Group projects are a bit of a cursed prospect in many of our experiences. You often see some responsible people doing most ofthe work. Meanwhile, the rest of the group spends their time relaxing and definitely not contributing in any meaningful way. It’s frustrating!
However, some people decide to fight back against the injustice of it all. Redditor u/Draycos_Stormfangwent viralafter sharing how he publicly embarrassed his project partner, who had stubbornlyrefusedto pull their weight. Scroll down for the story in full. The author of the viral story,u/Draycos_Stormfang, was happy to share his thoughts about what happened. Read on forBored Panda’sinterview with him.
One of the most frustrating aspects of group projects is that some people refuse to pull their weight
Image credits:monkeybusiness / evanto (not the actual photo)
One student came up with a revenge plan after getting saddled with a lazy partner
Image credits:davidpereiras / evanto (not the actual photo)
Image source:Draycos_Stormfang
You can find free riders pretty much anywhere in society
Image credits:Ivan Samkov / pexels (not the actual photo)
According to the author of the post, there’s “not much you can do” if you’re saddled with lazy project partners in class who try to get everyone else to do the work for them.
“If your partners are true lazy bums, no amount of effort on your part will motivate them to do their own work,” u/Draycos_Stormfang shared his perspective with Bored Panda.
We were interested in getting the OP’s take on how someone can let go of anger against someone who’s wronged them instead of holding a grudge.
“If you’re not constantly interacting with the person you’re holding a grudge against, and it doesn’t really make a change in your daily life, my best advice is to just move on.”
The author said that he honestly “didn’t expect” the story to blow up so much on the internet.
“I read a lot of Petty Revenge posts, so I kinda know what people enjoy reading. But who ever thinks that THEIR story could get that attention?”
The reality is that you will never get to a perfectly equal situation where everyone’s doing the exact same amount of work. People have different work ethics and approaches to projects. However, you would expect that everyone would put in a significant amount of effort.
Alas! That’s not the case. Some folks refuse to put in any effort at all or do the absolute minimum. This means that other members of the group are left to shoulder most of the burden.
If the school or college group project is graded individually, then this is less of a problem. However, if the entire group of students is given a single grade, it means that anyone who’s lazy or unmotivated has more power.
This is because their fellow students, who want a decent grade, have to finish the entire project. The responsible individuals end up sacrificing their time and energy for the grade. Meanwhile, the free riders get a good grade without having to sacrifice much of anything. They simply show up.
Your partners need to know what’s expected from them, right off the bat
Image credits:Alexis Brown / unspalsh (not the actual photo)
First off, set expectations and deadlines as soon as you start working on the project so that everyone knows what they’re doing. If someone is maliciously missing deadlines or dumping their work on the rest of the group, talk to them about their behavior and lack of effort.
Try to be as diplomatic as you can. If you start accusing them of being lazy, they’ll get defensive and probably won’t feel inspired to help out in any way. Be willing to hear them out and get to grips with their perspective. Offer some sort of compromise going forward.
At the same time, don’t shy away from drawing some common sense boundaries either. It’s not up to you to fix the other person’s life and attitude so they’re suddenly brimming with love for school. Again, reiterate the expectations and explain what will happen if they keep avoiding their share of the work.
If your partner is at all reasonable, they’ll likely get a grip and change their approach. However, if they continue on the same path and you feel an unreasonable amount of stress from all of the extra work, it’s time to get serious.
Subtly reach out to your teacher or lecturer about the expectations for the group project. Ask them what they would personally do if someone was dodging their share of the work. Also, consider asking them to grade all of you individually.
It’s vital that you don’t let anger and resentment eat you up inside
Image credits:Oliver Ragfelt / unspalsh (not the actual photo)
It sometimes takes an authority figure to step in to set things right. They probably have more experience getting to the bottom of issues, including demotivation and a lack of effort at school.
At the end of the day, no school project is worth holding a grudge over. Yes, it’s frustrating. Yes, it’s unfair. But life is so full of unfairness and people who don’t pull their own weight.
If we don’t changehow we reactto them, we’ll constantly be livingin anger.
And chronic anger isjust awfulfor both our physical and mental health. So, we have to make a conscious effort to tackle the issues we can but also let go of matters outside of our control.
The author engaged with a lot of the commenters. Here’s what they had to say
A few internet users shared their experiences working on group projects
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