She did her entire group project alone after her groupmates refused to help. Her tactful response during the Q&A exposed her freeloading partners
They made them think they got their backs, but got their revenge during the Q&A session
Group projects become unfair when one person carries the burden of doing all the work. A former Literature major who goes by u/Sensitive-Nature2990 shared how they got back at their project partners after doing all the work for a group presentation. The author ended up working on 1800s Scottish literature, upon their partner's suggestion, only to find out she was not planning to contribute. Annoyed by their predicament, they decided to be petty during the Q&A section and ended up with an 'A' from the professor. The post was shared on July 7, 2026, and it received 8,500 upvotes and 258 comments.
How I Handled Being the Only Person in a Group Project Who Gave a Single Shit
by u/Sensitive_Nature2990 in MaliciousCompliance
'Mind-numbing text'
The group project was for a course called "Madness in Class Literature." The author was paired with two "studious-seeming partners" to work on a 30-minute-long presentation. The girl suggested they work on 1800s Scottish literature. Even the professor was hesitant to approve the topic because of the limited sources, but she insisted. The author ended up reading an "incredibly long and dry text about some guy who is either hallucinating or having an existential religious experience with the devil himself." They called it one of the "most mind-numbing" texts they've ever read. But that was not the worst part; they soon realized their partners were not planning to read or contribute to the project.
Who wants to answer?
The author prepared for the presentation alone, but of course, they were going to be petty. They explained, "I memorized everything. I mean everything. And for the worksheet, I basically wrote down bullet points that revealed nothing about the texts or their contents." When it was time to present, the author spoke about 19th-century Scottish literature for 30 minutes. Their partners just stood next to them and nodded. During the Q&A session, they were intentionally silent, allowing their partners to answer the questions. Obviously, the other two were not prepared, and the author had to step in. The professor and the class understood who did their work and who didn't.
Dreadful group projects
Yun F. Zheng, a high school senior from Philadelphia, said, "When group work is assigned, I often get a sinking feeling of dread from the fear of an uneven distribution of work...what is much more vexing is when certain students do not try as hard as others, either because they simply do not care about the grade or because they assume their group members will do their work for them." The sentiment was echoed by Robert Walter's survey.
31% of Gen Z employees said they "work better alone," and only 19% liked working in a team setting. The author felt the same way. 1800s Scottish literature would not have been their first pick, but they had to do it because of their partner. Instead of working on it together, they ended up doing everything on their own.
Lazy group project partners
People shared similar group project stories in the comment section. The author also revealed that the two partners cut off contact with them after the presentation, and people were surprised they were angry after not contributing anything. u/Skill_Issuer commented, "One time I had to make a group presentation in Google's powerpoint equivalent and on the first slide I put the title, underneath it I put 'By 'my name' and (put your name here if you actually bothered to open this presentation)'. When the rest of the class saw that, they all laughed." u/ErgoProxy0 added, "How do they get upset at someone because they didn’t do the work?"
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