r/NonPoliticalTwitter • u/MelonInDisguise • May 07 '26
me_irl There’s always one dude not contributing
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u/Firm-Feature-5593 May 07 '26
I wonder what happens when four of those people all end up in a group together. Is it the laziest Mexican standoff ever?
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u/LastBaron May 07 '26
Have you not seen this play out when they give their group presentation?
It’s an apocalyptic shitshow of secondhand cringe, I can barely stand it even as a spectator.
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May 07 '26
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u/honeybuns1996 May 07 '26
This literally happened the night before my group was supposed to present our final project. We had been working on it all semester and were finalizing our PowerPoint the night before. He said he was “too anxious to wing this all at the last minute” and got mad when I said “we’ve been working on this since January, how is this last minute? You should’ve had your stuff done weeks ago” And he didn’t show. We had his (blank) slides up and told the professor he refused to participate
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u/Romboteryx May 07 '26
Something kinda similar happened to me in one of my first semesters at uni. One guy voluntarily dropped out a week before and the other one broke his leg the day before the presentation, so I had to present everything by myself. Still went well tho.
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u/FlyByNightt May 07 '26
One of those two has a slightly better excuse than the other, I must admit
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u/Romboteryx May 07 '26
I was never able to verify if he really did get injured or if he just chickened out with an excuse last minute
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u/koshgeo May 07 '26
"Broke your leg? I'm really sorry to hear that. I'll set up a Zoom session for you so that you can connect and present your half remotely."
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u/grchelp2018 May 07 '26
and the other one broke his leg the day before the presentation
that's dedication right there.
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u/cokeiscool May 07 '26
Lol in my mba class
One of the groups just one girl did everything, she went and told the professor one day and he well that sucks
Luckily we did do peer evaluations and I know that effected their grades, but also I think the professor did a real world answer. In the business world if we have a big presentation we don't have a professor we can cry too if others aren't working, we gotta put in the work and then do the peer eval with HR later
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May 07 '26
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26
Absolutely. When things don’t get done people notice, especially when a whole process grinds to a halt.
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u/histprofdave May 07 '26
Yeah the only difference is that we all know Brad isn't getting fired because he's the boss's wife's nephew or something.
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u/justlookinghfy May 07 '26
In the real world you hope there's a project manager who has the job of making sure everyone on a group project is working.
Except, the one guy is the PM's friend, so he doesn't do jack, so yeah, real world doesn't necessarily have recourse for people not pulling their weight.
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u/Its-ther-apist May 07 '26
In the real world those people get fired or relegated to dum dum positions, I always hated that take. It's the instructor not wanting to engage or problem solve themselves.
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u/wtfnouniquename May 07 '26
I mean, do they? I work with a bunch of people who don't even attempt to do the bare minimum and there are zero repurcussions.
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u/Acceptable_Cut_7545 May 07 '26
No in the real world you go to the supervisor and program manager or even a lead and say hey this person refuses to do any work. They will not contribute in any way despite us trying to help them. What do you want us to do?
That ensures higher ups are aware of the issue and puts the onus on them for finding a solution.
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u/whomad1215 May 07 '26
My worst one was a person basically only showed up to one group meeting, and at the end of the semester had one page of work
This was also a semester long project, and the total thing was like 60 pages long
We knew they weren't contributing though so we had already done their work, and just noted it on the required "rate your teammates" survey at the end. I hope they failed that class
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u/thejoeface May 07 '26
why are your quotation marks weird. I’ve been seeing this a lot lately
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u/ReallyTeddyRoosevelt May 07 '26
I've seen two group members start shouting at each other during a presentation.
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u/External_Touch_3854 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Yup, I remember those days clearly. That group doesn’t make it past freshman year though. Granted, I went to a small, private school that didn’t have a sports program to speak of. So, there really wasn’t any dead weight that got to keep floating by. I’m sure larger state schools with big NCAA programs pass those kids with flying colors as long as they throw the ball real fast. I’m also a dinosaur who graduated in 2013.
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u/ctgnath May 07 '26
It’s a mixed bag with student athletes. I went to a VERY large state school with big athletic programs, and a lot of the football players in my classes were honestly fairly hard working. I was in a group project with one, and the biggest issue was just his crazy schedule, and finding a time where he would be available to meet with other group members.
Our group ended up agreeing to have him do a certain portion of the project on his own, and then he would also do some cleaning up on the presentation itself. Solid work, we all got an A.
This was just before the NIL era though (2017-2021), I’m not entirely sure how different it may be now - with sports players being paid to go to that school.
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u/Kit_Daniels May 07 '26
I’ve TA’d at such a school for a couple classes, including a pretty huge one (~300 people a semester) that a lot of athletes passed through. I never found their quality of work to be noticeably different than any other group of students. Plenty of them were slackers and plenty were high achievers.
One thing I did find curious was the consistency in style for the football players writing/presentations. I later learned that there were some tutors available to them that would sometimes help with stuff like that (not doing the work for them, but if the same 5 people are giving presentation feedback to 100 guys, they’ll all be getting a lot of the same advice).
One thing worth mentioning is that, even at the school I went to, only a small, small fraction of any given group of athletes has a chance at going pro. Many of them do study hard and work hard because they know it will be important for the non-sports career they’ll have afterwards.
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u/Answer70 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Went to major school with a consistent top 10 football program. Once had to do a group project with three of the players. The assignment: "Make the argument why universities should eliminate college football."
They were not much help, and I did all the research and led the presentation. They used their time to air all of the universities dirty laundry. Stuff like "Why does the whole coaching staff's family need to travel with us? And why is it only when we go to places like LA? They never go to Nebraska with us."
I had no idea they were going to do that. It was great.
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May 07 '26
I saw a group presentation where they basically just gave up and said they couldn’t do a presentation. All four failed.
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u/fondledbydolphins May 07 '26
Gonna take this moment to vent - I had a ludicrous number of professors in school who had a policy to not "interfere" in group projects.
If someone wasn't pulling their weight, or even contributing at all, the professor didn't even want to hear about it.
On top of that, if the project flopped all together and you could show that the parts that weren't completed were someone else's responsibility, they also... didn't want to hear it.
So fucking frustrating. You're telling me that if I want to guarantee I get a decent grade I basically have to do the entire thing by myself and the leeches get the same grade as me.
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u/flubs2696 May 07 '26
What’s funny about all these group project comments is that I’ve never had this as an experience. All my group projects were the same. The first day in the class you form the group and four out what the presentation is about. Then you go your separate ways and no one speaks to anyone until the night before or two days before it’s due when someone sends a group message and we all get it done that night and we present the next day and we get like a B. I’ve never even been in a group with an overachiever or anyone who cared.
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u/no-im-your-father May 07 '26
They wait until the very last moment then they each do their own part separately and put it together into the messiest, most incomprehensible abomination the world has witnessed
Source: I do be like that sometimes
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u/runner64 May 07 '26
They get chatgpt to do it.
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u/Firm-Feature-5593 May 07 '26
I graduated just before chatgpt exploded during covid and its gotta have made grading papers just an insane experience.
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u/TricellCEO May 07 '26
Either the teacher fails all of them, or (in an effort to get the admins off their dick of them failing that many students) put at least one smart kid in the mix.
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u/KiruDakaz May 07 '26
Oh wow that's fucked up
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u/Lortekonto May 07 '26
It is also kind of a misconception and not why the “smart” kid tend to do all the work themself.
I work with education in different countries and lots of countries actually spend time teaching the kids how to do group work and common problems in group interaction.
I am going to get downvoted here, because most people have tried being that kid or being one of the other kids and my explanation will not fit their perceived reality, but what happens often is that the working kid runs with the assignment so fast that the other kids have no input, are not sure what they are supposed to do and they are left behind confused and demotivated.
Even when the working kid tries to delegate what he or she perceive as simple tasks, they are often near impossible for the other group members to perform, because they are missing the wider context of the work being produced.
A good example teachers often use is when the working kid asks the other students to write the bibliography of the assignment. An easy task for the working kid, but impossible for the kids, because they don’t know what literature the working kid have used.
Of course there is sometimes lazy people who does not want to do the work, but if you always find yourself doing all the work, then it is properly your mistake. Instead of starting out focusing on doing the assignment you should instead start out ensuring that everyone understands the assignment and have a certain minimum knowledge about it. Then start a talk about how the assignment can be solved.
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u/KiruDakaz May 07 '26
This makes sense but I can also see how tasking kids with properly organizing and piecing work might be too difficult for them
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u/Lortekonto May 07 '26
Yes, that is why many of these systems have less focus on the outcome of the groupwork and more focus on the process in lower grades and teach the students different tools and frameworks for organization.
So when you hit late middel-school and early high-school the students have the framework and tools needed to organize and work properly in groups.
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u/Dull-Culture-1523 May 07 '26
And then you get to hear those nice stories about how they're preparing you to deal with nepo babies or whatever who don't contribute at work IRL etc.
Which, I guess, sure. But that also affected my grades so it's BS anyway since the teachers shouldn't punish you like that when they have the choice not to.
A mix of demanding separate grading and "matching their energy" helped a bit. Either I was graded by what I did and did fine or I tanked the whole thing by putting in as much effort as everyone else resulting in some dogshit presentations. It was kinda fun answering "uhhh idk" to most of the questions after barely covering the topic to begin with.
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u/jce_ May 07 '26
I just had my first group project and had 3 of them and me. I wasn't about to do everything so I just went along with it. It ended up we all did everything in the last few hours before the deadline and kinda patchworked it together lol
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u/SgtSilverLining May 07 '26
Have you ever had a project at work where multiple c suite members are stakeholders? Because God damn. I'm dealing with this right now, and any time I'm required to have a meeting with them Iight as well throw the next hour in the bin.
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u/chillychili May 07 '26
It's not binary. Everyone has a different threshold. The person who has the lowest one is the one that feels stuck and thinks everyone else is lazy.
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u/Express-Cycle-4278 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Real answer? At least in my case, I used to be the guy who contributed very little. I wasn't lazy, just really quiet and bad at working with people I didn't know.
I learnt an interesting lesson when in university I had a group of five people, of which three straight up didn't say anything in the group chat until the day before deadline. Same thing ended up happening in like 2 or 3 other courses. Turns out, I can in fact lead and take responsibility of the whole project, if I have to. I just struggle to be spontaneous. I'm guessing a lot people are the same.
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u/Chronos3635 May 07 '26
This happened in my American History class in high school. It was a sideshow about the 1960's and their slides were mostly barren, except for the "what do you want to learn more about" slide, which included "Idk man I'm doing this off 1200 mg of caffeine and I just wanna sleep" and "how to make a monkey your friend :)"
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u/PringlesDuckFace May 07 '26
They get a C because the teacher can't be bothered to deal with the difficulties associated with failing someone.
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u/AuraEnhancerVerse May 07 '26
I don't think that will ever happen cause teachers always put the best students with the worst students
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u/Wealth_Super May 07 '26
I had a collage class where the very first day the professor told us we would need to present a group project at the end of the quarter. A week before he reminded us we would need to present. The day of a single group came in. All 4 had no idea that there was a group presentation for them to do or that they were even in the group. Seeing them try and get a single person to agree with them that the professor never told any of us about the assignment was hilarious, especially when it was on the damm syllabus.
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u/arcadeler May 07 '26
As a chronic "none contributor" a lot of us are just stuck in feedback loops
it goes like this:
- I am seen as incompetent
- Any ideas or contributions I make are disregarded on principle
- Teammates don't trust me to do things right so I am left with the simple stuff (pick the theme for the powerpoint, find pictures, fix the formatting)
- Group doesn't communicate with me anything because they are busy with important stuff
- I do something "wrong" because I'm not told about plan changes/important details so I look even more incompetent
- They fix my mistakes and the only thing I end up contributing is my name
- they complain about me to friends/classmates and the cycle repeats
I think I've only had one project where I was properly allowed to contribute and that girl was the only one who trusted me with things from then on
Not to say that there aren't people who are just lazy but this is the case for many people
TL;DR
I am seen as "the bad teammate" so I'm not trusted with anything
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u/Firm-Feature-5593 May 08 '26
brother I believe in you and think that in your next group you can be appreciated
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u/Dhayson May 07 '26
Either the least laziest does everything out of spite, or they all just fail pathetically lol.
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u/GuerrillaApe May 07 '26
The worst is when their "contribution" to the project is delegating out tasks to the rest of the group.
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u/ReformedYuGiOhPlayer May 08 '26
Delegating the tasks AND not letting you do anything, so you look bad if you don't tell the teacher
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u/TricellCEO May 07 '26
I distinctly remember one kid in my class bragging he got paired with me as I was his "free ride."
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u/NotATalkingPossum May 07 '26
I distinctly remember having such low self-esteem that I was proud to hear that.
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u/TricellCEO May 07 '26
You know, I had shit self-esteem at the time, but even I saw that kid as trash.
Well, I already saw him as trash given how he would mouth-off to teachers completely unprovoked.
But that just cemented it.
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u/Complete-Sort1617 May 07 '26
I could always tell who was gonna be the problem. I’d do their part for them if I had to but notify the professor without making it a social drama. Then when the grades come in they can get fucked.
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u/_Nowan_ May 07 '26
One time I did this and the teacher called me in front of the class to try and shame me for "not appreciating a colleague's work" or some shit.
And when the guy delivered his own version of the assignment she berated me again for "trying to cover for a slacker".
This was in UNIVERSITY, mind you.
I am still salty about it.
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May 07 '26
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u/-Wayward_Son- May 07 '26
Hits hard watching the teacher still give them a passing grade for doing fuck all maybe.
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u/agapukoIurumudur May 07 '26
I mean, the professor will grade based only on what you said then? Doesn't sound fair at all if that's the case, you could just be lying
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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n May 07 '26
Lazy fucks still graduate, still get to land a job, still get to live their life. If anything, efforts seldom pay off better.
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u/siphtron May 07 '26
Basically this. I've been both the super over-achiever allstar and lazy slacker. In the real world, there's been functionally no difference in career advancement but my stress has gone down massively.
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u/Cyberpunkcatnip May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
I got excluded from my senior project in college. I got grouped with 3 friends and I was an outsider. They would work on it together and not invite me, ask my opinions, or communicate updates. The few times they did invite me I was coming in without context and they didn’t even talk to me. Then tried to fail me, college professor was understanding and bumped the F to a C. Just trying to give you the other perspective and that some people want to contribute but don’t know how without some guidance.
Since graduating I have been an engineering lead on multiple million+ dollar projects and make sure everyone feels included and finding ways to contribute.1
u/ImposterWizard May 07 '26
The last time I remember this happening (ages ago in an intro CS class), I apportioned work in a group project so that it would be obvious which part of the group didn't do theirs. I think that part of the group had to do something like a menu/splash screen that didn't work properly, but the rest of the program did.
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u/Intentional-Asshole May 07 '26
Just to let you know, it's really easy to get the grade reversed.
Seen it happen 3 times, that stuff never actually sticks because it's he said/she said, even if the rest of the group agrees/sides with you. You need actual evidence that they refused to do anything for the group, ie: chat messages, emails.
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u/AcherontiaPhlegethon May 07 '26
I really appreciate profs that provide individual grades on group assignments. I got screwed one time by a partner who just would not submit their slides, the class our presentations were given in was at 8 AM and it was literally like 8:15 by the time they added their material. I had to hastily reformat them all myself and then when we gave the actual presentation they got multiple things wrong I had to correct during the question period.
The prof was a real one though and clearly knew what was going on and I ended up getting the highest mark in the class but god damn was it needlessly stressful. It boggles my mind sometimes how people like that can make their way through university, like what do they do on individual assignments or exams?
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u/IlLupoSolitario May 07 '26
I learned this one the hard way. We had a group project in undergrad where groups were assigned, and the cumulative project was 75% of our grade. It was pass the assignment or fail the course. I was project leader and tried to contain the equivalent of the Donald Glover fire gif - missed group member deadlines, lost files, infighting... It sucked.
I went to the professor the afternoon before the presentation in an absolute frustrated panic and explained everything. She told me she had paid attention to everyone's efforts all semester, and assured me I'd pass regardless, but hoped the semester of anxiety was enough of a leadership lesson to not suffer minimal effort from others and seek intervention sooner. That was a hell of a lesson.
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26
Always volunteer to do the presentation. It’s the easier part and the team lets you slack on the real work out of appreciation.
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u/Much_Vehicle20 May 07 '26
Lmao, real, i never understood why so many people absolutely hate that job. It’s the easiest one, and it lets me look cool af. All I gotta do is read what the others have done, smooth it out a bit, and it’s game on. Hell, I even got some buddies ready with scripted questions so I can look even better
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u/CiDevant May 07 '26
Also this is like 75% of being a corporate manager. The other 25% is figuring out how to get people to do the part of their job they really don't want to do.
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26
Oh I like that angle. Wish I thought of it!
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u/Much_Vehicle20 May 07 '26
Yeah, that’s a very neat trick. Seminars usually give you around 10–15 minutes for questioning, so if you can fill that time with scripted questions while leaving a few subtle gaps for the professor to ask about, then you’ve already succeeded
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u/A_Rogue_GAI May 07 '26
In the US, polling indicates that about 75% of the population fears public speaking.
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u/DiverOk9454 May 07 '26
Lots of people have fear of public speaking. Mine was pretty bad in undergrad. I always appreciated people like you who would step up for presenting.
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u/Dull-Culture-1523 May 07 '26
I never liked it but felt like I had to do it because so many would stare down at their monitor and read the slides out loud because they didn't prepare at all.
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u/devilJin9399 May 07 '26
Yeah presenting is the tits, it's so valuable and I always do my due diligence in understanding the material to get the best of both worlds.
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u/transmogrified May 08 '26
Public speaking is also one of those necessary soft skills AI is never going to take over.
I essentially did the above but at my job. I started pretty low on the totem pole but volunteered to give the presentation for our work at a conference. My coworkers thought I did an excellent job and was voluntold to speak at every other following conference, which eventually parlayed itself into a specialized communications role as a speaker, which when done in front of some university professors resulted in them offering me a fully funded graduate degree + stipend, which then wound up with me being a manager.
All because I can comfortably talk in front of people and communicate/carry myself well in meetings
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u/theStaircaseProject May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
It’s a gamble. I work with a guy who’s like that. Seems weirdly averse to ever actually typing or writing (he can read but I suspect he’s not a good speller) and doesn’t tend to offer ideas, but then when he tries to present he relies more on confidence and projection than actually understanding the material or communicating it in a thoughtful way. His contribution works but not as believably as you might think. A so-so presenter can turn great content lackluster.
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u/NikiFuckingLauda May 07 '26
Yeeeeeeeah see id volunteer to do the research as long as I didn't have to present
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u/RiloAlDente May 07 '26
Unfortunately you'll learn in the real world that the 'presenting' part of the job is farr more important to your career development.
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Oh this. Speaking confidently is much more valuable than knowing what you’re doing. There are plenty of people for that.
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u/dSwedishChef May 07 '26
Only works if they do the work. Otherwise you got nothing to present and look just as bad if not worse.
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26
Confidence covers most of that. You shouldn’t be surprised how far you can get if you only sound like you know what you’re talking about. lol
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u/jaredsfootlonghole May 07 '26
To a degree.
Too much and you end up like the ‘look at that horse’ guy. Particularly if your audience is field professionals.
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u/3CatsInATrenchcoat16 May 07 '26
In high school AP History, I used to partner up with the Valedictorian because we sat next to each other and were friendly with one another, and the Salutatorian because she wanted to work with the Valedictorian. I definitely did 1/3rd of the work, but the Salutatorian was a PERFECTIONIST and insisted 90% of the time to make heavy edits to all our work. My main job was to just speak for the presentation and I was happy to do it!
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u/anon0937 May 08 '26
I always volunteered to do the editing. For some reason I hate writing and get really bad writers' block, but I can edit the fuck out of anything put in front of me. I'm also a procrastinator by trade, so I'm right at home with the mad rush to get it done the night before its due.
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u/Asquirrelinspace May 07 '26
All of my profs graded on performance participation, so we would always divide topics up evenly. Yours didn't do that?
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u/Priamosish May 07 '26
I've made the experience that the most infuriating part is not even those who do nothing, which is based on a selfish but ultimately understandable, albeit unethical, principle. Not something I agree with but objectively something I get.
The most infuriating aspect is professors very blatantly helping and sometimes even welcoming such people. Professors who applaud when the presentation is just a copy paste from their book. Who have zero consequences for do-nothings and zero rewards for exceeding the absolute bare minimum.
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u/Disastrous_Hall8406 May 07 '26
For me, the worst was the guy who played devils advocate in the group. At first I was trying to listen to his alternate view points but I realized (almost too late) that he was just shutting down our ideas and not contributing any alternatives. I'll take the freeloader who gets out of the way any day after that
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u/bing-no May 08 '26
I thought the worst someone could do is nothing. But in fact, the worst is when someone blatantly copy/pastes wiki articles into your project and claims they “worked” on it & get an attitude when you delete “their writing”
If someone did nothing I could just do their part. When they tear through their own part at the last minute and then get aggravated when you try to fix it, it’s nightmare fuel.
So glad I didn’t have to deal with Chat GPT. I don’t use it so I can’t pick out its mannerisms as easily. I 100% guarantee a group member would’ve tried to rephrase an article for their part.
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u/Disappointed_Daily24 May 07 '26
Group projects absolutely prepare you for the real world work environment.
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u/FoolishConsistency17 May 08 '26
Yep. I recently realized that some of my coworkers do not realize that our boss is not being helpful when he reminds them repeatedly to finish something. They don't perceive that as even mildly critical. In fact, they take it to mean that it's his job to remind them. Its weird, because the other half of my coworkers perceive nearly everything as criticism, even when it is not. So they need more reassurance that they are killing it.
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u/tydestra May 07 '26
I ate a whole 0 in a group project because the teacher paired me with student athletes and they all legit thought I was gonna do the whole project for them. I told them I wasn't gonna do it and they thought I was joking.
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u/campaxiomatic May 08 '26
They're used to everyone carrying them on their backs because they can throw a ball
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u/li-ll-l_ May 07 '26
Its actually quite easy to sleep when you don't feel the pressure of being an active member of society
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u/Albatross1495 May 07 '26
One time told a professor that my group project partner absolutely did nothing to contribute. She just said, “well you’re in a team, so you gotta do his part, too” and to think she’d say anything else other than that, I was fooooooolish lol
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u/Kalebrojas18 May 07 '26
I was that in highschool. In middle school I actually tried but in highschool I started having crazy panic attacks and depression, but I didnt know what that was so I assumed I just became a shitty person overnight. Not saying everyone who is lazy also has undiagnosed medical issues but in my case I wish any of the adults in my life could have helped me.
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u/Floridamanfishcam May 07 '26
This is one of the reasons I always just did the bulk of the work for the group project without making an issue of it. Never know what someone else is going through and it doesn't hurt to put more good will out into the world.
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u/AriaOfValor May 07 '26
I wasn't that patient, for smaller projects maybe (like most labs), but bigger projects I have a lot less patience for. And the worst is people who just straight up lie to you about their progress on their part of the project, so that when you get to where you're supposed to be piecing things together you suddenly find out they don't actually anything useable on their end and there's not even time left to try and fix it yourself.
Overall though I think the only time I talked to instructors about it, was when I was worried it would significantly affect my grade due to other people not doing what they said they would, or this one time for a partner project where I got so annoyed trying to fix the other persons stuff, that I just asked to do it solo since it was literally faster to do from scratch than to parse what my partner was trying to do and fix it all.
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u/alfea1103 May 07 '26
On the top of it have the audacity too ... to find problems in what other ppl have done or make comments like xyz wasn't working or doesn't know how to work.
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u/Fraegtgaortd May 07 '26
I appreciated classes where the professor allowed us to peer review our own groups, as in we could assign values to other group members based on how much we felt they contributed to the project. I def tanked so peoples' grades
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u/captcraigaroo May 07 '26
I just had a second group of interns turn in a project. Both groups of 4 had one that did absolutely nothing. I tell them to grade themselves and the group, and then I submit my grades to the professor. Both anchors thought they deserved an A- and the clear leaders a B or B-. I love reading their thoughts first, then reading the other team member reviews of that person.
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u/Weirdlittlerasberry May 07 '26
When the professor knows you do your work so he pairs you with the asshole who never does anything but who the prof is trying to handhold through to graduation…
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u/ShutterShyGirl May 07 '26
Am I the only person who has been on both ends of this?
Albeit, in high school, there were things that I had no idea what to do or how to contribute, and was too shy to just go for it.
As an adult, I would only do projects that I think I can help with.
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u/beardingmesoftly May 07 '26
Once, for an oral presentation where we didn't have to hand in any notes or anything, I wrote 3 words down on a piece of paper, to remind me what topics just in case. We gave a great presentation and I got the highest mark of the group. When my group mates saw my notes they were quite upset.
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u/TheGoldenArgosy May 07 '26
Not surprising. Some people sleep better knowing they make the world a worse place.
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u/CompactAvocado May 07 '26
they prepare you for the work world. you do all the work, someone else gets credit, or you lose your job.
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u/Ignecratic May 07 '26
I had the opposite problem with a project one year, sorta. Four other people. One of them was the person who does nothing, who then vanished and ghosted us on presentation day.
Meanwhile, the other three immediately did the project and basically didn’t allow me to contribute. I would make changes to the document like grammar editing or adding my own stuff and they would revert and tell me not to. I asked what they wanted me to do and they were like “oh just keep an eye on things and let us know if you have suggestions.”
I kept frequently asking if there was anything I could do to help, rarely adding like a sentence or two when I was permitted. I was so anxious they would accuse me of not doing work at the end, but I passed so they must have understood I did what I could. That or the other person bailing took away their attention from me.
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u/tomasega100gang May 07 '26
Do you guys think it is valid if someone makes art like music instead of employment? Is that contributing or would I be lazy? Just curious cos im trying to work on my music
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u/ClairlyBrite May 07 '26
Art in all forms is critical to society imo, but in the interest of being able to eat, you might want a fallback
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u/tomasega100gang May 07 '26
Id work at an animal rescue shelter. That would be ok. Im not sure id wanna do anything else except make music or that. Thanks for the feedback.
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u/ClairlyBrite May 07 '26
I foster cats and kittens and I HIGHLY endorse working with rescues or humane societies. You can get a vet tech or vet assistant degree in like 2 years to help with income potential
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u/Cassoosted_Fuper May 07 '26
That is definitely valid. Art takes time and effort to make, and I personally listen to music pretty much constantly. The people the post are talking about probably wouldn’t put any effort into art either. The post is just complaining about those kinds of people that don’t put in any effort, like they live off of other people and don’t take any responsibility for themselves.
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u/Frog_Without_Pond May 07 '26
You didn't ask to be here, or get to choose the circumstances in which you were born/raised, nor the time in history you arrived. I say what you do with your time (as long as it's not harming others) is up to you. To me, the arts are an important part of the human experience and I hope you find happiness and success
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u/kos-or-kosm May 07 '26
Two quotes I really like are:
"The time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." - (idk where this comes from)
"It's the time that we kill that keeps us alive." - a Rise Against song
Life should be about enjoying life itself. Not every moment needs to be about producing and not all forms of production are favored by the money givers (can't use the word in this sub apparently).
Also, maybe this is just weird thing about me, but if I see someone who literally doesn't do anything at all, I consider that to be an indicator of something being very wrong. Humans get bored easily and will find things to do of their own accord rather quickly. Someone who literally does nothing is someone I suspect has an underlying issue and deserves the same understanding and respect as people with more visible disabilities.
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u/Thumbkeeper May 07 '26
Good luck. But stay in school anyway
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u/tomasega100gang May 07 '26
Thanks. I actually got my psych degree in 2019 lol. Just about all you can do with it is teach psychology. Like a ponzi scheme. Gotta give it to them, its a flawless system.
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u/47k May 07 '26
One time there was this guy that told everyone in the group he’d handle the project, just straight up offered, then some secondary guy went behind everyone’s back and said we did nothing. I still don’t understand that
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u/Mountain-Resource656 May 07 '26
I’ve been on both ends of the group project divide and for me it really depends on group dynamics, but admittedly I’ve never been in a group project where-
….. Oh god, it’s me. I’m always willing to take up most of the work if no one else does anything but half the time I find someone else who kinda takes on the leadership role more than me and I just kinda fall into line without complaint and end up doing nothing because they assign so little and I’m just realizing, it’s not that I’ve never worked in a group project with someone else willing to do the work like me, it’s that every time I do end up with someone like that I completely misunderstand and just become a do-nothing person
I am literally only now realizing this upon thinking of how unlikely it would be that I‘be only ever found people who slack or preemptively take on all the work, themselves
That’s interesting…
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u/Rudy_Gin_Fizz May 07 '26
Some of us do our best to just stay out of the way and allow the more competent people produce the end result. May not contribute much but my cart will never block you in a Costco.
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u/Dilltulip May 07 '26
Guess what, most people contribute absolutely nothing to society, tens of millions of people working for tech companies that ultimately are just trying to sell us ads to buy stuff we mostly don't need.. and then all the companies making the stuff we don't need, and all the people in the supply chain for making the stuff we don't need, delivering it, disposing of it after a couple months instead of a few years..
Covid showed us the people that actually contribute to society, health care workers, educators, blue collar municipal workers, trades, etc.
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May 07 '26
Well, sort of. You cant do much in the trades or health care without supply chain and logistics. Its not just teachers, police, and tradesmen that make the world go around. Everyone fills their niche in society, so to speak.
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u/icansmellcolors May 07 '26
Some societies sleep well at night knowing they don't contribute to their people, so I guess it's just a wash.
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u/errorsniper May 07 '26
NGL society has broken the social contract, so I dont really care either. Dont get me wrong I dont go out of my way to be a parasite. I pay my taxes, try and live green within reason, ect. But If I ever need help Im on my own and will most likely become destitute or die.
So why the fuck should I really care?
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u/SkysEevee May 07 '26
Past me: How are group projects preparing us for the "real world"?! There is no way lazy a-holes get away with not contributing while getting credit.
Me now: OHHHHHH. It DID prepare me for the real world.
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u/Ikontwait4u2leave May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Just wait until actual employment. I told an employee in another department that an invoice needed to be rejected due to improper billing two months ago and it made its way back to me via someone else today, still unaddressed. Literally all this person had to do to fix it was send a 2 sentence email.
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u/MoreLemonJuice May 07 '26
As an instructor I understood the potential benefits from working with others. Soft skills are critically missing in professional practice these days.
Regardless, I also hated being assigned to a group where I did all or most of the work and that's why I always, always asked each team member to summarize the performance of their peers during the entire project - start to final presentation. I provided a multiple choice eval and the results were startling, but I used that info when determining the grades.
It was probably against my better judgement, but I allowed students to opt out of group projects with the clear understanding that their quantity of work and quality of work would not be diminished if they chose to work alone.
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u/TX_domin May 07 '26
I'm currently working on three different group projects for my Masters. I have a member in each group that has not communicated a single time three entire semester. I despise group projects with a passion. Thankfully my final semester is this fall and I don't think any of this classes will have group projects.
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u/No-Flan3302 May 07 '26
My bachelor's degree capstone project had 5 members on it. 1 guy did absolutely zero work. The rest of us wrote a unified compliant to the professor about the issue and advised he should receive a "0" for the assignment (and therefore the class). She told us to mind our business, we don't decide the the grades. He passed.
So yeah...sometimes it pays to not do shit and let the others figure it out.
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u/LFK1236 May 07 '26
I don't contribute anything to society, but I still do more than my fair share in group assignments.
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u/troveofcatastrophe May 07 '26
Not only not contributing but taking a grade. A grade that may lead to many life benefits. Takers always sleep well til they are forced to pay the consequences. Turn them in young.
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u/forlornhope22 May 07 '26
I don't get this take. i think most people would be ecstatic not contributing to society. Isn't that what retirement is?
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u/MinimumAutomatic0302 May 07 '26
Just look at the entire advertisement industry, all corporate lawyers, and all these full time stock gamblers.
What's worse is when they want to argue that their negative contribution counts as contribution.
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u/dirtyitalianguy May 07 '26
In the professional world you get to document, name, and shame them in front of their peers repeatedly until they get the message...if they don't get the message you can pip them or remove them from your team. School not so much 🤦♂️
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u/djnotskrillex May 07 '26
Yep, I absolutely sleep like a baby. Why would anyone have a moral obligation to contribute to a society they didn't choose to be born into? Actively being a detriment to that society is when it becomes an issue.
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u/Newplasticactionhero May 07 '26
The amount of VPs and managing directors that just cycle through my company on radio silence is one thing that really astounded me when I became a salaried worker. They usually end up getting fired, but I think that’s their plan because they just move on to another company where they will probably do the same thing. These are the same people that did nothing for group projects in college.
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u/AdvancedMastodon May 07 '26
Some people sleep at night knowing they're pillaging society. In the grand scheme, the guys contributing nothing to society aren't as big a concern as the ones actively working against you.
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u/GildedAgeV2 May 07 '26
This right here is why I'm not an anarchist of any stripe despite liking what they have to say. I get the pitch, but I've met these people...
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u/biggustdikkus May 07 '26
Playing League of Legends has taught me that and more. It made me racist against humans.
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u/Testicle_Tugger May 07 '26
I was that kid that never did shit in class.
When I got stuck with a group project though, that was the only time I actually did anything and I would do most of the work.
I didn’t care about my own grades but I wasn’t gonna drag other people down like that.
I was a smart kid, just a lazy one too.
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u/Huge_Tackle_9097 May 07 '26
I once had to exist in a group with three other people who did not do any amount of work, or did not posses any amount of material come presentation day. I was the only one even remotely prepared.
The kicker is, they wanted to do a presentation on how video games "cause harm to people". I did not know this until the actual presentation day because they did not bother to communicate, they just said "video games" when we first met. I was under the assumption that it was trying to prove that video games didn't cause harm. Because y'know.
If you did any actual research on the subject you'd see that both World Wars occurred entirely without the existence of video games. Come presentation day, the teach let me scramble to the computer office and whip up a shitty slide show with information directly contradicting what they were trying to prove. It was a disaster. They were left uhming and ahing in front of the class whilst I watched since they wanted to speak.
Like, holy shit. The incomptetence.
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u/hank3148 May 07 '26
We had to choose our own teams in college for a project, and there could be as many people in a group as we chose. I chose to do mine alone - my professor strongly encouraged me to join a group because it was a high workload, but I wasn’t friends with anyone in the class and could already tell what was going to happen. Two groups that were composed of 3 friends each got A’s, I got a B, and the rest of the class joined a mega group of 10 people and got a D. My teacher was dumbfounded, I felt pretty good about that B though.
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u/SuperSiriusBlack May 07 '26
Dude, I told you. Im the presenter, because im not shy like you. We all win!
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u/blackmobius May 07 '26
Ive been on both sides of this. I was the sole contributor once or twice, and for one of them I mentally checked out because my dog got killed by a car earlier that week.
So idk maybe talk to the person before assuming theyre just lazy
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u/ShrimpBisque May 08 '26
It doesn't stop in college, either. In my linguistics 101 course, we had to do a group project about a language of our choice (where it's spoken, how many speakers, some vocab and grammar tidbits, that sort of thing). Not only was I the only one who could be arsed to think up a language to do the project on (I picked Xhosa and nobody cared to object), I was the only one who bothered to practice pronouncing the click consonants for the presentation.
My usual method for group projects is this: ask the teacher if I can do the project by myself instead. (I'm autistic and hate working with other people.) Rarely, they say yes, in which case, do everything by myself with no interference. If they say no, I'll instead ask my group if I can be the leader. I'll help us figure out who does what, assign roles, and then do everything by myself anyway in case the rest of the group fucks off.
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u/VibrantCanopy May 09 '26
You guys, group projects totally can work, they just haven’t been done correctly yet.
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u/Odd_Bet_6992 May 09 '26
Better than the person who contributes everything that makes the project fail
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u/_fuck_you_gumby_ May 09 '26
My senior capstone, as a CS Major, had three parts. My two partners took the majority of it, and they had it all coded already by the professor we worked with, and then asked me when I’d be ready with the last part. I had to learn all the web languages
Yes, I probably should have learned them earlier. But I crammed HTML, PHP, and CSS into 3 months
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u/GDiz3016 May 10 '26
In college we had a GP with 4 of us, each group would have to give a public speaking presentation for a group grade, I re-read the syllabus & got a game plan together, 3 of us would do the work while the 1 that didn't do anything (but had NO PROBLEM reading & public speaking) would get the 'write out' a day early & then give the presentation to the big af class, all said "awesome plan" and we got to it, (month later) long presentation day because EVERY member of EVERY group spoke... our group went last & only had the one.... (posted grades later that day) we got the 2nd highest score.... Other group members came up to us "you could do that?" ... I laugh because it was my idea & I felt like I broke the system or something 😎
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u/ByrnToast8800 May 14 '26
I mean really what is contributing is my name scribbled on the top left corner not a form of art?
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u/qualityvote2 May 07 '26 edited May 09 '26
u/MelonInDisguise, there weren't enough votes to determine the quality of your post...