Group projects can be frustrating when you’re the person doing all the work while the rest of the people in the group slack off.

In today’s story, one person in the group project literally does all the work, but the group partner tries to pass of the project as his own work.

Thankfully, the professor gave the student doing all the work a piece of advice that made a huge difference.

Let’s see how the story plays out…

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!

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 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.

I tried to brainstorm with my partner on which direction we should go.

OP ended up doing most of the work.

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.

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.

OP had to go to the ER.

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 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!

OP’s partner still didn’t do any work on the project.

I had to wait several more weeks and endure peeing deep red blood daily and having yet another surgery to remove the stent (ugh!) before finally recovering.

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 f***??

To make it worse, I learned that he tried to present my work as his own!

How can people be like that??

It was time for the presentation.

I emailed the professor about my situation. I explained how I’ve done 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.

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.

There were knowledgeable judges at the presentation.

He kept 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 good feeling that everyone understood that I did most of the work as I knew all of the intimate knowledge of the parts.

OP submitted the work.

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.

OP got a much higher grade than the partner.

A few 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 h*** of a semester. Did I mentioned that I had morphine for the first time during my ER visit? Lmao!

I’m surprised the partner passed! It was great the professor told OP the tip about putting initials on the slides.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted…

This reader thinks the partner’s grade was way too high.

Another reader ranted about group projects.

This person had a similar situation.

Here’s a story from law school…

I don’t think anyone likes group projects except for the slackers.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.