No one is lazy. Just disengaged.
And the problem with labelling someone as lazy? We shut the door on the possibility they could ever be more than that.
I used to be freewheeling – like terrible – in labelling people as lazy.
That guy who didn’t work extra hours to nail a deliverable? Obviously lazy.
That woman who wouldn’t go to uni in her spare time to get the degree she needed for the job she wanted? So lazy.
But then something happened when I started to:
- Grow out of my protracted early-career adolescence
- Connect with these people on a human level
I came to understand that these people had career histories and lives outside of work that couldn’t simply be written off as an embodiment of laziness. Without exception, they all revealed periods and pursuits where they were incredibly dedicated and engaged in what they were doing.
This realisation shattered the illusion of my black and white world where people were neatly categorised as either hard working or lazy.
Instead, it turns out things are a lot more nuanced than that.
What I realised is that we all experience periods and contexts where we’re disengaged. Sometimes so profoundly so that we become disengaged with life itself.
If we’re lucky, these periods might only last a few weeks or months. If we’re not, they could last many years. Or a lifetime.
The problem with writing people off as lazy is that it lets both the manager and the person off the hook. Laziness is unchangeable. It’s a dead end. As managers, there’s nothing we can do with that if we consider someone unchangeably lazy.
But if we seem them as disengaged, that gives us somewhere to go. Somewhere to exercise our curiosity to understand the complex human behind the lazy appearance. To understand what makes them tick. And what guidance, support and – importantly – accountability they might require to re-engage with their work.
And, of course, sometimes the person will be such a fundamentally poor fit for the role that they cannot be engaged. And that – despite reasonable direction, support and time – they can’t address the performance issues. In which case it’s our role as managers to kindly move them on, to give our team a chance to grow and the individual a chance to find a better fitting role where they can be engaged again.
But there’s no need to demonise them. We simply recognise that the role isn’t the right fit. And that’s ok. That doesn’t make them a bad person. Or diminish the team’s need to find someone who is.
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