So a group project is due less than 2 weeks away from now in one of my classes. Its a huge part of my grade overall for the class. One of my group members/friends has not been replying to my texts lately (one that asked her about where she interns and works because when she DID reply about something else, she said she does those and another that asked her if she had any thoughts or ideas regarding our project; other group members and I were discussing it briefly via text).

I understand that she has been busy with work & her internship lately, but I"d appriciate it if she'd start communicating with my group and I more efficiently about this because our due date/presentation date is coming up soon & is making me nervous, being that one of my group members won't respond to me.

Should I text her again? Should I approach her after class? What should I say in either text or in person so I don't seem rude but so I can kinda try to "push" her here?

Honestly, in school I was always the guy who got stuck doing virtually everything. Looking back, it's pretty simple why. I should have gotten the group together, delegated responsibilities and deadlines, and did a status update every time we got in our groups.

Whoever the group leader is, make sure they call the group together and reinforce the need for cooperation. Set up deadlines for certain parts of the project, and make sure they're done. If that doesn't work, you're pretty much stuck with two options. One is to complain, but that rarely does anything. The other is to take over their part of the work - I have a ton of experience with that - and ultimately give them a free grade.

Talk to them about it, make sure the group supports what is being said, and if she is still too busy - let the teacher know immediately. Don't just jump in and do all the work like I did right away, you never know what the teacher might say or do.

Skilledtree : There's no assigned leader. What to do now? Kinda make myself one?

xxeliza321xx :

Well, it depends on who you're working with. If you're the A-type person of the group (the assertive one who tends to dictate where things are going), yeah you can take over. If you have multiple Alphas, you'll need to try and propose to the group as an idea, and let them run with it so they can pretend it was their idea. If there is one specific leader-like person in the group, plant the idea in their head and let them do it. I basically just said to manipulate them, but hey that's life.

Trust me, I don't think your other group members will really mind you bringing up the fact that you guys are working twice as hard because someone is slacking, you know what I mean?

This is always a problem that I disliked when being assigned to group projects in school. The problem being that some of the members wind up doing most of the work because others in the group do not take the project as seriously as others, which can cause major issues.

Is your teacher grading you on your individual work, or are you getting graded as a group? If your grade is in danger of being affected because of another person not pulling their weight, then I would DEFINITELY approach them in person and ask them where they are at with the project and what they intend to do. IF that does not work, then maybe a conversation with the teacher would help you out in some way. At least to let them know that one of your group members is not pulling their weight.

Since that person committed (willingly or not) to that group, then yes you have to insist. YOUR grade is at stake after all. No matter what the person's excuses may be, school is still there and must be accomplished in order to move forward.

Maybe it would be best to talk in class instead of through texts, I never allowed any of my classmates to talk to me about projects through texts because that only made things worse, so we had to do everything while talking to each other and in the end that was the best thing to do.

Ok thanks guys & we're being graded on both an individual AND a group basis. But at least she finally proved to me she cared by creating a secret Facebook group for us to discuss the project on!