College student exposes professor's favorite for doing zero work on their group project: 'Giovanni didn't show up'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 24, 2024 2:00 PM EST

Some people are highly skilled at getting out of doing any actual work… that is, until they meet their match. We're used to seeing this dynamic play out in work environments or in certain relationship dynamics, but one of the earliest examples of this kind of flawed collaboration is the group project. Group projects don't necessarily teach you about collaboration; if anything, they teach you about how to deal with the givers and takers of this world. That is the only silver lining with a group project for those of you who are often stuck doing the majority of the work.

This college student finally found a way to get back at Giovanni, their professor's favorite student who was actually the slacker of this story. The student was given a detailed rubric that this time required them to take diligent notes about the progress of their group work. They made sure to include notes in meetings about Giovanni not showing up or leaving early or other members of the group having to meet to do his part. The best part is that the original poster shared these notes with all team members (including Giovanni) prior to submitting them to the professor, so Giovanni didn't even bother to take a look and see that his lack of effort was on full display. 

Keep scrolling below for the full play-by-play, and to all you folks who are forced to do all the work on a team, we salute you! For more stories like this, check out this post about a guy's revenge against his HOA.

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  • 01
    "How I managed to expose a 'friend' in a group project"
    via Dylan Gillis
  • 02
    How I managed to expose a "friend" in a group project TLDR: We had to add a protocol for an assignment and I knew that (just like the Terms and Conditions) no one would read it, so I added information that one member of the group basically didn't help. It was some time ago, when I was still in University, so sorry for lack of details.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 03
    So once I was in the group with a guy, let's call him Giovanni. Giovanni was a very good speaker / salesman. His presentations were often very entertaining, but had some lack for foundation or knowledge about the subject. Thing is, in most classes the grade depended heavily on the presentation (individual) and to a lesser extent on the written part. So our friend Giovanni learned pretty fast that he basically could weasel himself out of doing parts of the written project and then shine in the pr
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 04
    In one of the assignments I had to do with Giovanni the teacher wanted us to write a protocol of every gathering. That's where I saw my chance. I gladly volunteered to write the protocols and send them to the rest of the group for proofreading. As always our friend Giovanni showed up on the first meeting to discuss who would be doing which part and then mostly not show up and not contribute much.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 05
    That's were the petty revenge comes in: Through the power of the protocol I could document that he didn't contribute much, how we were "forced" to write his part and how he mostly didn't show up. Best part I didn't have to sneak it in there, I sent a copy of the protocol to each group member to proofread and had written confirmation from everyone that they are ok with it's content (was necessary for the assignment).
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 06
    As you can imagine once the professor read the protocols we got called in to explain the situation. If I remember right after this point we were finally free to split in the groups we wanted.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 07
    CoderJoe1 13 hr. ago I'm convinced group projects primarily teach you not to rely on your group to do their share. 291 Reply Share
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 08
    twincredible 13 hr. ago They do. It's how the real world works. Team Dynamics at work aren't so much different.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 09
    not-rasta-8913 10 hr. ago Exactly. They totally taught me that if something needs to be done and you see the rest of the team being reluctant to do it, you either volunteer to do it yourself or you assign someone right there and then if you're team leader.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 10
    Irish ItalianAngel-51 12 hr. ago Sounds like Giovanni is up sh** creek without a paddle!
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 11
    Wild Replacement8213. 12 hr. ago I hate group projects with a passion for this reason. I bust for you to get an easy A? Sit on a rusty pole and spin! Not doing it
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 12
    Dan_the_bearded_man OP. 12 hr. ago Exactly, now imagine having about 5 group projects a semester. I was so happy when we were done with this
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 13
    Xuan-Wu 8 hr. ago. edited 6 hr. ago I did something different. We were only two on the project. Of the 4 copies. (One for me, one for each teacher, one for slacker). Only slacker ended up with one without pages marked. Hard to go to the diagrams, pictures etc, when you didn't read upfront and without the pages numbers' help. It became obvious who worked and who didn't.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 14
    090 oneconfusedgirlie. 13 hr. ago i really wonder what you put in there lol
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 15
    Dan_the_bearded_man OP. 13 hr. ago As it's some while ago I don't remember everything but it was on the line of: • Giovanni had to leave early because x • Giovanni didn't show up because y • Additional meeting took place to write Giovannis part
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 16
    If I remember right the teacher first was kind of at me for calling him out, but I stated that I just took the protocols seriously and just reflected what happened. Also showed him the messages that the whole group had "read" the protocols and were ok with it's content.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 17
    damnation333.9 hr. ago Let me guess, Giovanni now works as a salesman or is a "crypto trader"? 3 Reply Share Dan_the_bearded_man OP. 8 hr. ago No idea what happened with him. But wouldn't be surprised
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 18
    Brilliant Athlete_67 . 2 hr. ago Nice work. You exploited his bad behaviour and he had no cause to complain as he didn't proofread. Lesson learnt: Being lazy is hard work.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 19
    Hey-Just-Saying. 3 hr. ago These projects are meant to give students real world experience where in future jobs they will have to work on projects with other employees. They mainly teach that in the real world, you're going to have to work around crappy co-workers.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man
  • 20
    Dan_the_bearded_man OP- 2 hr. ago I understand where you're coming from and also heard that before, but honestly believe that just a lazy excuse. More than "helping" hard working people prepare for the real world you are priming the lazy ones that they can get away with it. You're not adressing the problem at all like this.
    via u/Dan_the_bearded_man

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petty-revenge-reddit revenge revenge-stories college student problems group projects petty revenge petty reddit thread Reddit college college student
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