The Various Types of Lazy Employees
Regardless of your job history, you’ve more than likely encountered a lazy coworker in your life. These types can bring down the entire team morale, forcing some members to do more work than should be expected of them, and others to simply become growingly frustrated with their colleague’s behavior in general. Whatever the situation, these bad hires need to be curtailed before they start to affect the success of a business, especially when that business is your own pride and joy. Here are a few examples of lazy employees to watch out for, and how to handle them when the time comes to address the issue.
One of the most common nuisances are the workers who simply vanish in and out of the office at inopportune moments. Whether they’re showing up late for work on a consistent basis, leaving for long lunches that extend beyond acceptability, or calling out sick on a day when an important event or project is due, these types find it easy to blow off their responsibilities and disappear whenever they please. The goal is to start enforcing time regulations on these workers more heavily, clarifying that their job may be in jeopardy if they aren’t more strict with their time management. Beyond these employees, you also have those who procrastinate to the point of becoming completely obsolete to the growth of your company. This inadequate job performance leads to poor productivity within their own position, as well as greater stress to the other team members who are involved in the same beleaguered project. Hold these types accountable for their work by checking in more frequently should they not be showing much progress, as keeping a more watchful eye can encourage better behavior.
Meanwhile, you also have the overdramatic type of lazy worker, one that spends more of his or her time gossiping than working, and causing more harm to the inner office harmony than possibly any other. Such trouble-making types not only enjoy playing the victim by making up constant excuses for their poor job performance, but they also instigate problems amongst other coworkers, trying to stir up chaos just for the sake of their own entertainment. When it comes to these colleagues, it’s vital that you try to engage with them one-on-one more often in order to give them the attention they seek out by creating said drama – at least until it reaches a point of no return.
Overall, lazy employees are difficult to pinpoint from the start. Therefore, it’s essential that you pay close attention to any employee showing these signs of trouble in order to stay ahead of any future pitfalls.
