Group project slackers shocked to receive failing grade, while their hard-working teammates performed well: 'I got an A in the class'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Apr 17, 2024 2:00 PM EDT

Everyone's greatest fear when it comes to working on a group project is the group of people with whom you'll be working. If you're a type A person, you will likely fear having to do all of the work yourself. If you're a slacker, you will likely wonder how much you can get away with based on the work ethic of your partners. The unfortunate reality is that no matter where you fall on the scale of teacher's pet to slacker, group projects are not exactly thrilling for you no matter what.

Here, we have a rare instance in which a professor listened to the students who had been putting in all of the work and chose not to let them suffer because their team members shirked all of their responsibilities throughout the semester. Keep scrolling below to see what happened when these lazy college students learned that they were not, in fact, getting the same grades as their hard-working teammates. For more stories like this, check out this post about a teacher's epic payback on a group of slackers during Senior Ditch Day.

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  • 01
    383 BANFF tate Pemind Adventure DEAT TO Everything Teachable COURSES PROTAT T NY TOO EASY 2+ Ole EFFORT RATING=HALLENG 0.50 5 BOR ZONE 0.75 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING BUT AT WHAT ' COMFOR 2 1.00 My 1.23 6 1.25- TRIPS AWAY ZCNE or HOM SOMETHING ESA (S,SICAL, LIVE) 1.50 GROWTH DRIVE TIME TRACKING THE DO YOU WAT CSKA O AD ALL14 He? 175 PAIN 3 2.00 (MAYBE) WAY TOO HARD
    via Matt Ragland
  • 02
    Marketing Class Group Project M OC A few years ago when I was doing my undergrad, I was in a 300 level marketing class. In the beginning of this class, we were assigned groups that we were supposed to work together throughout the semester. We were to put together a marketing proposal for a local professional sports team, and pitch it to them as part of our final grade.
    via blonktime
  • 03
    Every topic we were learning in class was to be directly applied to our marketing strategy and the whole semester our professor would basically walk us though from beginning to end on how to put it together. So early on we divvied up roles for each person
    via blonktime
  • 04
    (one person does market analysis, another person does most applicable marketing strategies, another person does budgeting, etc). There were about 7 people in our group, so plenty of help to be had for the different parts of the project. Or there should have been at least.
    via blonktime
  • 05
    We would meet up weekly, and early on a lot of it was just kind of round table discussion about what direction we wanted to take it. But as the semester went on, we started to notice some people were falling behind a bit. Each person falling behind apologized
    via blonktime
  • 06
    and assured us that they would get all they needed to done when it was due, they were just swamped with other projects/classes/bull. Come the final week, when were to put all of our separate parts together, and make it all mesh, guess what, they hadn't done all semester.
    via blonktime
  • 07
    They might have had a couple of bullet points on their subject, but it was FAR from a completed project and basically something any middle schooler could have lined out. (1. they are a professional sports team. 2. There are no other professional sports team of this sport in the state. 3. They have a large stadium. etc). I WAS
    via blonktime
  • 08
    I, and few others in the group, had spent a lot of time doing the research and putting it all together in a presentable form that was sure to impress not only my professor, but the marketing team of the affiliated sports group.
    via blonktime
  • 09
    The other reliable members of my group and I spent a lot of late nights working together to cover for the other "teammates" lazy ☐. But alas, it was too little too late, and we were not going to be able to submit something presentable by the deadline, and I sure as didn't want a bad grade for the amount of work I put in for not only my portion, but for the portions of those who didn't do anything.
    via blonktime
  • 10
    I met with my professor during her office hours and asked for a deadline extension, to which she replied: "Absolutely not. I made you aware of this project on day 1 of the semester, so you have, quite literally, had all semester to work on this. Why would you fall short of the deadline and need an extension?"
    via blonktime
  • 11
    I explained the situation to the professor, who graciously understood what I had gone though. She asked me to provide a list of all members of my team, exactly what and how much to the project they had contributed, and gave us an additional 24 hours to submit what we could. She said she would take what I told her into consideration.
    via blonktime
  • 12
    Come the day of the presentation, our professor was walking around with the marketing professionals we were to present to and I think she was listening closely to each person's part of the presentation to verify what I had told her. Some of us knocked it out of the park on our portions, others very quickly glanced over the topics. It was evident who was a contributor and who was a leech.
    via blonktime
  • 13
    About a week later once final grades were posted, our team group chat was flooded with I thought we had a great marketing proposal but that gave me an F for it!" type messages from a few of the members. I got an A in the class.
    via blonktime
  • 14
    cabird78 +3.16 hr. ago Lazy team members: "Our marketing strategy was simple outsource the work to our group members and take credit!"
    via blonktime
  • 15
    CoderJoe1 16 hr. ago +3. So, just like in the real world then.
    via blonktime
  • 16
    knouqs +3.16 hr. ago It's such a shame that so many group projects turn out like this. First, the students are paying to be there and do the work. Second, if the student does well, it may actually look good on a resume.
    via blonktime
  • 17
    I was on a three-member class project designing such-and- such. I was the only one of the group with the technical background to pull off the documentation. One guy had no idea on what we were doing, but showed up every week to work on it with me. The third person made so many promises and gave nothing. I did the same thing you did and talked to the professor, but the outcome was different. It's a group project, so all the members of the group get the same grade. This boiled my blood, since I di
    via blonktime
  • 18
    During the presentation, the net results were much the same as yours. I did find out later that the professor gave an incomplete to the third member, but I was still pretty raw from the experience. Group projects really are not helpful in a school setting unless everyone realizes that they are paying for their grades.
    via blonktime
  • 19
    blonktime OP 16 hr. ago Yeah I got really lucky with my professor and her graciousness about it. I was fully expecting her to say "tough you should have been more on top of them throughout the semester", which admittedly, I should have been. But this was a marketing class, not a management class right?
    via blonktime
  • 20
    I think my participation in the lectures helped my cause too though. I was active in the class as much as I could be.
    via blonktime
  • 21
    Entarotupac +1.15 hr. ago As a lecturer, I taught a number of classes in which we had collaborative projects worth upwards of 50% of the final grade. To both circumvent this problem-- and also drive home to folks who didn't think it was a problem--a small assignment early in the project arc was a team contract. They could make any rules they want (within the limits of the law/enforceability, obviously), but would then be beholden to said rules. It scared the out of moochers once they realized th
    via blonktime
  • 22
    It's a good concept to land in teamwork going forward. Coworkers/collaborators/employ ees/bosses can screw you over. End of lesson.
    via blonktime
  • 23
    blonktime OP. 15 hr. ago I really like this concept. This puts self-regulation in to the groups that work together. I'm sure no one wants to boot anyone for the group, because that just puts more pressure on themselves to cover the workload, but it puts the pressure on everyone to contribute.
    via blonktime
  • 24
    Did you have final say/veto power on those decisions? IE if one student was actually a good contributor, but due to personal differences, other members wanted them removed? Could you say "too bad, you're not always going to be working with people you get along with in the real world"?
    via blonktime

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students malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit group projects teacher entitled people karma entitled reddit thread Reddit college college student entitled people
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