30 Times People Had Such Terrible Group Project Members, They Decided To Shame The Jerks Online
If you've ever worked on a group project, you know how frustrating it is when someone isn't contributing as much as they should. If not, chances are, you're the slacker.
However, there's a subreddit where you can publicly shame these people and get at least some retribution.
Whether you need to vent because your partner can't get anything right or they haven't even responded to your messages, it's the place to blow off steam.
Of course, you can also scroll through the sub just out of curiosity. Like you're doing anthropological research on how infuriating and downright useless some folks can be. Spoiler: a lot.
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Drongopizza, one of the moderators of the subreddit, told Bored Panda that people use different strategies when they try to offload their work onto other group members. "This usually happens by them not doing their part [at all], thereby forcing the other team members to do it for them," Drongopizza said.
"Another way these [terrible] group members get out of doing the project is by doing the bare minimum. They often do their part but to a very low standard which would bring the overall mark for the other members down. This forces the other group members to take up the [terrible] member's part."
Another member of the subreddit's mod team, SilverAssasin337, said they too spotted a plethora of different ways people try to slack off, each one more creative than the last. "This sub has seen some imaginative stuff: from faking an injury to even faking the death of a loved one!"
Drongopizza thinks the best way to confront these opportunists is to not do it yourself. "Go to your course advisor or teacher and let them know the situation. This almost always results in the [terrible] member getting a kick up the [backside] or makes it so their part of the project doesn't degrade other members' parts."
Another possible way to take care of the situation is to confront them as a group. "This lets them know that it's a whole group of people who are dissatisfied with their work. One of the only times that 'peer pressure' isn’t a bad thing."
"It's very important to be mindful of the [terrible] group member's background because often they are [terrible] because something is happening at home or they are struggling in some way. Make sure that before you call them out, you ask them if they need any help with their part or what they are struggling with."
However, if it's you who for some reason can't complete your share of work, SilverAssasin337 said the first thing you should do is just give your partners a heads up. "Tell them why you can't help, tell them what you are doing instead. Anything is better than just ignoring their texts and calls."
But it's probably in your best interest to find some time for group projects. Studies have shown they not only contribute to learning, information retention, and overall college success but also help students develop a host of skills that are important in the professional world.
My uni lets us peer-review team members after a project (which affects grades)...
On a group project (9 slides and 25 guided questions that I had to do on my own)
Has there ever been a group project EVER where everyone pulled their weight? My teachers would say “it’ll teach you how to work together”. Nope. It taught me there are jerks everywhere who will take advantage of and credit for other’s hard work.
this was during online class so even better oportunities to get away from computer and not have anyone notice i was the ONLY ONE DOING THE WORK AND I WAS SHARING THE ANSWERS WITH THEM (it was a thanksgiving themed escape room thing with a google form) THEY DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I WAS PULLING ALL THE WEIGHT AND GETTING ALL PISSED. eventually the teacher came and i was let out early since i did so much work. never ever sharing answers with people again in group projects like that. if they don't want to help? they can fail
Load More Replies...When I was 11 we had a group project, I was with two other girls who were "friends" when it suited them/if I was useful. Because of my insecurity and all this other stuff, I'd always just taken it so I wasn't alone. We had to make a 3d mobile with facts about bees and pollination. Well on the day before it's due (they'd avoided me all week) I said when are we doing this; the laughed and said ur not in our group any more. I panicked so asked teacher if I could do mine on my own(she knew what'd happened and said yes). Well, I turn up next day with a large bee with flowers under it, really cool (mum helped lol as I had one day and got screwed over). And the two girls? They had a coat hanger with a few bits of wool holding scraps of paper with a few facts. They saw mine and were all "oh we were just kidding" etc. It was so hard to do but for the first time in my life I decided I was better off being alone than having them as fake friends. I presented mine alone, got top marks. They were...
...failed as it didn't meet criteria. And less than two weeks later I met my first real friend, who I stayed friends with for years. I don't see her much now she lives overseas. TLDR: 11yr old, kicked out of the project the night before, did my own one and got great grade, their project failed.
Load More Replies...I feel like most sane people have this experience atleast once in life. Recently, two guys from my class and I were responsible for teaching a topic to the class using GSlides, Forms and mindmaps. The third guy didn't join us for discussion and asked us to pick whatever we wanted him to take up. Literally no communication until 5 minutes before the presentation, where he informs the other guy, he can't do one of the two tiny topics we chose for him. The icing on the cake was definitely the part where he pulled a no-show to class
my hubs went to college in his 40s and graduated summa cum laud- he's a very smart guy who puts in the work. He had a group project with a 20 year old. The guy wrote his part of the project and gave it to my husband the night before it was due. It was the worst thing I had ever seen! It was like he was in elementary school the writing was so terrible. I rewrote the whole paper so it didn't look like my husband's work. They got an A and the guy told my husband it was the 1st A he'd ever gotten in college and thanked him profusely. I'm sure he never got another.
I have to humble brag a little here lol. I was a horrible college student. I blame most of it due to immaturity and partly bc of an abusive relationship I was in that literally killed my will to do anything. However when it came to group projects even if it was the only assignment I did all semester, I did it since I didn’t think it was fair to have someone else work harder on my behalf. So I can at least say I was a shïtty student in my regard but not to others
When I was in the navy we were line handling as the ship was being tied up to the dock. I was number one so I was in the very front and five more guys were behind me. That day I noticed it was very hard to hold the line. I pulling with all my might but I was being pulled dangerously to the edge and I turned to look behind me and the five guys were staring at me like it was no big deal. Then I saw that between me and the number two guy there was a huge dip in the line and it was only me who was actually trying to hold the huge ship from drifting. I sure swore my head off at them to take in the slack and help.
Years ago, there were 8 of us in Modern Philosophy class. We were meant to work on a paper in pairs, but three friends wanted to work together on a 10-page paper. The other pairs were a couple, and two friends. I was delighted to work alone. I could write more, do proper research, and got an A on Lyotard. It was great.
God... I did a group project with this girl. This was the second time I was doing it, the first day she texted us at FREAKING 12 AM THE DAY BEFORE WE WERE SUPPOSED TO PRESENT and said "sry I can't come" and then left the chat. So we had to present with one of my friends which was a lucky catch. We got a C on that project because her [girl who ghosted us]'s storyline was crap. The second time I worked with her was when we were partners. We were supposed to do a powerpoint and then she just did NOTHING. Not even a single word on the 30 slide project. I ended up making everything myself, and because I'm a petty person, I deleted her name from the slideshow entirely and added a credits page with my name in bold on it. She was a complete asshole. Oh yeah I ended up telling the teacher about this idiot and the teacher was chill about it. She gave me full credit and this girl got nothing. TL;DR: Annoying girl ghosts group project and doesn't show up, second time doesn't write a single word. Ends up getting an F.
That wasn’t petty, that was deserved. She did nothing, she didn’t deserve credit.
Load More Replies...They always say it’s to teach you to work together and IT DOES! It teaches you there are slackers everywhere, you can’t trust anyone and if you want to succeed at work, you need to pull your own weight and kick the slackers to the curb.
Ooh I have a good story. I had just moved to a new school. In my homeroom class, they were doing projects for a topic they had been studying for over a month. Welp I just got put with a random group, none of my teammates did any of their work except one of them did like half a slide, and so even though it was my first week of school there I finished the entire project the night before presenting, AND HOLD ON IT GETS BETTER, when it was time to present they wouldn't even stand up in front of the class. Like, I'm new here and I'm willing to present on a topic that I know little about. So we had to stay after class to present. And I did most of the presenting as well.
Also if anyone cares the topic was mental health disorders so we'd have more mental health awareness, and our group was presenting on OCD
Load More Replies...I had a girl do this to me when we had a group project on the Evolution of Terrorism. She'd meet for 5 minutes, asked me to do the outline, slides, reading and such and then leave. I refused to do slides, but I read everything and gave her a very vague outline. I also went to the professor ahead of time and told him what was going on. He told me to let her do her presentation..don't help her..and don't tell her what grade I got. She came up to me later "Can you believe he gave us a C on that presentation?" "Yeah..I know it sucks" I say as I tuck away my paper with an A- on it. She was kick out the next semester after she tried to pass someone else's work off as her own. Oh hey, that was also my Stats analysis report she stole that got her kicked out.
Oh my gosh group projects during online school were the absolute worst ever! We had to do the project through collaborating in breakout rooms and nobody- absolutely nobody- would talk. I didn't know any of them very well, and so I ended up doing all of the project. The day of the presentation, nobody in my group helped me present. Halfway through, my wifi cut out in the middle of the video I was sharing. Believe it or not, nobody opened up the slides to finish the presentation while I was fixing the wifi. Never do group projects with people you don't know!!!!
Aaaaannnnndddd this is why I always either (a) work by myself, or (b) pair up with the smart kid if I have a choice.
We had a group paper defending the need for police reform and better training to deescalate situations without turning to deadly force. Everyone pulled their weight but when I got all the parts and attempted to put them together, one guy's entire section talked about how part of the problem is "blacks" who don't meet cops half way. I not only had to edit out the racism, but now our paper is too short so I had to do more research and add so we could turn it in the following Monday.
Check out "The Horrible Nightmare Group Project" by Jaiden Animations.
I have no idea why group projects are so popular with professors. These were all very long ago. 4 people, all engr students, 2 do all the work, 2 goof off. They did show up to the presentation, but did not say anything. How could they? They had done nothing. We were to grade ourselves and the other members. We got A's they got D's. Another time one member was a teacher at a high school in a town 1 hour each each way from the university. Had a big presentation at his school. he was responsible for. Another member had more than one class all with group projects as well and a part time job. I did most of the work and got marked down for it.
At work, group projects were always good. Everyone did their job, everyone was supportive as I did mine. I believe the difference is because 1) motive as you would be fired if you didn't pull your weight and 2) we were all experts in our fields. So we all went off and did our thing and coordinated as required. Also, we were at work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with the occasional exception for paid time off. Which we could compensate for. Most of the team was in a group in one part of the building so you could yell over the cubicle walls, hey! what about.....
Load More Replies...The only way a group project is fair is to do it in class. Teachers assuming that students are able to meet outside of work and organize that kind of thing is not fair. And the only other way to make it work is if half the grade comes from students grading the effort/participation of other students. Then it's simple.
Are group projects a big thing in the US? Here in the Uk, I don't remember doing any group projects and certainly not in uni! Maybe some small stuff in High school but it didn't count towards grades!? That's crazy to have to rely on other people for your own grades!
They do occur fairly frequently in the US, for some reason.
Load More Replies...My mom was taking a community college course a couple years ago and had to do a group project. *I* did more work for that project than two of the group members (one dropped out, one was useless) and I wasn’t even in the class! I mean they did most of the legwork but I spent so long fixing their PowerPoint for them.
When I was in 5th grade we had to do a science powerpoint and I was partnered with one of my friends so I was excited. Well turns out she was a horrible partner, did nothing, and when I went to do the index at the end in alphabetical order she decided now was a great time to "help". She rearranged the words and mixed up the definitions ON PURPOSE. She then copied the ruined index, which, by the way, is supposed to be alphabetical, and pasted it nonstop while I tried fixing it. I lost my cool, unshared the PowerPoint with her and finished on my own. I then apoligized TO HER and we didn't even have to present it...
Another really annoying thing is group members who hijack all the work and when you meet up to put it together, they've already done your part. F**k those people too.
I never did the projects with a group. Failed the writing course. Went on to be a longtime commentator to dozens of social media sites.
In college, a member of the group project decided he would do the introduction, table of contents, and summary of the presentation, which is really just reiterating what everyone else says. Luckily, it was one of those quease-inducing grade-your-classmates sort of projects. I caved and gave him 80% because I was just glad it was over, but his friend who ended up doing all his work for him gave him the lowest possible grade at 20%. The world needs more people like this lazy drip’s friend.
I've done my fair share of solo projects because of work. I made it clear at the start I am going solo if I knew my schedule is going to be crazy. Yeah I got marked down for some of it, especially in college. Some lecturers did not think that some of us need to work full time just to live and afford the next tuition. I still graduated though regretfully the grades did not reflect my abilities. But by then I've already had build enough rapport to land a job from freelance work in the related area (writing software).
I am the person that does all the work no one helps and I am the "artist" so apparently I can do it by myself easily yea of coarse my ADD ADHD Dyscalculia and OCD won't get in the way 🙄
We did a group project few years back. We had a great time and everyone contributed. It was related to tourism so did some travelling too. Loved it. Can't believe there are people out there who don't do anything in a group project and then act like victims or come up with a bag of excuses.
i don't remember the last time i had a group project. i blame pandemic
Has there ever been a group project EVER where everyone pulled their weight? My teachers would say “it’ll teach you how to work together”. Nope. It taught me there are jerks everywhere who will take advantage of and credit for other’s hard work.
this was during online class so even better oportunities to get away from computer and not have anyone notice i was the ONLY ONE DOING THE WORK AND I WAS SHARING THE ANSWERS WITH THEM (it was a thanksgiving themed escape room thing with a google form) THEY DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING I WAS PULLING ALL THE WEIGHT AND GETTING ALL PISSED. eventually the teacher came and i was let out early since i did so much work. never ever sharing answers with people again in group projects like that. if they don't want to help? they can fail
Load More Replies...When I was 11 we had a group project, I was with two other girls who were "friends" when it suited them/if I was useful. Because of my insecurity and all this other stuff, I'd always just taken it so I wasn't alone. We had to make a 3d mobile with facts about bees and pollination. Well on the day before it's due (they'd avoided me all week) I said when are we doing this; the laughed and said ur not in our group any more. I panicked so asked teacher if I could do mine on my own(she knew what'd happened and said yes). Well, I turn up next day with a large bee with flowers under it, really cool (mum helped lol as I had one day and got screwed over). And the two girls? They had a coat hanger with a few bits of wool holding scraps of paper with a few facts. They saw mine and were all "oh we were just kidding" etc. It was so hard to do but for the first time in my life I decided I was better off being alone than having them as fake friends. I presented mine alone, got top marks. They were...
...failed as it didn't meet criteria. And less than two weeks later I met my first real friend, who I stayed friends with for years. I don't see her much now she lives overseas. TLDR: 11yr old, kicked out of the project the night before, did my own one and got great grade, their project failed.
Load More Replies...I feel like most sane people have this experience atleast once in life. Recently, two guys from my class and I were responsible for teaching a topic to the class using GSlides, Forms and mindmaps. The third guy didn't join us for discussion and asked us to pick whatever we wanted him to take up. Literally no communication until 5 minutes before the presentation, where he informs the other guy, he can't do one of the two tiny topics we chose for him. The icing on the cake was definitely the part where he pulled a no-show to class
my hubs went to college in his 40s and graduated summa cum laud- he's a very smart guy who puts in the work. He had a group project with a 20 year old. The guy wrote his part of the project and gave it to my husband the night before it was due. It was the worst thing I had ever seen! It was like he was in elementary school the writing was so terrible. I rewrote the whole paper so it didn't look like my husband's work. They got an A and the guy told my husband it was the 1st A he'd ever gotten in college and thanked him profusely. I'm sure he never got another.
I have to humble brag a little here lol. I was a horrible college student. I blame most of it due to immaturity and partly bc of an abusive relationship I was in that literally killed my will to do anything. However when it came to group projects even if it was the only assignment I did all semester, I did it since I didn’t think it was fair to have someone else work harder on my behalf. So I can at least say I was a shïtty student in my regard but not to others
When I was in the navy we were line handling as the ship was being tied up to the dock. I was number one so I was in the very front and five more guys were behind me. That day I noticed it was very hard to hold the line. I pulling with all my might but I was being pulled dangerously to the edge and I turned to look behind me and the five guys were staring at me like it was no big deal. Then I saw that between me and the number two guy there was a huge dip in the line and it was only me who was actually trying to hold the huge ship from drifting. I sure swore my head off at them to take in the slack and help.
Years ago, there were 8 of us in Modern Philosophy class. We were meant to work on a paper in pairs, but three friends wanted to work together on a 10-page paper. The other pairs were a couple, and two friends. I was delighted to work alone. I could write more, do proper research, and got an A on Lyotard. It was great.
God... I did a group project with this girl. This was the second time I was doing it, the first day she texted us at FREAKING 12 AM THE DAY BEFORE WE WERE SUPPOSED TO PRESENT and said "sry I can't come" and then left the chat. So we had to present with one of my friends which was a lucky catch. We got a C on that project because her [girl who ghosted us]'s storyline was crap. The second time I worked with her was when we were partners. We were supposed to do a powerpoint and then she just did NOTHING. Not even a single word on the 30 slide project. I ended up making everything myself, and because I'm a petty person, I deleted her name from the slideshow entirely and added a credits page with my name in bold on it. She was a complete asshole. Oh yeah I ended up telling the teacher about this idiot and the teacher was chill about it. She gave me full credit and this girl got nothing. TL;DR: Annoying girl ghosts group project and doesn't show up, second time doesn't write a single word. Ends up getting an F.
That wasn’t petty, that was deserved. She did nothing, she didn’t deserve credit.
Load More Replies...They always say it’s to teach you to work together and IT DOES! It teaches you there are slackers everywhere, you can’t trust anyone and if you want to succeed at work, you need to pull your own weight and kick the slackers to the curb.
Ooh I have a good story. I had just moved to a new school. In my homeroom class, they were doing projects for a topic they had been studying for over a month. Welp I just got put with a random group, none of my teammates did any of their work except one of them did like half a slide, and so even though it was my first week of school there I finished the entire project the night before presenting, AND HOLD ON IT GETS BETTER, when it was time to present they wouldn't even stand up in front of the class. Like, I'm new here and I'm willing to present on a topic that I know little about. So we had to stay after class to present. And I did most of the presenting as well.
Also if anyone cares the topic was mental health disorders so we'd have more mental health awareness, and our group was presenting on OCD
Load More Replies...I had a girl do this to me when we had a group project on the Evolution of Terrorism. She'd meet for 5 minutes, asked me to do the outline, slides, reading and such and then leave. I refused to do slides, but I read everything and gave her a very vague outline. I also went to the professor ahead of time and told him what was going on. He told me to let her do her presentation..don't help her..and don't tell her what grade I got. She came up to me later "Can you believe he gave us a C on that presentation?" "Yeah..I know it sucks" I say as I tuck away my paper with an A- on it. She was kick out the next semester after she tried to pass someone else's work off as her own. Oh hey, that was also my Stats analysis report she stole that got her kicked out.
Oh my gosh group projects during online school were the absolute worst ever! We had to do the project through collaborating in breakout rooms and nobody- absolutely nobody- would talk. I didn't know any of them very well, and so I ended up doing all of the project. The day of the presentation, nobody in my group helped me present. Halfway through, my wifi cut out in the middle of the video I was sharing. Believe it or not, nobody opened up the slides to finish the presentation while I was fixing the wifi. Never do group projects with people you don't know!!!!
Aaaaannnnndddd this is why I always either (a) work by myself, or (b) pair up with the smart kid if I have a choice.
We had a group paper defending the need for police reform and better training to deescalate situations without turning to deadly force. Everyone pulled their weight but when I got all the parts and attempted to put them together, one guy's entire section talked about how part of the problem is "blacks" who don't meet cops half way. I not only had to edit out the racism, but now our paper is too short so I had to do more research and add so we could turn it in the following Monday.
Check out "The Horrible Nightmare Group Project" by Jaiden Animations.
I have no idea why group projects are so popular with professors. These were all very long ago. 4 people, all engr students, 2 do all the work, 2 goof off. They did show up to the presentation, but did not say anything. How could they? They had done nothing. We were to grade ourselves and the other members. We got A's they got D's. Another time one member was a teacher at a high school in a town 1 hour each each way from the university. Had a big presentation at his school. he was responsible for. Another member had more than one class all with group projects as well and a part time job. I did most of the work and got marked down for it.
At work, group projects were always good. Everyone did their job, everyone was supportive as I did mine. I believe the difference is because 1) motive as you would be fired if you didn't pull your weight and 2) we were all experts in our fields. So we all went off and did our thing and coordinated as required. Also, we were at work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with the occasional exception for paid time off. Which we could compensate for. Most of the team was in a group in one part of the building so you could yell over the cubicle walls, hey! what about.....
Load More Replies...The only way a group project is fair is to do it in class. Teachers assuming that students are able to meet outside of work and organize that kind of thing is not fair. And the only other way to make it work is if half the grade comes from students grading the effort/participation of other students. Then it's simple.
Are group projects a big thing in the US? Here in the Uk, I don't remember doing any group projects and certainly not in uni! Maybe some small stuff in High school but it didn't count towards grades!? That's crazy to have to rely on other people for your own grades!
They do occur fairly frequently in the US, for some reason.
Load More Replies...My mom was taking a community college course a couple years ago and had to do a group project. *I* did more work for that project than two of the group members (one dropped out, one was useless) and I wasn’t even in the class! I mean they did most of the legwork but I spent so long fixing their PowerPoint for them.
When I was in 5th grade we had to do a science powerpoint and I was partnered with one of my friends so I was excited. Well turns out she was a horrible partner, did nothing, and when I went to do the index at the end in alphabetical order she decided now was a great time to "help". She rearranged the words and mixed up the definitions ON PURPOSE. She then copied the ruined index, which, by the way, is supposed to be alphabetical, and pasted it nonstop while I tried fixing it. I lost my cool, unshared the PowerPoint with her and finished on my own. I then apoligized TO HER and we didn't even have to present it...
Another really annoying thing is group members who hijack all the work and when you meet up to put it together, they've already done your part. F**k those people too.
I never did the projects with a group. Failed the writing course. Went on to be a longtime commentator to dozens of social media sites.
In college, a member of the group project decided he would do the introduction, table of contents, and summary of the presentation, which is really just reiterating what everyone else says. Luckily, it was one of those quease-inducing grade-your-classmates sort of projects. I caved and gave him 80% because I was just glad it was over, but his friend who ended up doing all his work for him gave him the lowest possible grade at 20%. The world needs more people like this lazy drip’s friend.
I've done my fair share of solo projects because of work. I made it clear at the start I am going solo if I knew my schedule is going to be crazy. Yeah I got marked down for some of it, especially in college. Some lecturers did not think that some of us need to work full time just to live and afford the next tuition. I still graduated though regretfully the grades did not reflect my abilities. But by then I've already had build enough rapport to land a job from freelance work in the related area (writing software).
I am the person that does all the work no one helps and I am the "artist" so apparently I can do it by myself easily yea of coarse my ADD ADHD Dyscalculia and OCD won't get in the way 🙄
We did a group project few years back. We had a great time and everyone contributed. It was related to tourism so did some travelling too. Loved it. Can't believe there are people out there who don't do anything in a group project and then act like victims or come up with a bag of excuses.
i don't remember the last time i had a group project. i blame pandemic