Lazy Ass SOB

[Mike1234567]

Eat your peas

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Those would be creamed pees... no thanks.

 

[Vaquero]

Eat your peas

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"broccoli"
C'mon man.

 

[cbigclarke]

Obama said, "eat your peas"!

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[benenglish]

My first office job was processing paperwork, back before computers did that sort of thing. There was a room full of us who went through files, stripped them down to what was necessary to keep, put everything in order, filled out a summary form, then stapled all the paperwork together to be shipped off to the computer input section.

Each type of file was of different complexity. There was a unit that received raw work and classified it according to how long it would take to complete. Bundles of paperwork (usually an hour or two per bundle) were put together in Work Planning and Control. That was the first place to stop in the morning and pick up your work for the day.

Now, the standards for how many files of each type could be processed per hour had been subjected to an insane amount of study for decades. Most people could pull 8 hours of work and get it done in about 7. Some people had trouble and couldn't complete 8 hours work in 8 hours but if they got close, management would cut them some slack. There were occasional outliers in both ability and difficulty.

My normal mode of operation was to show up on time, pull 10 hours of work, knock it out in 90 minutes with perfect accuracy, then spend the rest of the day walking around and offering to help wherever anyone needed help. Some of my time was just wasted. Some of it was spent learning to fill in anywhere in the workflow. All of it was merely an effort to combat my own boredom.

Managment loved me. My productivity was 125% of what was required so I got perfect evaluations. In a pinch, my boss two levels up would stop by my desk, tell me that we're in a pinch, and ask me to help out. On those days, I'd go pull 60 hours of work and get it done in a day. (OK, on those days I usually left with a helluva headache but the work was appreciated.)

Oddly enough, this all worked out in my favor. Before management realized it, they had an employee who could fill in anywhere and had demonstrated a willingness and ability to be thrown into any situation. My mantra was "I don't know how to do that but if you assign it to me, I'll figure it out."

Other employees hated me. I was required to stay in the office for 8 hours but I spent way too much time apparently doing nothing. They thought I was lazy. Some managers, outside my chain of command, held the same opinion. I wasn't at my desk with my head down all day so they also though I must be lazy. My chain of command knew better, thankfully.

I said all that to say this: Impressions and reality frequently diverge. I've known more than one lazy employee who was not lazy; they were simply capable of doing the work assigned to them in a more efficient fashion than management anticipated.

I love people who are so "lazy" they figure out easier ways to do stuff, to streamline workflows, to accomplish more with less. There's an old saying in sysadmin work that your best sysadmin is probably the one sitting at his desk, doing nothing, with his feet propped up, reading a comic book. Why? Because he's got all his shit working perfectly and he's just minding the store. If something dies, he'll fix it...but his job is to make sure nothing dies.

While I went through various phases of my career, I spent almost 10 years as a floater. Despite having a specific job title, I was lent by my management to anyone and everyone, all over the country, if they had some crazy stuff to do that required someone willing to plunge into something new or dirty or complex, get it done, and get out. This was not a path to advancement in the organization but it was a great way to earn the trust of a wide variety of people who came to appreciate that I was so lazy that I could be counted on to figure out how to get things done...so I could go back to being lazy.

Thus, I'm intensely interested in the answer, that I don't think I've seen yet, to:

Does he get done what he's supposed to in his 7 hours?

If he gets the job done, he's not lazy. He's efficient.

If he's not doing the work, of course, a whole 'nother set of circumstances is in play.

And if the amount of work is effectively infinite so that no productivity level can possibly knock it out, thus creating an expectation by management that all employees must spend every second of every full 8 hours per day engaged in a furious pace of work, then the organization itself is screwed up in a dozen systemic ways that have nothing to do with one employee who shorts the system an hour a day.

 

[peeps]

Nice post Ben; I noticed we haven't heard the answer to that question too. ;-)
The problem with a lot of management is if they see someone coasting (due to their efficiency) they want that employee to continue to find something to do - despite it being out of their scope of work.

Most hardworking people would find something productive to do, but how is that fair to the employee if they get paid the same as others? It's up to management to find appropriate compensation, and if they don't? Well, then you could have a situation like we see here where they take off early.

Still waiting on the answer to the question! Is he a hard worker? Does he do an 8 hr job in 7?

 

[robertc1024]

I understand the efficiency thing, however his job is in research. If somebody fails to find something to research for the time he's getting paid for, he's not doing his job - too much information out there. Being salaried, I understand when someone has to leave for an hour for a doctor's appt. etc. No biggie. This was chronic though - and he admitted as much when presented with the evidence.

 

[Sugar Land]

I work in R&D and it is hard to put a time on it.

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

It really depends on the job and the specific situation. No one person's situation may be analogous to the position Robert's talking about.

Sometimes the expectation is hours. Sometimes the expectations is more project completion oriented. Sometimes a balance of both.

Bottom line is to clearly set expectations and hold them accountable. Sounds like this guy knew what was expected and didn't meet expectations.

 

[robertc1024]

It really depends on the job and the specific situation. No one person's situation may be analogous to the position Robert's talking about.

Sometimes the expectation is hours. Sometimes the expectations is more project completion oriented. Sometimes a balance of both.

Bottom line is to clearly set expectations and hold them accountable. Sounds like this guy knew what was expected and didn't meet expectations.

That about sums it up.

 

[DMC]

Thanks Ben.

 

[peeps]

Thanks for clarification robert, makes sense!

 

[bones_708]

If you have to be in the office then you have to be there. I will say that I sure hope that the person is never asked to ever work overtime because then you are cheating him at least as bad as you believe he is cheating you. I also find it interesting that nothing at all has been said about his work, just about how much time he is in the office. So if he came in on time and got less done he'd be golden? Is he your least productive researcher? The boss get to make the call but it sure seems more about "do it my way" then do it the best way.