All the people you’ll have to work with for a group project

Group projects. By now, you realize that they can be a blessing and a curse because you have to deal with the people you’re given. To help us become “better acquainted” teachers often turn to this idea of having individuals that hardly know each other to pair up and put their own GPA on the line having to rely on the kid who is always absent from class.

I understand social interactions happen everyday in life, but once the one thing that predicts our future is in the hands of some other kid it’s time to dread group projects. Often teachers will note every student is held responsible for his or her own work but if you only turn in 25% of the assignment I don’t think your professor will take it too lightly.

While we may not have every personality type down, we have created a list that most, if not all, students are able to relate too while they have worked their way through school.

The control freak

Controllers, abusers and manipulative people don’t question themselves. They don’t ask themselves if the problem is them, they always say the problem is someone else. Regardless of your original plans this person is quick to shove their own ideas down your throat, establish their dominance and make sure everyone knows they are the leader of the group from the beginning. This person needs everything done a specific way and that way is their way. A control freak might say the reason they do things themselves is simply because no one can meet their expectations… their ridiculously high expectations.

Don’t get me wrong, control freaks are great… once you surrender and realize you will have no say in this group. Through their constant bitching and relentless nagging this pretentious jerk will have you eating out of the palm of their hands but you can at least thank them for the A+. The only upside of the control freak? Without their tormenting, the group would’ve slacked off until the night before the due date of the assignment leaving you with a shitty final project – which we all know much too well.

The procrastinator

Ah the procrastinator, the sweet sweet procrastinator. Situated within your group, the procrastinator doesn’t seem too bad at the beginning. Like most students, you would compare the procrastinator to anyone else – they don’t plan on working on the project right away but will get to it in their free time. A few weeks go by and before you know it the assignment is due tomorrow morning, but you never once think to check your shared document. Everyone had their own task and you finished your part weeks before. 11pm rolls around and you send a message to your group making sure someone printed off the assignment, with no replies you log onto your account. Scrolling through the documents you read through everyone’s passages until you finally get to a blank section. They had four weeks to write a three page analysis and all they have is their name?!? You scramble to find your phone and finally get ahold of the procrastinator, to only have them reassure you that “they are almost done”. The next day we often find this person shuffling into class 15 minutes late, not because they needed to stop for coffee or they overslept, but because they were finishing up another project they didn’t touch until the night before.

The partner that has been MIA since day one

You’ve seen them a few times… You think. You at least know they exist because they are typically in the caf the same time you are. You’re not entirely sure how to approach this individual, you could attempt the casual “Hi, how are you?” But the moment you see them you know there is no point in even trying. Once in a while they’ll respond to an email with some sort of a vague response, neither confirming nor denying that they’ll actually attend a group meeting, but you know in your heart of hearts not to get your hopes up.

The silent partner

You can’t say much about this individual, nor can any of your group members… Actually, this individual is the kind of person that doesn’t say much at all. We all are familiar with this kind of person, they are typically just there staring blankly – perhaps even just glued to their phone. Contributing very little in group discussions, more or less they are there just to take up space. Rather than voicing their own opinion, this person will just go with the majority and make no fuss about it. Most likely during the presentation, you will see this person as “the one that holds the poster” or be responsible for “transitioning from one slide to the next.”

The one that is truly lost

This student doesn’t seem too bad… You notice in class they seem to always contribute, their ideas are typically similar to everyone else’s – it’s safe to assume they are doing pretty well in the class. That is until you finally get to work with them one on one… people with such attributes might always talk in class but now that you think of it, they tend just to talk to hear their own voice. When you finally receive the assignment, you realize that they aren’t all you thought they were… The ideas published are actually far from accurate and they’ve never scored higher than a 70% on an exam, you notice the skills he/she takes so much pride in are simply Microsoft Word and stick figures. The “help” they give is actually causing much more harm to the group than you ever anticipated.

The one who never agrees… The Ultimate Critic

No matter what you do, no matter what you say, there will always be that one person that’ll shoot you down. Any idea you might have, the critic is quick to remind you that you are lesser than them, that you are truly worthless. Regardless of the situation, a critic is often to be extremely negative – if the group decides to overlook the critic, they will encounter a hell far worse than what they have already witnessed – the individual will criticize the entire project in hopes of getting their way in the end.