In defense of lazy Employees

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan
Ok sure , I have some very old dictionarys and they both say trick and when I did check it on the computer it is not the first explanation but it is there a bit further down.
You seem pretty determined that I am wrong or am I imagining that, whatever just having my 2 cents cheers 1%

Ok you got me on a tec point

Are they lazy or smart? I've seen people act like they couldn't handle the job until the got put on something easy for the same pay as the hard job. The company doesn't care WHO runs what, as long as it get's done. The fair factor about who's doing the most work is their last concern. When the day comes and your backs shot from busting your ass all those years the ones that took it easy will be the ones enjoying their later years. Companies today will use you for all they can get and send you packing when your used up. You got one body, if you want to use it making somebody else rich , so be it. Your nothing but an expense to them.

a reply to: Indigent

That's the same argument they use on China's work force.

originally posted by: tadaman
a reply to: James1982

So basically you are saying that ALL business owners are bad and think the way you described and because of that all lazy employees are justified.

Nope.

People like that should starve and by the hunger in their bellies they should then be motivated to find bread to bring to their mouth.

OR

You dont act like a jerk and help as much as you can, making the whole experience that much more pleasant and productive for yourself and others .

Lazy bad employees can close down a business sending all their coworkers to dire ends.

Thats what you want? Average people losing their life´s work after incredible sacrifices and for their employees to lose the stability and prosperity that work brings after the business suffers and they are let off? ....just so lazy people can chill?

I want to insult you for making this thread..lol. I will just say that and leave it there.

EDIT TO ADD:
I have worked in some great places where everyone was motivated and worked like it was their business. In one place, We never saw so much money...WHY? Because after we tripled sales, our salaries were tripled. We worked like a boss and were treated like one. It wasnt glamorous, but we ended up running the place and did what we wanted...which was MAKE MONEY as easily as possible.

The "do little or do nothings" never understood that. They didnt last and last I checked on some of them, they still dont get it, hence why they never moved on to better things. Still someone else´s CRAP employee.

If you cant find pride in your honest work for its well done completion then you will never be satisfied with anything less than a winning lottery ticket. That really is pathetic.

The disillusioned rock star generation....no talent, no ambition, nothing....but the want of riches for little to no work.
I am not sorry for them. They usually ruin good things for everyone else.

Not all business owners follow the practice of skating by with the legal bare minimum wage, just like not all employees are lazy. But businesses are held in high esteem either way, where as employees are usually cared far less about even when they are excellent ones.

It's about the balance of power not only in practical terms but in people's minds. Employees are seen as a dime a dozen where as companies are seen as important and valued. Currently because of the economy that is true, employees are a dime a dozen, I'm not trying to discuss the reasons WHY this is the case, it's pretty obvious, what I'm trying to discuss is whether it's RIGHT. It's simply predatory behavior that is looked down upon when perpetrated by "normal" people but when perpetrated by large corporations it's seen as standard procedure or even as something positive.

A perfect example of how some segments of society attack welfare moochers and their kind, well, are they breaking the law? No? Then quit complaining. Because you say that businesses are allowed to behave in a predatory manner (taking advantage of economic conditions to treat employees badly) which they are, legally, just like most of the people seen as "low" for mooching welfare are doing it legally. But both are wrong, that's why I'm trying to get at here.

You can defend what is legal, or you can defend what is right, but you can't switch between the two whenever it suits your goals. In most cases there is nothing illegal about unchecked greed, but why don't we as a society view it as wrong, like we view welfare mooches and those taking advantage of tax loopholes?

I'm not talking about small business paying what they can, I've worked for small business as well as large corporations in the past and the small businesses always paid better, even if not much, and treated their employees to a higher standard, and in response employees cared more about their jobs and put more honest effort in.

When a company is massive, taking in record profits, and treating the majority of their employees like dirt there is nothing illegal going on, they aren't going to change until we as a society start disapproving of that behavior. Just like the poster earlier who mentioned they try to avoid doing business with companies that treat their employees well.

You can put the face of a hard working business owner on a large corporation but that's a farce, regardless of what the law says a corporation is not a person, when it was taken public it becomes a nameless faceless entity with no sense of responsibility.

originally posted by: FyreByrd
a reply to: James1982

I've been enjoying this thread. It has an interesting proposition and I find it interesting that so many are not, in fact, responding to that proposition at all but reading into in all manner of things that simply are not there.

I too, was raised, to do the best I could in whatever I did; however I was also raised with the concept that respect and loyality go both ways, up and down, and that it starts with employers treating their employees with respect and loyality.

That said, the OP makes an excellent case for the "just lazy enough to keep the job employee". If the ideal is that Employers only treat there employees with the least regard as possible (to supposedly increase profits) then it only follows that an employee should only do the least required to retain their position.

Leaders lead best by example - and the OP is only stating what many employers are teaching their employees by their own actions.

Never require somebody to do something that you won't do yourself - another thing I was taught.

Thank you very much for you post, I'm glad you understood the point being made. I use examples and stories to demonstrate ideas in threads, and it seems like most of the time the idea is lost and people just respond to the specifics of the examples used.

Like you I was raised to work hard, I've never been fired from a job and always was recognized for my work ethic. The only problem is the recognition usually consisted of pats on the back, increased responsibility without pay, new titles without pay, and more responsibility. But it's not about jobs I've worked, it's about the idea that you noted that it all goes both ways, if an employer wants to provide the bare minimum to their employees they shouldn't expect their employees to provide much more.

originally posted by: kelbtalfenek

originally posted by: James1982
I appreciate the replies guys but you really aren't addressing the topic.

Why is it OK for an employer to do the bare minimum, but not the employee?

^^That's this thread distilled down for anyone confused. I'd appreciate it if we could stay on topic.

What you are forgetting about is the blood and sweat that the owner put into building his business, the sleepless nights and the sacrifices of time, money and effort.

In my line of work I'm exposed to business owners all the time, mostly construction and landscaping companies, as well as their employees. The one thing that most of them have in common is: they work a lot of hours. Heck, I know one owner that hasn't taken a day off from work for over 10 years. Even when his guys are off, he's working...writing estimates, repairing vehicles, organizing and prepping for the next job. If he took a day off and was lazy, maybe the world would stop turning.

Now to address lazy employees: If the culture for the employees is to be lazy, I'm not going to work there. I don't want to just "get by" I want a job where I'm challenged and have to constantly rise to meet the challenges.

So sorry, I don't see where it's acceptable that employees are lazy. Especially if they're working for sustenance.

I addressed this in another post but I should have been more specific about it in the OP, I'm talking more about larger corporations not small business and companies where a guy as built it from the ground up. I've worked for one very small operation where I worked directly under the original owner. It was probably the best job I had, everyone was treated excellent, pay wasn't awesome but more than fair for that line of work. Because he built that company and worked hard he understood, he respected hard work, and didn't accept laziness. That's how it should be.

When like I mentioned in another post when a company makes billions and pays their employees minimum wage and refuses full time work, or gets clever with hours and days to avoid overtime and the like, that's a totally different situation than a small business owner paying what he can. If your hard work isn't recognized and gets you nowhere past where the lazy employees are, the employer is failing at something and shouldn't be respected for simply because "they provide jobs" Well "employees provide labor" both are just as meaningless to say. You need both for the system to work, and there should be a mutual respect.

I have a driver's license and a car now, but fuel prices, insurance and maintenance costs are getting so high that the numbers don't really work unless I ride my bicycle or take the bus anyway.

The car really only gets used for getting groceries and getting somewhere quickly or hauling a bigger load than I can on a bicycle with a trailer, or for when it's raining.

Another thread I started is about taking a canoe north from Volusia county FL in intra-coastal waterways...

"Why not try to enjoy my time here?" is becoming my motto, because nobody is going to pay me enough to pay someone else for something I can use to enjoy myself anyway, plus paddling a canoe is good for my shoulder which I broke in April 2013 which cost me my last real job.

That's loyalty for you, just let me go and hire someone else, never mind allowing me to recover and get back to work later....

a reply to: jrod

I noticed that most of those who spout the old "work smart, not hard" are more than willing to let someone who isn't just plain out lazy like they are to do their work for them.

a reply to: korath

a reply to: MyHappyDogShiner

Yup I think it's also a case of you get what you pay for . Pay minimum wage get minimum effort same thing with buying building materials. Buy cheap materials don't end up with as good a product.

I presently do handyman work for a guy who does exactly that, buys cheap stuff that isn't necessarily for a specific purpose and build and fabricate things from those parts.

Sometimes getting the wrong parts to work isn't so hard, sometimes it's a real pain, most times I stand to earn a few bucks keeping rinky dink cobble jobs working though.

The best thing I ever learned was how to do this computer stuff because with all the information available online it's possible to get information on how to get the wrong parts to work, frequently on a YouTube tutorial....

As an aside, it's really amazing how much stuff is literally online now like these smart TV's and so on, the guy I work for has smart everything, water heater, TV and entertainment system, whole house backup generator, security cameras and alarms, even his elevator is online so he can bring it down to the ground floor of his house with a smart phone.

Little does he know that his entire house could be taken over by a hacker, some kid in a basement who can access information online and get the default access codes to nearly everything in his house and do as he pleases with it, nor does he realize that all of these things are susceptible to damage from voltage surges, dropouts or static discharges like a simple lightning strike nearby.

It becomes a real pain in the ass to keep all of his trinkets up and running but it keeps me pseudo employed while simultaneously I am learning more and more about these things all the time, which in turn makes me wonder where the world is actually headed with all of this technology just waiting to fail when we are becoming so dependent on it.

I am one of the original Low-Techs like on Johnny Mnemonic, the more I learn about this stuff, the less I like dealing with it and watching people become more helpless and lazy because of all of this technology.

Similar technologies are causing problems for workers here too, as in eliminating jobs and reducing the number of employees needed to do certain jobs in nearly all fields, even digging holes....

Anyway, I just try to make the best of it without worrying much about things.

You can only do so much before you are doing little more than beating your head on a wall....



a reply to: ArtemisE