group member's honest about it...). But what makes it seem ok to leave the rest of your group hanging and worried? In all seriousness I'm not judging, I'm just curious. In all honesty if someone were to say riding coattails gets me where I need to be I'd respect that, but why not let us know so we can plan to cover your slack? Most of the MIA group members would have stank A LOT less if they have just let their group know.

I was assigned to a group in my PBL Class (Problem Based Learning)
I was assigned to the laziest group ever i was with my friend (Who is sill kind of lazy). EVERY group member but me (And partially my friend) would refuse to work, They would rather game and leave the work to be because its "Not graded". And it ticks me off and i have to present it i cant just not give them credit because we will have to present it as a group, but i dont want to do this whole thing by myself and they get credit for it. but i cant not do the work or i will get in to trouble too and i dont want to ruin my reputation.

What should i do?

Is it my bad luck, or are group projects always frustrating? I had to do two group projects this semester and they both turned out terribly. I had to beg my partners to do their work and then got told off by them for asking them to do it. In the second project, I even tried to learn from the first on how to avoid the scenario of it being left to the last minute by group members again. I reached out a few days before since only my part was done. Thankfully one of the members responded okay, but the second was pissed off at me since apparently my tone was bad even through I intentionally tried to make it sound nice to avoid a misunderstanding like this, and then he said ‘he didn’t need to be managed’ and I ‘wasn’t his superior’ and yet in the very same message he said he was neglecting the project. I just want to know, are all group projects like this? I seriously hoped that in university they would be better than high school.

I just submitted a group project, and one of my group members waited until the last minute to send me their stuff (since I was in charge of putting it all together since no one else was actually reaching out to plan out the project). Luckily they sent it (and the other two members finished theirs days prior like me), but for hours before the deadline they ignored my messages asking if it was done or if it was close to done and they showed practically zero proof that they were doing it. In my panic I started a backup plan if they didn’t do it, which caused me even more stress and anxiety as I tried to up the word count to an appropriate range to salvage it. I spent hours watching them go back and forth the doc but not adding anything, which ruined my day because I was so anxious about it. When they sent it (1.5 before the deadline) they told me I should be more understanding of people with different work ethics, etc. I understand that, but I was making myself sick with anxiety because they were making me think they didn’t do anything. I’m a person who needs stuff done in advance and I thought I was being flexible enough already since it was already close to the deadline when I started messaging them a lot. Am I just over reacting, or is this an inconsiderate behaviour to leave group projects so late, especially when everyone else was done far in advance and it was worth 35% of the grade?

Hi this is my first time in reddit How dose it work!?🤨

I'm just tired of having to do group assigments for university.

First one I did the day before the assigment was due my classmates hadn't read the material, wich I had divided and color coded for everyone in a google doc so they knew wich part was theirs, but nah, they hadn't read it, the girl who wanted to do the powerpoint presentation said she actually didn't know how to use powerpoint or Canva, and the guy who had to edit the video didn't know how to edit videos, both missed class they day we had to show our video at class, we sent the assigment 2 weeks later, I ended up with a good grade because my teacher knew I did all my other work on time and participated, but my group members did not.

Now in this semester I'm stuck on a class that only does group projects, and we haven't sent a single one of the 4 that were due because no one does their part, they are all videos too, I had to do someone elses's work at last minute in all of the assigments so far, except this last one we have to present on Friday, I haven't even finished my part yet from the frustration, everyone sent theirs, full of mistakes, with copypasted paragraphs from Wikipedia, we have to do a written document and a video presentation, no one has merged all the parts into a single Word document, they decided last minue everyone will do their slide separately and record audio for the video separately, but no one wants to edit the actual video.

And then tomorrow I have another group presentation due, we were given 2 weeks, half of the group hasn't said what part of the subject they want to talk about.

I've just decided to do my oart and if the others don't do theirs then goodbfor them, so far all the teachers have given me good grades because they know I'm responsible in everything else, but I'm just so frustrated, I give them the slightest bit of guidance and everyone drops all their work on me, I let them fred and NO ONE does their job, how did these people even get into university? I know my country's education is one of the worst, but come on, I've been doing group presentations since elementary school. Most of the time I'm also one of, if not the youngest member in the group, I don't want to babysit grown ass adults who I know are more than capable of doing their part.

I know I'll likely be okay I just needed to get that out of my chest, sometimes I wonder if I'n the shitty one for not constantly telling everyone what to do, but then again, they never listen even if I do.

For a while now I have been sure that two of my project group members are just hungry for conflict and using the “nobody is doing anything but me”-trope to project their own incompetence.

These two girls are freaking out on everyone daily and finger-pointing constantly about supposed “undone” work and “everyone being lazy”. In all of these instances they just bend the train tracks to make it their truth. Not a day goes by these girls aren’t blaming someone for a missed deadline (before the deadline is even there), egging people on about handing work in on time, threatening to go to the professor over minor issues, blaming everyone else for miscommunications etc. They go as far as cursing people out, taunting, using passive aggressive language and spamming (and I mean SPAMMING the group) about how this or that person has fucked up. All the while they themselves have missed deadlines and handed in shitty work too.

After A LOT of group conflict we have had a conversation with our professor, set up group expectations of planning, deadlines, consequences, the grade we want etc. Signed and well. One of these expectations was that we would all work on a better atmosphere in the group too. Yet these two won’t stop and it’s incredibly stressful. Even asking them simple questions of clarity (because their truths about deadlines and “proper” work seems so flexible whenever it suits them) is met with irritation and sarcasm. I have asked them to please keep in mind the atmosphere, and to stop acting irritated even if it’s for a “good reason”, and the first response was to “stop being the victim and acting childish”.

They have completely taken this fallen soldier role in this project, where nobody is right but them, nobody has done work but them etc. And their irritation and passive aggressive attitude becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because now nobody dares to communicate with them or do work. I am really scared these girls won’t stop until everyone but them has a low grade.

To give an example: A girl switched from our project group over a month ago and they are STILL going on about going after her, wanting to get her a lower grade because she “sailed on our work” (she didn’t).

I have a phonecall with my professor privately and I hope things will be solved. How should I mentally even cope with this?

I still wish everyday that I could've sat on another table to join a different group.

On the first day of class, my environmental studies prof put different topics on each table and invited us to choose the table that interested us. I already knew the prof was trying to put us into groups.

I noticed several of my friends from the last school year, whom I really enjoyed working with, sat on the same table. But my dumbass self thought 'Oh, I want to learn in this class, not just take an easy way out!' and chose the table with the topic that genuinely looked interesting and challenging to me.

The topic was how to educate public on climate change against the political agenda. Now that I think about it, it's not even that of a spectacular topic, but I can't go back in time and beat up my stupid past self, can't I?

Anyways, I've been since then grouped with these two members named X and Y. The project is to basically create 30 min presentation to discuss how we can advocate that climate change is real to those who politically deny its existence. Sounds straightforward, right?

The rubrics says that our presentation must "bring new insights by thinking outside the box" and "engage the audience in entertaining ways of self-provoking thoughts". A fancy way of saying that we have to bring some interesting info that the class didn't know before and make the presentation fun and self-reflective.

​

X, however, got fixated on the phrases "self-provoking" and "thinking outside the box". He then suggested our group to do the presentation on how climate change is fake and prompt the class to challenge us.

While respectfully acknowledging his creativity, I carefully tell him that his idea may be going off track in the opposite direction from the point of this assignment, which is to research about how WE can advocate FOR climate change.

"That's the point! By pretending to be political deniers, we're facilitating the class to discuss on why climate change is real! In the way of thinking outside the box!"

"I get where you're coming from, but that is OUR role as presenters. To inform the class with the solutions on how we can advocate for climate change against political deniers."

"But remember the rubrics. It must be thinking outside the box and self-provoking. So, we're challenging and 'self-provoking' the class to think for themselves and come out with their own solutions rather that just telling them the solutions we researched . It's thinking outside the box."

"Then what is the point of this project for us?"

"To provoke the class to think about how they can advocate against political deniers. Just as the topic says. But by virtue of us challenging the class while we pretend to be deniers."

Meanwhile, Y is the most ridiculous yes-man I've seen. As you can see, although I and X are clearly having a disagreement, he just says yes to both of us. Consistently saying something in the line of "Oh, I agree with you, OP, but I also see the point in what X says." And never takes the side.

This is summary of how our every group meeting went until the few days before our presentation. I tried to bring different ideas for the presentation in each meeting, but nothing could change X's mind. Although I should've done it much sooner, I finally took our group to the prof for mediation.

Our prof was nice. Way too nice. I could clearly see him being troubled with X's idea, but to not offend him, he told X in the most round about way.

"Remember, what I want for you is to research and learn how YOU can advocate for climate change. But I really love how you thought of a very creative way to think outside the box!"

And after about 10 minutes long loop of X suggesting his same idea again and the prof giving out the similar response as above, the prof just dismisses us while emphasizing to carefully review the rubrics. X, of course, took the response from the prof as the approval to his idea. The prof at least took the pity and allowed us to postpone our presentation by one week.

​

Instead of debating on whether to adapt X's idea, I suggest the group to first start working on something we can all agree on: Powerpoint slides.

There are specific slides we have to make: background, key insights of the issue, solution, limitation, and conclusion. X is now obviously confused on why we need the solution slide when we're going to prompt the class to discuss and come out with their own solutions for the issue.

I finally thought this could be the moment of his realization and said that's what I've been trying to tell him whole this time. We need to present OUR OWN solution to the class. But that's neither self-provoking nor engaging, X says. Y, once again, is just nodding intensely at everything we say.

Hiding my desperate intention, I volunteer to do the solution and conclusion slides, but X says that we can't split our works until we have the "full understanding" of what the solution slide is supposed to be. I spend next 3 hours (yes, 3 hours) on arguing and trying to convince X that he's overthinking this, which ended up being futile. We finally end up deciding to ask the prof via mail and ask him in class next Monday if he doesn't respond by then.

Meanwhile, we decide to work on background and key insights slide. I honestly wanted to just work on both slides by myself, but X insists that he wants to take the key insights slide. I ask X when I see him filling his slides with all the information on why climate change is fake.

"Remember how we agreed that we're gonna pretend ourselves as climate change deniers?"

I never recall agreeing to the ridiculous idea of his, but it was passing 5 hours mark at this point. I was wasting 5 hours on the work with no progress while had other two projects going on from different courses. Not wanting to fall into the trap of the endless argument again, I say "To be honest not sure about your idea, but let's talk after hearing from the prof on Monday. We'll see."

And here I am. Four days before the presentation is due while nothing much is done or decided. The presentation that is worth 30% of the final grade. This is my third year as well and the senior year grades will matter quite much for my future graduate school admission. I took this course while thinking that it was going to be lighthearted elective course to easily snatch a good grade.

Boy, how I'm wrong and so screwed now.

If someone bothers to read my rant, thank you, and here's the takeaway. Especially when it's the important year for your GPA, NEVER EVER take the noble road of challenging yourself to learn unless it benefits you significantly in terms of grades or experience. Otherwise, easy way out all the way.

Honestly I'm on here to ask advice. Recently for one of my classes my teacher asked us to take on an extra group member, she didn't elaborate on why she wanted us to take on this group member all we know is that this group member got kicked out of her last group with no warning the day the last project was due. Our teacher said that this member won't affect our grade and our finial project grade but we have a few concerns about the member. Our first concern is that we don't have a stable way to talk or interact with her. Our 2nd concern is that the answer this person produces is very generic like she copied of the internet. Last concern is that we don't know how she would present during our presentation day. So we really want to know if we should accept her into our group, and if we do, do you think that we should list all the concerns we talked about here with our teacher.

I've always thought of group projects as a good thing because I get to meet new people and share the workload. But these shitty members are giving me sense of imbalance because I'm doing more work because I don't want to hurt my grade AND I have to share grades with them.

And what are the odds of meeting such shitty members in 2 different groups?! Disappearances, last minute withdrawals, gaslighting, agreeing to meeting times and not turning up, not doing all the work allocated...This is something I didn't consider when I signed up for part-time studies, that possible procrastination + hectic daily schedules are going to produce the shittiest group members of all times. Just need to rant, because I'm still dealing with these people. I've emailed one of the professors asking to switch teams but the chances are so slim I can barely see it.

Spare me from this monstrosity, and come some deus ex machina please!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in a master's program, and we're about to take our midterms.

We've got 6 exams next week, some homework to hand in and on top of that, a group presentation to do with me and 8 other people.

Although there are 9 of us, no one is really involved in the presentation. Right from the start I've been struggling, during meetings everyone is on mute and I can wait a good 5 minutes for someone to answer when I'm speaking.

Despite all this, I've made a lot of progress with the preliminary research, and I've even written the script for the presentation. Basically, all that's left is to record one of us presenting the project and to submit it. I’ve wasted hours of my study time on this. After that I told them I'd let them take the reins, but not a word since (it's been 4 days, due in 5).

The problem is that this presentation is worth 50% of a subject's grade, and you need to pass in all subjects that don't add up. So if we don't hand in the presentation, you'll have to take a make-up exam.

I could finish it on my own, but I'm so pissed off that I tell myself I'm not going to do anything, even if it means we all have to take a make-up exam. I don't even care if I have to retake it too, because I don’t mind studying, unlike them.

So, should I sabotage ?

so, for context, i got into college in the middle of the school year and i didnt know anyone, so in the very first week of class the teacher assigned us a group project and i asked an already formed group if i could join them and they accepted it. The thing is I'm very shy and everyone in the group were best -friends and mostly very pro-active in the project, so it was a mixture of me feeling really shy in this group of people who already know each other and are best friends and very pro-active and also generally being beter at that specific subject than me, like, everytime i would suggest something for the project they would always turn it down because theyre just way better at that subject and whatever they do will be better than what i have to suggest. Anywaysz I've been feeling really self-councious and anxious about not helping for some weeks now, but today is when they confronted me about it (the project is like 95% done at this point) and i feel really bad because this has never happened to me before. I know the stuff i said doesnt excuse the fact that i barely helped with the project, but its just some conext i felt was important. Anyways im feeling really guilty and embarrased because I've never been called out like that before

So, I have some severe social anxiety that has fucked me over in work groups. I used to get paired up with a control freak, and I was too much of a coward to give input in the end. She scared me so much I ended up not wanting to work in a group ever. Since then, I've done work on my own. I don't want to pull people down, but now that I'm in uni, work groups are everywhere and I get assigned to people I don't know. I'm currently preparing the introduction and conclusion of a presentation and I feel like one of those shitty work partners because I struggle to speak with my peers. It sucks.

I've been in many group projects in my lifetime. Some of the group members I've worked with are snakes and try to do the much work as possible to signal that they are the main contributors to a group project. The idea is that they do more work and so can have more power in arguing because they could say they contributed more. Those that didn't fight for work, can contribute little because the snakes ate more amount of the project grade percentage and then sneakily report others for not contributing enough to the professor. The snakes didn't tell that they would not share the credit with the members that they took work from, metaphorically they gobbled up most of the pieces of the pie.

I've been burned by a few snakes in group projects. I changed my whole tone during these messed up malicious encounters and going forward I fight and argue with group members to get to do group work that yields a high percentage of grade points.

When I was in university, I had to do group lab reports for one of my courses. I lived half an hour from campus if there was no traffic and they all stayed on campus.

Every week, my group members would send a text at like 7 at night: “Let’s all meet in the SUB in 10 minutes to do the lab.”

I’d say that I can’t make it on short notice or that I’d leave but be there like 20 minutes after they started which they never liked or said they’d just do it without me.

They eventually went to our prof and told him that I wasn’t doing any of the work on the labs…which was correct but only because they kept scheduling meetings that I couldn’t attend.

I got a better group after who always met after the lab to just do it then.

Hi. Never seen this thread before, but I have a story for it. I was doing my Masters in Teaching (Primary). We had to do a wide variety of classes on educational theories and handing controversial opinions within communities etc, as well as learning how to teach all of the subjects. There weren't too many group projects, but we did have a couple, and one was a doozy.

When we were doing our first year Maths subjects, we had a group project about cross-KLA teaching. Basically, this means we needed to find a way to teach Maths while teaching another subject. The tutor puts us into pairs, and I get paired with 'Allen'(obviously not his real name). Allen is a nice enough guy but he's a bit flaky. I already have a great idea for how to link fractions to music (since every note in music is just a fraction of the whole bar). Allen said this sounded great, and I was ready to leap in.

However, while I was working on the project, Allen vanished. No responding to texts. No responding to Facebook Messenger. I'm not sure he was even in class or at his lectures (he had some accommodations made by the uni since he wasn't neurotypical. Not sure exactly what his deal was or what his accommodations were, but he did tell me while we were chatting one day that he had different rules for attendance). Eventually, I assumed that he had found a different group to work with and I did the project solo, which is honestly how I prefer to work. It's the week before the project is due, and Allen walks up to me at the end of tutoring. We say hi, he apologises for being a flake, and then he asks me which part of the project he was supposed to do...in front of our tutor. Keep in mind the tutors have a large say in our grades and report back to our lecturers. I tell him, somewhat baffled, that I thought he had gone to a different group and the project was finished. Allen responded, just as baffled, that he hadn't and he needs to have his name as part of a group or he'll fail. The tutor asks me if I'd be willing to find something for Allen to do, and I obligingly let him proof-read the completed project. We turn it in, I get decent grades, Allen gets much less decent grades due to lack of participation, and I swear never to be partnered with Allen again.

The story has a happy ending. After a lot of struggle due to having undiagnosed ADD, I got my Masters and I'm now teaching. Allen on the other hand was called up by the Head of the Education Department (basically the guy in charge of running all teaching courses at our uni) for plagiarism. Instead of taking a penalty or discussing the charges, Allen decided to leave uni to 'rethink his options'. He made a point of saying goodbye on his final day, and then I never saw Allen again. Part of me wonders if he ever went back to finish his degree, and if he did, if he was as much of a flake in his group projects as he was with me.

Throwaway

Our english teacher made us do 2 grand tasks for our exams. Due to some time constraints in a class of 60 people there were only 2 groups( so about 30 people for 1 of the tasks) we had only about 2 days to work with. I was busy with other works so I couldnt help do my part in editing but when I could the slides and reporters were aleady done so I couldnt really do much now were passing the task and I cant get any of the credit since I couldnt do my part. I already apologized to my leader.

Any advice given is thanks. I just needed to say this somewhere

In my next subject we have group project and it will determine the final grade. I obviously want a good grade.

There are 3 topics 2 I'm interested in but I'm more interested in topic B

Topic A now have 2 members

Topic B have one member but an honour student that is not part of the class will join this project because he is interested in it

I like Topic B but I feel choosing it is risky because I don't think the student that not part of the class will care about grade and Topic A is bit boring but there are 2 members which make me feel like it's better

Years ago, I took a forensic chemistry class because I needed a science course with a lab and this course was for arts students who aren't good at math. For our final presentation, we needed to pick a forensic chemistry component and create a presentation for it. My group member did not do anything saying that he was confused about the topic. I scheduled an appointment with the instructor so my group member could ask for clarification. At the meeting he said he understood everything, but when I got home, I got a message from him saying he was confused again. I finished my part of the presentation and sent it to him to add his part. At 11 pm he sends it back having deleted half my work, and adding information that was not relevant to our presentation. I was up until 4 am fixing it. I spoke to the instructor and she gave us an extension, but made it clear that I had to include some of what he did, even if it is not relevant (To give you an idea of what he did, our presentation was on how fingerprints are used in tv shows and if it is accurate or not. He added 4 slides on the history of crime shows and deleted 4 slides on how the science works). I got a B in the presentation.

At my masters, there were a few shitty group assignments, but this one is the one that got the perfect results.
Anyway, so it's the second semester of a 2 year computer course, and we were learning Java. The professor decided that it would be great if he divides the class in group of 10 people (the strength is 60) and give a small 10 minute presentation on something that he has already taught, so that he could understand how well we have understood Java, also to keep notes who was putting effort in learning.
So after getting this, I created a WhatsApp group, texting the group members the details. No one responded.
Fine, I thought. The deadline was 2 weeks away, and I am good at last minute presentations and procrastination so it was fine for me.
2 day away from the deadline, and no one has given a single message about what is the status or anything like that.
Then I texted personally everyone about the presentation, suddenly they all (except one) became prime ministers of some country, and very busy, and no reply.
Thankfully, one guy helped me out and we both were able to give the presentation.
After the presentation, my professor asked me about the contributions of each project members. I told him everything about how no one contributed except one and all.
He gave them a solid 0 out of 10 (the presentation was part of the final paper, they didn't know), and scolded them for long. The guy and me got full marks, and yeah, I got the highest marks in finals too.
Working hard does have its results!

This happened in high school, around a decade ago.

I had a friend in school, let's call her B, that, for a time, copied everything I did, including taking subjects that she had no interest in, and wasn't good at. It was one of a few things that eventually ended the friendship. In one of the classes we shared, we were set a pairs project, and, knowing we were friends, our tutor paired us up.

This project was to be completed in class time, over a couple of weeks, and as the room we were in didn't have computers, we didn't have to stay in the room to complete it, we just had to check in with the tutor at the start of class so she could confirm we were there.

The day it was assigned, we all left the room, and I, logically, headed to the library. B told me she just had to get something from her locker and would meet me there. Most of the class ended up there or in the study room just off of the library. My partner doesn't show up. I texted her, no answer. Didn't see her again until our final class of the day, and she didn't explain when I asked her where she'd got to.

I always arrived at class before her, and didn't really want to waste class time (it was an elective class, so work that I wanted to be doing), so I usually left before she had even checked in, texting her every time that I would meet her in the library, even telling her where I was sitting in the library. She never showed up. If I texted her about anything else, she'd respond, but if it was about the project, it was like she had temporarily forgotten how to read and she'd either ignore the message or change the subject.

After about a week and a half of this, and a few days before the project was due in, I had almost finished, and she still hadn't showed up to the library, so instead of going straight to the library after checking in, I hung around for a bit, wanting to see if she showed up to check in. She did. When she came out, I asked her if she was coming to the library with me, and she blanked me.

The library was in a different building, so I had to go the same way, and watched her leave the school grounds (we were allowed to do this if we didn't have a class). I went to the library, finished the project, then went back to the classroom to let the tutor know I had finished, and that I was a little frustrated as I had done all of the work by myself. She told me that was fine, to make sure only my name was on the work, and when it was my 'group's' turn to present on Friday, she would call me only.

The best part was, the tutor already knew that B had done nothing, she had just wanted to see if I would say anything before she stepped in. The gate that B had walked out of, leaving the school grounds, was outside the window of the classroom, and the tutor had watched her leave every day. She had also confirmed with the librarian, who knew me quite well due to book club, that I had been there working alone. Not only did she fail the project, but despite checking in, she was marked as absent without reason for those classes for two weeks. I passed.

She was so angry when she realised that I was no longer working with her and she hadn't been told. I will admit I was a little snarky about it when she questioned why I didn't tell her - I responded with "How could I? You never read any messages about the project."

A couple years ago I was placed in an assigned group for a project. Being the only guy I thought it should be smooth sailing because in my experience the girls are more dilligent group members and don't mess around they just get shit done.

We initiate contact and start plans to meet. The leader (red) suggests a time to meet but I couldn't do it and proposed another time. I was busy with lab work on my thesis and my day job at the time but I managed to carve out some time to meet.

I suggest "Tuesday" and get confirmation from red but then she drops me on the day. In fact, I get quite a cheeky response from her. Since I turned down her first suggestion because I had to be in the lab at the time, she saw it fit to do the same, but at the last minute. Some other things happened that were red flags, all before we could even meet.

I went to talk to the professor and as there was the option to either do a group presentation or write a critical paper on the article (solo), he agreed to allow me to change over to the solo option and then everything worked out for me. So I quit.

Then the day of the presentations came and two of the girls weren't up there, leaving red and one other to deliver a very average presentation. Turns out they did exactly the same thing I did and took the solo option because when they rocked up to the meeting, red just didn't show either. This girl was SEETHING at the sight of me because she believed that I was the reason for the other two quitting. Maybe so, but she had it coming.