Anyone who’s ever partaken in a group project knows that the workload can be anything but equal.

When his college peers turned Thanksgiving break into their personal vacation, leaving him with all the work for their final project, he faced a choice between fairness and burning bridges he might need later.

Read on for the full dilemma!

WIBTA if I turned in a “Group Project” on my own and let my group members out to dry?

I (M20) am in a college course with a final project presentation.

My four group members (also all M20) and I decided months ago on our project’s theme.

Due to several circumstances, he feels linked to his classmates.

I share several classes with my group members and am friends with a few of them outside of class.

We are all in the same major, and I will have to see these people again and work with them again.

Our school is small, and I cannot avoid them.

They had procrastinated on the project thus far, leaving only a short window to complete it.

Work on the project was not started until about a week ago.

The project requires a presentation aspect and a research paper aspect.

As it stands, the project was technically due Monday before Thanksgiving break.

However, our professor was lenient with the deadline and extended it through the break.

Our goal was to turn it in tonight before tomorrow’s class meeting.

But it seems not everyone in the group is taking the assignment seriously.

I am the only person to work on the project so far.

I have done research, created slides, and essentially created a source of information for literally anybody else in the group to go through and add the remaining information we will need.

I have written nearly the entirety of our paper so far and created all but one slide on the presentation.

The work that has been done by one other member was basically fluff — one paragraph on our paper and one slide on the presentation.

He tries to reach out to his classmates, but they effectively leave him on read.

I have reached out multiple times in our group chat with what I have done and what needs to get done.

I’ve gotten replies from one group member.

I haven’t been bossy, controlling, or overbearing.

I have just done the work required for this project and pulled my own weight.

I’ve asked other members to also pull their weight and gotten nothing.

Now he’s faced with a really tough choice to make.

WIBTA if I finished this project on my own, turned it into the professor by myself, and left my group members to do another project by themselves?

I do not want to be taken advantage of and be the guy who “clutched up” and earned everyone a good grade while they sat back and did nothing.

I sacrificed spending time with my family over break to work on this project, and they have done nothing and refused to communicate with me.

I don’t want to burn bridges with people in my major and parts of my social circle, but I also do not want to be the guy who does all the work while everyone else takes credit for it.

This is a sticky situation, for sure.

Maybe Reddit can help bring some clarity.

This student definitely shouldn’t let his peers leech off his good work.

This redditor brings a fair point: The adult workforce definitely isn’t a “fair” place.

It’s a tough choice to make, but it’s an important one that could shape the rest of his time at the college.

This user doesn’t think he owes his peers any explanation. They’ve already showed their work ethic (or lack thereof).

He must have back pain from carrying the rest of his sorry classmates on his back.

Carrying the team might secure a good grade, but at what cost?

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.