I got assigned a group to work with in my account planning class. I was fine with it because-

a) I thought too highly of people in my major ->1. I thought they would actually do their work b) The projects require a lot of work

So, you know, I wasn't all unhappy with it. I was okay with my group when we did inclass assignments on Thursdays for a few weeks but then -dun dun dun....last Thursday came.

We got assigned an out of class assignment that would be due Tuesday. It was an assignment that required both extensive research/surveying as well as constructing a perception of the ideal target audience, who they were and what they thought of the product/service(tinder), and how we would go about marketing towards them. On top of that, we would create a campaign for it(not actually implement it, just write it down). So on Thursday we all decided we would survey people until Monday, then all meet on campus at 4 pm to share our results and create our project.

The one other girl in my group said she couldn't meet with us on Monday because she lived an hour away and only came to campus on certain days, which we were okay with because she had stated that previously and gave us notice on last Thursday. She said by the time we'd meet she would upload all of her findings onto our shared google doc. Also -if we found out we weren't on the google doc(typed in the wrong gmail, etc), we could text the creator of it and be added onto it. So she has no excuse for not doing anything.

Monday comes around. I had created an online survey and gotten 40 responses, it spiked Sunday night to 57 because another guy in my group had shared it on twitter. I was fine with that -even if he didn't interview people in person, he managed to get 17 responses from my survey. I mean -I wasn't even expecting 25 when I made it, so, I was cool with it. Anyways- so it's Monday, 3:50 PM and I'm heading over to where we're supposed to meet. Guy who tweeted survey messages group chat "Anyone coming today?" I say I am, and then the other two members proceed to give excuses why they cannot come...10 minutes before we meet...and AFTER that guy asks if anyone is coming. One uses the most lame excuse -"I got called into work blahblah" Don't believe him a tiny bit. He would have let us know if he actually did; I think he just forgot till the text. Same with the next guy, but his excuse is one that makes even less sense (imo). His was -"My good friends dad passed away over the weekend and the funeral is today" First off -if he knew over the weekend, he would have sent something. IMO. Only a reasonable thing to do. But if you're doubting my doubt, don't doubt just yet....

Me and twitter guy meet and manage to go through the responses and construct the whole stinkin project. Before this happened, the two guys who couldn't make it said they would add their info to the google doc later tonight. So I told twitter guy that I would put their responses once they posted it onto my survey so I could print all of the survey responses tomorrow with graphs to fully complete the project.

I wait till 2 am, no responses posted on the doc. Last edited by me when I put up my survey results earlier that day. So, I go to sleep. Next day, 1 hour before class and I'm in a computer lab on campus, still not edited. I just print the project and go, only putting me and twitter guy's name on it. Now, the fact that NOTHING was added to the doc, makes me feel like they didn't interview anyone. It leads me to believe that they didn't want to meet up because they didn't do their part at all. That's why I don't believe ether of their excuses. And if they had ANY questions about if the project was done, how it was going, etc -they could have just sent a text and asked. None of that happened. Before class, I'm sitting in there, none come up to me or twitter guy to ask about it (but I do see them in there). After class, twitter guy comes up to me to see the graphs -everyone else is gone.

Which just tells me that they either knew they didn't do anything and didn't want to see us or they just assumed we would put their names on there even though they didn't do anything (making them VERY privileged imo). So I tell twitter guy I'm not putting their names on the project and I'm going to tell the prof they didn't do anything, he seems wary about it bc he's a nice guy but he doesn't stop me. I know he thinks the same as me but is too against drama/nice to admit it.

Anyways.....I have to see them tomorrow and let them know how I didn't put their names on the assignment, probably have to hear their made up excuses, too. I do get nervous about confrontation so I'm feelin kinda jittery about tomorrow. I just don't see how they can even argue with me. I mean, even if they had just uploaded like 5 survey responses, I would have put their name on the project! But the fact that they didn't do anything and didn't ask me or twitter guy about it just enrages me because it makes me feel like they think they can just get away with that! Such BS!

I've been in the same situation with big class projects and always having those one or two flakes who hope they'll just coast on your hard work. If they get in your grill about it tomorrow, just say they didn't contribute anything and if they keep wanting to argue about it, involve the professor. Offer to arrange an after-class meeting with the prof and hash out how much credit they think they deserve and what parts were their efforts. 9 times out of 10, they'll just flake on that meeting too and drop it.

I feel your pain. I hated group projects in school. I always went into them figuring I'd be doing all the work and I usually did. shrug I got the A and the teacher always got told how the others didn't do anything and they'd get a 0, so I didn't really care. I figured I was learning more than they did by doing all the work and I was fine with that. I've always been an overachiever.