Not pulling her weight

[AnUnhappyStudent]

I am a mature student at uni. We have to do a group presentation tomorrow and have been meeting as a group for the last couple of months to work on it. One of the group has really taken the piss.
Turned up to about a third of the meetings, not delivered on her stuff, not letting us know when she is not attending meetings but then turning up to the one session we had with tutor
I raised it with the group and it was agreed that we would mail her and say if she didn't get her finger out we were going to ask for her to be removed as she will be graded on something she hasn't contribute to.

Today we are meeting up for a run through and its been arranged weeks. Just had an email from her to say that her uncle is seriously ill and she will need to leave early! I don't believe it for a minute. We have had various stories of ill relatives and just serms like its another excuse. But I could be wrong.
Anyway we have to submit a record of how we worked as a group this can involve meeting notes, action logs and emails. If I include the email we sent her then it will be really obvious that she was not a team player but would it reflect badly on me for dobbing her in as it were?? And what if uncle is really ill? I would feel awful

I was in your shoes 18 months ago as a mature part time degree student. Group member talked up what he was capable of, each time we asked for evidence of the progress, he'd brush us off. I used to do a lot of this module for a job so really expected to do wel and had repeatedly offered to help anyone struggling and shared my own electronic files/reference library. Semester-long project was due at 6pm, he sent his work at 1pm. It was shit, completely off topic, none of the promised visuals, half of the required 3,000 word count, and what there was, was barely usable. Thankfully my new boss saw me barely controlling my anger reading it, and let me re-do the lot at work, making up the time later in the week.
We (the other group members) decided to brush it under the carpet in the progress diary, and it hurt that he got an A. He was involved in another group project in a different module at the same time, he pulled the same bullish!t there too. In the next (final semester), there was another group project, and of course anyone who had 'worked' with him before, refused to be in a group, leaving just three remaining victims. He told them that the previous group issues were because our group were 'fussy, uber controlling liars' and the other group had 'language issues'... The final group project all got D grades as he didn't complete his work and by the time it was submitted, the penalties withered their grade to almost nothing. One member of that final group had it out with him, gave him a proper ticking off. He responded by making a complaint of cheating in exams about that group member; she spent the summer under considerable stress while it was investigated, and as her employer had paid the fees, the college informed her employer of the reason for non-published results. She was cleared but had an early miscarriage.
I hate group study projects with a passion It's put me off going on to do my Masters as I don't want to carry any other asshat. I would submit the diary, along with the evidence (emails, screenshots of text messages, etc) as an accurate record

He responded by making a complaint of cheating in exams about that group member; she spent the summer under considerable stress while it was investigated, and as her employer had paid the fees, the college informed her employer of the reason for non-published results. She was cleared but had an early miscarriage.

Jesus christ, poor woman [shocked]

I really do sympathise OP, I am on a similar sounding course with placements etc. I have done two group projects. The first one involved a presentation. One of the girls took the lead in putting the keynote together, the rest of us emailed her our contribution in good time. One member went awol for the two weeks before submission and the lead member messaged her multiple times asking for her contribution. Nothing until around 10pm the night before the presentation. Her excuse was she was a single mum so was "busy". I had to bite my tongue to not say I (and plenty of other student parents) managed it on time despite single-handedly caring for my disabled four year old who was seriously unwell at the time.

She then had the cheek to say to our tutor that she struggled giving the presentation because the words on the screen were different to what she'd sent to our lead member, essentially dropping her in it. Good luck to anybody who works with her in the future.

I do my own work. If someone else shirks their work, in most situations I would just let it go. I am not in a supervising position or their tutor, so it isn't my responsibility and I would feel like I was being spiteful/vindictive.

As a member of the group, it is your responsibility.

The purpose of group assignments is to measure how a student works as part of a team. An important function of a team is to work together and manage the work of the team. If during an interview a student stated the above, they would receive a very poor mark.

The OP should include the email with the project records. It shows the group took steps to manage the situation. The student not pulling his/her weight should inform the tutor about any extenuating circumstances and the tutor can then make a call on how to deal with it. The tutor then has justification for awarding higher marks to those who stepped in and took up the slack.

Ah Trifle, I see you were hiding your light under a bushel and just waiting for the opportunity to arise to say that you would make sure the slacker was revealed by simply not mentioning them. How underhand of you. That is so sneaky, it is almost admirable. Almost.

LittleCandle;

Well, it wouldn't be deliberate. It would just be reflective of what had happened.

Anyway, I have given my view. I will leave further comment to others.

I think I should have mentioned that this course is social work and as such we need to ensure that our values are robust. This person arrived today and had changed what had already been agreed. When I qiestioned her on the information it became clear to all that she had not understood the topic of the presentation at all. Even worse was the fact that the girl she was partneted with told us had most of the work was done by her and that all she got from the other person was a list of questions! Then she asked to leave early. Then another member of the group who had needed a lot of support in producing her part asked if we should amend the notes so that it 'looked better' she wanted me to change the action log to say she had delivered on time!
We did try and tackle it by emailing her with our concerns and we set up regular meetings at a day and time she agreed to, so no excuses there!
I am going to check the grading citeria and decide from there, all the others were livid about having to go over work that had already been agreed.

Just be careful, OP. The future brings many unexpected things. If one day you're invited to meet your new boss and it is this woman, would you wish you had acted a certain way now?

It sounds as though that woman would only become someone's boss by lying, cheating and claiming other people's work as her own, tbh. As such, I wouldn't feel at all happy about working with her, given the nature of social work, regardless of what I had done with regard to the assignment.

roundaboutthetown:

Lots of people become the boss that way!

And given social work is local authority run, it's not like you can just pick up and move jobs at the drop of a hat.

Lots more people become the boss that way if nobody pulls them up on it when they can instead of leaving it until they are in a position of power and can no longer be challenged easily... They could be stopped at university level when they should be, instead of everyone cowering in fear of the possibility they will be an incompetent boss one day who lets vulnerable people's lives be ruined because they are an incompetent, lazy tosser...

roundaboutthetown:

Stopped? How stopped? She failed to turn up to some meetings. She hasn't killed anyone. She might lose 5% of her mark. That will be it.

She failed to turn up to two thirds of the meetings and did not produce what the group asked her to. She does not sound like a future boss, tbh, more like someone who is likely to be failing her course generally and has failed to work collaboratively, an essential skill in the field into which she wishes to work. The OP and the rest of her group might also be judged negatively for their failure to collaborate with a colleague, unless there is compelling evidence that she was the sole cause of the issues.

Scapegoating is one thing, getting rid of a dead weight another...

I'm not saying otherwise, but people don't get chucked off university courses for being slightly lazy.

She does not sound slightly lazy to me, she sounds like a useless liability.

roundaboutthetown:

I refer you to my previous comment

The most they will do is knock some marks off. She could easily end up getting a job in social work. How many lazy people have you worked with? I have worked with hundreds. They probably coasted through their courses as well. I still have to get on with them in the office.

Yes I think we've probably all experienced this at uni.
Trouble is if you dob her in it makes the whole team look bad and your lack of ability to manage the team will be questioned.
It's unfair but your main priority is getting a good mark.
She will have nobody to sponge off in her fiansls as they will be done on her own so her lack of work and effort will be evident then.
Just concentrate on oyur own effort and make it look like you managed the team superbly.
Putting an email like that is doesn't do you any favours. Infuriating but true.

I'm going to offer the perspective of the course tutor/University here.
Most Universities are concerned about how group work functions and lecturers want/need to know when group work is not going well. We all know that free riders exist and are prevalent outside University too. Due to an increase in student complaints AND because it just isn't fair, your University should have mechanisms to try to address this. Hence the report you are asked to fill in. My advice therefore would be:

1. Complete the form about who did what honestly and sent off the emails. You are stating facts not telling tales. How else can the University try to help?
2. If the problem student has domestic issues it is their responsibility to contact their department and apply for mitigating circumstances. It is the University's role to deal with students who have challenges NOT YOURS. You have enough to deal with with your own studies. The University would ask for evidence (which is presumably why that student hasn't followed the official procedure). You should not be expected to help that student.

Please be honest with the University and give them an opportunity to help (and I hope they do - I know my institution would but each University tends to be different).

Just to reply to the PP (Mermaidinthesea123) - informing the University does NOT make the whole team look bad and this would not reflect on your own abilities. You have a paper trail to prove what has happened.

I knew of a student who was appalling in their practical work. Their academic work was shoddy too. For various reasons people kept giving them a pass for their assessments - mainly to get them out of their area of responsibility.

Then when they qualified and began working, this person made a huge mistake as they had no understanding of their work. The consequences of this mistake were catastrophic.

You owe it to yourself, your team and the person to be honest about their work and involvement.

Trifle - it's because attitudes like yours are prevalent that there are so many fuckwits inflicting themselves on you in the workplace.