We all know that guy who somehow always manages to evade finishing his work, right? They’re out the door faster than your manager can ask “who has extra capacity?” The dude who always has ‘already bought tickets to the new Star Wars movie’ or has his kid’s ‘flute concert’ as the reason he can’t work on Saturday. He’s the dreaded lazy colleague – the one team member who always gets by with never doing enough, leaving his slack to inevitably be picked up by you (forcing you to sell your tickets on GumTree)
Though, when your forte isn’t dealing with ‘touchy-feely’ type convos or like ‘people’ in general, how do you go about dealing with this issue? Here are our top five tips to dealing with a lazy colleague;
The naught kid principle
Remember how your teachers gave all the attention to the naughty kids, and would most often forget that you even existed? It’s the principle of life, the naughty kid gets all the attention. So, try not to focus on how lazy your colleague is or how little he did today, or how he trolls Tinder all day pretending to like gardening more than Star Wars. Don’t give him the pleasure of attention. Focusing on it will just get you riled up, and will take your eye off your work.
Life ain’t fair, so deal with it
No-one said it was, so the sooner you accept it the better. Bridges burn, people die (reference courtesy of The Crow) and that’s how it is. Focusing on how unfair it is, won’t change it. It rather just feeds the negativity and makes your working day less cool.
Don’t gossip
Your mom really was right, no-one likes a Gossip! It’s never cool to be the guy who talks behind people’s backs, or moans about everyone but never has the balls to deal with it directly.
Don’t let their work become your problem
Don’t be Mr Nice Guy who gets schmoozed into taking on the lazy guy’s slack. If he can’t deal with the work load he needs to take it up with the manager himself, point blank. Be firm and cool about it but stand your ground in saying, “sorry dude, but I have my own work to finish here.”
Believe in Karma, and if that doesn’t work deal with the issue yourself
So, when all else fails, and Karma has not been as swift as you’d hoped, it’s time to deal! Whether it be discussing the issue and its impact on you and your team with your manager, or dealing with the lazy-one directly. Talking about the problem, its negative impacts, and possible solutions would be the best way to resolve most (in fact any) issue.
If you’ve tried everything and the lazy guy is still getting away with it, it might be time to look for something new. Send your CV to e-Merge, we have the perfect company for you.
