While group projects can be fun especially if we get to pick our own group members, it sometimes can be a nightmare too especially when the lecturer randomly assigns someone bad for you. If you thought that group projects are easier as you get to split your responsibilities and delegate the work, wait till you’ve experienced some bad apples. Here’s a rundown of the types of people you will commonly find in every group project.
1. The Lazy Leader
The so-called “leader” that allocates tasks to everyone in such a way that this person has little to almost nothing to do. This person would then offer to help with the additional bits like proof reading, printing or e-mailing the draft to the lecturer just to seem like they have been “working” all along.
2. The Smarty Pants
The know-it-all. From contents to spacing to page margins, this person will always have something to say. They are never satisfied with anything, especially with your work. The worst part? They would condemn but never provide any suggestions or solutions to the issues raised.
3. The Last Minute Mess
The person that goes “We have a project to submit tomorrow?!” at the last day before the project’s due date. This person is either someone who has totally forgotten about the project or have no knowledge of the project’s existence to begin with. Then at the last moments, they would start to panic, looking for unfilled groups and leeching off their grades. As much as we hate it, sometimes its unavoidable and the lecturer would just shove this person into a random unfilled group.
4. The Fallen Hero
They would be the most hyped up person when the project is assigned. They would be the ones scheduling meetings and would even go to the extent of drafting fancy Gantt charts. They are an excellent team player with the most valuable contributions and has a pleasant personality. Everything seems to be going good and suddenly poof, they go missing.
5. The Sneaky Ninja
The only time you’ll ever see them is at the start of the semester when the project is assigned. After that, you’ll find no traces of them. They would somehow magically appear again as the deadline closes in, bringing along a paragraph scribbled on the back of a tutorial questions paper or even worse, only to check if their names are spelt correctly on the cover page.
6. The Ghost
There’s only very little news about this person. Doesn’t show up for class. Doesn’t seem to care about grades. Maybe doesn’t even exist.
7. The Surprise Bomb Dropper
Throughout the project, they would say “we’re cool, its going good” and “I’m getting it done”, but at the last minute, they will tell you that they are not able to do their part and leave the rest to you.
8. The Mastermind
They would volunteer to compile the project before submission for a reason. You trust them and leave everything to them. However, at the end of the semester, when you get the project back, it will look totally foreign to you as whatever you did was completely removed and replaced. They have a good intention though, by wanting to use their personal capacity to rake higher grades. This person also probably didn’t wanted to say it out loud that “You all suck!”.
9. The Ignorant
When it comes to a crucial point in your project, this person is nowhere to be found. Your calls are unanswered. Your message are unreplied. You even stalk their Facebook profile, send them a message and still there isn’t any response. Then when you check their timeline, they have a new selfie uploaded 1 minute ago!
10. The Titanic
You know your grades will be sinking this semester when you have this really lousy person in the group. You’re pretty much doomed!
11. The One Man Show
This dedicated soul would be working on the project very early on. Eventually, they would end up doing all the work the others were supposed to do but never did because they’re a flop. As much as they would like to not bother about the others, they know their grades would be affected too. Most of the time, they’re still able to submit their projects on time and also score excellent grades with their single-handed effort.
