Group project partner refuses to do any of the work, even when the member doing all the work falls ill:'He acted as if he was entitled to get an A like I did'

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Sep 24, 2024 12:00 PM EDT

That kid in your group project who didn't do any of the work, instead deeming their membership to be enough contribution to qualify them for a good grade, gives off exactly the same energy that a lot of managers do… taking credit for the success of their subordinates' efforts purely by merit of their presence. In fact, a lot of them probably go on to be managers who do this, their confidence propelled by that earlier undeserved success with a lack of effort or accountability.

Disappointingly, this phenomenon isn't just isolated to grade school or the workplace. If you choose to continue on the academic route too, group projects are just preparing you for your lab work in grad school, at which point the professors will be the ones taking credit for your work, leaving your name off of any papers they publish even when you make significant, sometimes vital, contributions to them. Maybe this is why they assign group projects to their undergraduates, adjusting them to the possibility that others will take credit for their work early on.

When this student's group project partner refused to do any of the work, leaving them to do all of it even after they were hospitalized and unable to move forward with the project, they ensured that they weren't going to share their grade. However, the professor unfortunately stopped short of failing them on the project altogether.

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    D
    via Unsplash+ (Kateryna Hliznitsova)
  • 02
    Lazy class partner didn't help at all for our term project even while I was in the ER! At the end of the semester, he acted as if he was entitled to get an A like I did!
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 03
    This happened a few semesters ago where I was taking a course in Urban Design. Everyone was grouped in 3s but one of my group members wanted to join another group with their friend, so I ended up with 1 other person. Not sure why the professor though this was okay, but I wasn't too worried because I
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 04
    was fairly confident in my ability to do the work. The course incorporated previous studio courses to tie together in a massive topic of urban planning which included architectural design, environmental sustainability, urban infrastructure and historic preservation.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 05
    I tried to brainstorm with my partner on which direction we should go. My idea was focused on residentials as housing would address a huge demand here in NYC. However, my partner seemed content on making the project about industrial buildings, so I focused there. We brainstormed on different ideas but got the impression that he just wanted me to take the lead as he mostly agreed while not giving much input.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 06
    Weeks went by and I constantly updated my partner on my progress via WhatsApp while rarely getting any update or feedback from him. It annoyed be a bit but I was still confident in my work which was enough to get us through the next check point during our next presentation.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 07
    At some point during the semester, I got a really terrible kidney stone. It wasn't from junk food or a poor diet, in fact, it was from eating too much black beans and chickpeas! A side note, I asked ChatGPT to come up with a healthy dinner plan to give me a list of food which I used to come up with a meal plan that meets my macro needs (see comment for more). I did feel way
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 08
    better with my new diet, but it eventually led me to having my worst kidney stone of my life that put me in the ER. I was on all kinds of pain meds and had to stay there for several nights! But it didn't end there! The stone was so big that it got stuck. I needed surgery to put in a stent. Don't look up how they put it in, it still gives me nightmares! I had to wait several more weeks and endure deep red blood daily and having yet another surgery to remove the stent (ugh!) before finally recover
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 09
    Throughout this whole time, I managed to put in some work into my project. I was surprised to learn that my partner did absolutely NOTHING and waited for me to continue my work! Like what the actual ?? To make it worse, I learned that he tried to present my work as his own! How can people be like that??
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 10
    I emailed the professor about my situation. I explained how I've did all the work so far and sent him screenshots of the chat as well as my project file which includes all the history logs. The professor reminded me that during the final submission everyone had to put their initials on the slides of the work that they worked on. Ok, got it.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 11
    Luckily, I was recovered and ready to present my work. I left out the initials as it wasn't required for presentation, only for the final submission. I felt the need to see what he'd do. I even tried to cut him some slack and gave him some talking points on the parts I'd allow him to claim as his own, even though it was fully my work. He didn't. He kept
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 12
    cutting me off during presentation to talk about MY project as if he had anything to do with it. He mostly repeated the same information that I mentioned while not bring anything of value to point out. The final presentation had several judges who were comprised of local professional in high level position within the industry. The conversation was always directed at me, so I had a
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 13
    good feeling that everyone understood that I did most of the work as I knew all of the intimate knowledge of the parts. Then came the last day to submit our work. The final slides included my initials on every. single. page! Apparently, my partner missed that part about the initials and also submitted an older version of my work. A few
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 14
    weeks go by, and I hit him up asking what he got. I was surprised to learn that actually passed with a C+. He was surprised to hear that I received an A- and promptly said that he'll have a talk with the professor on why he received such a low. grade. Honestly, why are there people like this?? Anyway, not sure if it's malicious compliance, but I did do everything as instructed and ended up having one of a semester. Did I mentioned that I had morphine for the first time during my ER visit? Lmao!
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 15
    MrSpiffenhimer • 4h ago • I hate how the professors say that they'll take individual effort into account with the grade and then don't really follow through. At least he got a c+ instead of an a-, but that's still roughly 80 points more than he should've gotten if he didn't do any work, or being generous 30 points for his brainstorming and presentation participation, either way an F.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 16
    Elestriel ⚫ • 3h ago . I asked ChatGPT to come up with a healthy dinner plan Don't do this. Don't leave your health up to a text model that just predicts what word should come next in a sentence. If you're actually concerned with eating healthy, talk to your doctor about identifying any nutritional deficiencies you
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 17
    might have and how best to address them, then learn how your body works and read some real healthy dinner plans from reputable sources.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 18
    angelmakr9 • 1h ago. These group projects are such garbage in a class like this because those outside professionals participating as judges could be looking for future employees and if you're being judged alongside someone that didn't help and doesn't really know the material it might reflect badly on you.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 19
    But I understand to an extent the reasoning is because we will deal with these kinds of individuals in our real world jobs and they're hoping we can learn from this experience. It's frustrating!!
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 20
    ProDavid 2h ago its a group project, if the end result gets a pass, everyone gets a pass. it would make no sense to give the group project a pass and not giving all of its members a pass as well.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 21
    what you should have done is talk to your prof about kicking your partner out of the group (before final presentation) as they hadnt. contributed, hadnt communicated, and had tried to plagiarise (not officially as its a group project, but you could use it as an argument) by presenting your work as their own.
    via Mysterious_Title171
  • 22
    but you didnt. he was still part of the group that made a project deserving an A-.
    via Mysterious_Title171

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

student university students college student problems group projects Professors college student
Scroll Down For The Next Article