I ponder this issue as I have often been accused of being lazy, so perhaps my opinion is biased. I don't believe I am lazy, I exercise hard and live a healthy lifestyle. When working as part of a team I always more than pull my weight. I have worked in the fireservice and was never accused of being lazy whilst in that role. I am however a poor student, academically I only achieve excellence in subjects (probably ones I enjoy), my grades range greatly from excellent to very poor. I can spend a lot of time trying to think of solutions to life's little problems, or how I am going to tackle an assignment, procrastinating rather than taking action. I have also suffered a few periods of depression in my teens which probably caused the complete lack of motivation I experienced then. I recently left a job for many reasons, my co-workers I often thought of as being lazy but then reflected on my own experiences and wondered whether it was actually their fault. How many of us can be expected to stay motivated in a job with minimal prospects? Is the existance of 'lazy' workers nearly always an issue which management should resolve by altering working conditions? What are the thought patterns of a lazy person? I don't think calling somebody lazy is ever going to help, certainly in my teens being shouted at by teachers was never going to change my behaviour. Thoughts would be appreciated, I think I'm trying to establish how I would act as a manager once I reach such a position. I was in the construction industry so if you have any knowledge of this you should be able to see that management is complicated by many 'old school' ways of thinking.
The mods are probably going to move this...not in the right forum... human science my guess. Labelling someone...that is saying you "are" something as opposed to you "are doing," or not doing something, IMO, demotivates people. Something a supervisor should never do. I'm sure Mi-Ke-Gal will chime in...he's done contracting and run crews a lot... If you are something, that's permanent. If you do or don't do something...well, you can do something else. Always address someone's specific behavior (You are doing________, I need you to do ______. ) Be simple, clear, direct, but respectful. Oh, and be fair and consistent. Never berate your employees, make fun of them. But don't let them get away with things either. If a reprimand is in order, take them aside where you can't be overheard-its humiliating as hell to be chewed out in front of others. And just reprimand them, tell them "Quit this right now or you're gone!" or what not Not "You stupid sack of...." In regards to college: try and stick with what you like as much as possible given prerequisites. Out of curiosity: Do you have trouble paying attention even in subjects you like? Do you set things down at random? Are you disorganized? Do you flip channels on television a lot? Do you often get bored easily? Do you like to watch Gladiator movies? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Fire Fighter ! Like a Fire Man . Your Lazy plain and simple. What sit around the fire house eating bon bons and watching Oprah? That is the definition of laziness . You fireman think we don't know . I think you guys just like playing with hoses . O.K. laugh Laugh Hard . No offense, some one has to be lazy . Why not firemen? Motivation is the key here , To create desire is the solution . The government uses carrot and stick on the masses by incentives . I don't agree with the methodology my self . Restore dignity in the work force and create a competitive nature that provides bragging rights to the victor for being the best they can be. C.E.O.'s use this tool for upper management . It is still a reward system of incentification ( Carrot and stick ) You might get a trip to Hawaii for you and your family if you are the high producer . Bigger bonus packages or what have you . The bottom line is people do need motivation to improve , if there is no hope of improving there personal benefits then why bother. Dignity of the work force is a good first step
Next step . Get rid of cronyism or any signs that even look like there might be cronyism. The person at the bottom of the spectrum has to know they is value in achievement. If they see some ones cousin get a promotion over some one of merit then moral is diminished and that my friend = lower production . It takes me back to when I was strictly a carpenter with many talents . Back in the day it was not so easy to get a job , kind of like now a days . So I had made contacts and had my lists of contractors I would call to see if they would hire Me , my talents abound so confidence is high. All is good except I would get laid off and have to be out looking again for another job . It took Me a while to figure out what was going on . After about the 4th time with specific contractors it came clear front and center ( I Heard em over talking ) I was not there good coke whore butt buddy . When they got behind in there work and needed high production of a super Mike they would call Me , hire Me to get em all caught up then lay me off and go back to drinking beer and f--cking whores until they got behind again then they would call super Mike and do it all over again . Now I was wise enough to recognize what was going on and I altered my behavior and look else were for employment . It was not until I worked of a company out of San Francisco that I found a company that hired and fired based on Merit . Oh f--ck you should a been there , Cuase this foreman named Michael Jacks Kept Me over his good butt buddies . Did the shit hit the fan . His Buddies were seriously pissed off . One Guy come over to Me and was so Mad I was there and he was not . Flames were shooting out his ears and I thought his head was going to explode any minute . Then he ran over to a Mexican Laborer who was skin and bones about 5'6" talk and kicked the shit out of him for about a minute and a half . Then he ran to his truck and light out of there burning rubber the whole way until he got out of sight . The poor Mexican was laid out cold on the ground and did not know what the fuck happened. The guy wanted to punch me but was to afraid to punch Mikey Man . Mikey Has skills , plus carpenters know how to swing hammers real good . We carry em around with us encase we have to drive a nail
Regarding firefighting.... No I wasn't a full time firefighter (UK), so I spent no time atall sat at the station. I was part-time, which meant responding to a pager 24 hours a day and running to the firestation. I also worked 6 days a week in a kitchen and was studying part-time through the Open University and boxing twice a week. So I maintain I'm not lazy, it is only in fulltime academia that I get accused of being lazy, but it doesn't feel like work. It's more dedicating the time that I find a problem (not that I'm busy). I agree that saying that I was a firefighter shouldn't necessitate I am hard working it was just a method I tried to use to get across to someone that doesn't know me that I do work hard- at the 'right' things. Firefighting isn't the glamorous job it's made out to be, especially in the UK where they aren't all trained paramedics. I don't watch TV. I'll happily watch QI. I play a lot of 'speed chess' i.e. 5 minute games. I pay attention in lectures but don't spend time outside of lectures going over things as I don't find it stimulating. I think it's motivation, you really need to want to do the work for yourself, so someone else can give you a grade, so you can jump through the hoop and pass onto the next stage. I think, I really don't know.
I dunno. Not qualified to diagnose anybody, but... http://www.turnertoys.com/ADHD/APA_diagCriteria.htm When you've got an otherwise intelligent, highly-physically active, and highly motivated person who just can't sit and do schoolwork, you wonder. I'd like to be officially diagnosed-I appear to have ADD inattentive, but I'm with indigent care in the US... I call what they practice drive-by-ghetto psychiatry...it's hard enough getting my major depression and PTSD seen to. And I don't need any stims anyway, so, I guess I don't need an official diagnosis? Try drinking a lot of caffeine-caffeine does the ADD brain good. Coffee is my friend...and might be yours too.
It's ok to have a breather now and again. Sometimes I think that if you force yourself to think about things you don't want to you try to make short cuts and your learning won't be as good as for interesting stuff. Some people can get interested in the most boring of things - you wouldn't want to be like that!
when accused of being lazy, I reply that I have "selective motivation" (one could argue they are the same thing) In college, my grades are all over the place. I love attending classes and I am fully engaged, but when it comes to tedious research papers and highly structured assignments, I tend to do the bare minimum (less time doing things of minimal value= more time for things of value... like posting on this forum Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) when it comes to creative projects like editing home movies or writing short stories, I have near-infinite focus and persistence, and find myself "in the zone" for hours and hours at a time. the same goes for fitness; my determination is marine-like. I truly believe it is selective motivation and not the disease of laziness. .....or maybe I am just so incredibly lazy that I have constructed this entire justification for my general apathy and disinterest..... regardless, it's hard to put forth effort in areas that appear to have limited value. It seems I learn far more in 5 minutes on Google than in the 10 hours it takes to write a research report. which begs the question: am I lazy, or just efficient?
i don't think just because having a low grade at school will automatically put us into a lazy person category, I myself had low grades, although my mom said that I am good in class since she always seen good grades before I enrolled at another school, but ever since I transfer I don't like my schoolmates and even my teacher, so I began to fail and eventually my grades decreases but still I passed. Lazyness occurs when you are not motivated to do something, but not just merely you just don't like to move.
Just because someone likes to work smarter rather than harder doesn't mean they are lazy. But bosses like seeing people busy doing something and thinking doesn't qualify. I think everybody has seen examples of people looking busy when the boss is around, and it does work because they tend to advance faster. So just because you might like to work smarter, be aware of when the boss is around and fake being busy if you have to.
I've always worked at a slower than usual pace when working in construction for I always like to do my work as best I can even it it might take me longer I feel that a well done job is better than a job that you just throw together just to get it done in a certain amount of time. I'd always use a level to insure my pipes were plumb and would also use more hangers than were called for again to insure that the pipes wouldn't fall or lean the wrong way over time. My coworkers thought I was taking to long but when compared to their work mine was much better looking and more secure. I was called lazy by my boss because I wasn't keeping up with the rest of the crew and that , to me, wasn't a fair assessment of my overall work standards I've set for myself. Sometimes the boss just wants to "motivate" you into going faster to get the job done quicker so he looks good.
Sounds like in that particular job you were lazy (i.e. could not motivate yourself to work) even though you might not be lazy overall.
Your statement that laziness only exists in the third person is bizarre. That's like saying honesty only exists in the third person. If you completely lack the ability to recognize when you're being lazy, you have a very poor work ethic and are, in fact, lazy.
If you're in the same 'zone' of motivation and focus, then the subject should not matter - the rate of learning should be the same. Google probably captures your interests better and tailors information that is easy for you to absorb. But it is hard to compare that with writing a research paper, because that and Googling probably occupy very different functions of the mind. If it feels like you learn more on Google perhaps it is a trick of the mind formed by habit... if you spent more time writing research papers would you eventually say the opposite of what I quoted you? As the type of learning you prefer sways to another side over time. But it is my thought that it does not matter what subject one attends to, as long as they are focused and motivated and 'in the zone' the learning process takes the same tempo. I'm not sure I would say you're efficient. Perhaps you are by choosing Google but you have to look much further ahead to answer the question. Like sailors seeking guidance from the 'North Star', to answer whether it is efficient or not calls into question your objectives. I believe learning by Google is very possible, but not necessarily as qualitative as writing research papers, in terms of 'reaching the outer boundaries of knowledge' and 'respect from professional peers', and even things like 'fitting into an academic standard' etc. So maybe it's not completely efficient. Maybe there is a little bit of lazy in there. But it's hard to say nonetheless good question.
This is an easy one. "I'll do it later" If you ever catch yourself saying this you have already caught the plague - a disease that forever compounds itself, multiplying and so forth and getting out of hand until everything is passed for a later time. Exercise, study, write that letter, clean up, etc. Once you let "I'll do it later" catch on to some of your tasks, it can spread and loop into the infinite if you let it. Laziness = "I'll do it later" Catch yourself saying that, eliminate it, and keep going. You will turn into the most productive person on the planet.
Well, Rollins, some might consider it 'lazy' of you to start a thread and then not respond to it for three weeks, lol.... What was your intent in posting this thread? 'Lazy' is a value judgement that perhaps only our species is capable of making, for it requires a comparison to similar response to circumstances by another, to have any meaning. In other species, activity is related to need, and I have no reason to think our species is that much different. Humans seem to be possessed of a greater range of 'needs' than most other species, not the least of which appears to be 'leisure time'. While some persons seem to enjoy work for their own reasons, (work-a-holics) the majority of persons that I have observed work toward personal goals, and these goals vary widely between individuals. Depending on our genetic potential and cultural conditioning, most define laziness (also called indolence) as a disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so. Only you can properly assess whether you are possessed of disinclination or lack of ability, for persons may appear to be capable, yet be lacking in physical endurance or mental/psychological utility. Choosing where one places their endeavor is not 'laziness' in my opinion, unless one expects to take advantage of the efforts of others. That is an unfair practice, in my opinion, although it may be advantageous to the one doing so. If one has simple personal expectations that they can fulfill without using their full potential, or exploiting others, I would consider such to be simple economy of energy, or a form of efficiency, as some others have described. Our society, particularly Western Society, does not much understand or appreciate why anyone would do otherwise than participate in the competitive 'rat race'. I would suggest that there are many other paths to personal satisfaction. Do YOU consider yourself to be 'lazy'?
I think the term 'being lazy' is more of a label that a petty person puts on someone else for a variety of reasons. But whatever, it's going to chaff at the ego of the labeled person and may catch on to be repeated by others, doing far more damage. A procrastinator on the other hand has other problems that have nothing to do with being lazy. However a procrastinator with a lazy label could be in big trouble in the work place where the appearance of looking busy even when your not is advantageous. Better start looking for a new job, another tough challenge for the procrastinator. So not maintaining a current resume is being lazy and not looking for the next better job is procrastination, a sad combination that is sometimes masqueraded as being loyal to the company one is working for. Which is always a lie, because the company will lay you off with no thought of being loyal to you. Maybe if you are the loyal type you shouldn't work for a company.
