How to Handle These 5 Kinds of Lazy Employees

Someone who is lazy is a disastrously bad employee. It is almost impossible to motivate someone who just doesn’t want to work, leaving a business owner with no other choice but to discipline and dismiss. Here are some types of lazy employees who can harm your business.

1. The Victim.

Employees who are not afraid to make things up to get out of work responsibilities are called the victims. They know hundreds of excuses to call in late and they memorized them by heart, from flat tires on the way in to work to sick pets or children. The best way to deal with it is to document this type of behavior early on and don’t stop.

Make sure you’ve documented it all so by the time a fifth or seventh excuse is thrown at you the pattern is apparent and doesn’t continue that long before you need to take action and call them out.

2. The Delegator.

Delegators are lazy persons who ironically put so much effort just to avoid work. Usually, those who are overly career-conscious people do this – they constantly push work off on everyone else even without being in a supervisory position. Worst case scenarios, they can force morale into a downward spiral and risk your reputation, especially if he or she eventually begins pushing work off on clients so you must check in regularly with the delegator and keep tabs on the size of their workload.

Assign work to them specifically and call them on it and discipline them when they violate this.

3. The Procrastinator.

You must be very strict with scheduling for employees who turn procrastination into an art. These are the type of people who love to wait until the last minute to do their job on a major project, leaving their team anxious and frustrated. Procrastinators simply love pushing work off to another day while they waste time on non-essential tasks on a daily-operations basis.

Set certain deadlines or quick meetings for them every so often that will force them to make progress and know they are accountable.

4. The Vanisher.

Vanishers are one of the hardest employees to discipline because their "offenses" often occur in areas with poorly defined regulations. These are employees who are always MIA and go invisible at odd times without explanation. They tend to take two-hour lunches, mysteriously lengthy breaks, or will simply call in sick on a very important day and shows up late on the day of an important meeting. They always let you down and force their team to pick up the slack.

Employers must set clearly defined time expectations for vanishers and enforce them firmly and consistently.

5. The Troublemaker.

The troublemakers are some of the hardest lazy workers to deal with because they may not actually be breaking any rules but are still somehow disturbing the work environment. They can often be seen wandering from desk to desk, gossiping about co-workers and may even conduct the same kind of drama-mongering through email or online.

In order to stop them from zapping the productivity of other workers in the office and putting your business at risk of having confidential information exposed, engage and communicate with them to find out what their issues actually are. Stay close to them to potentially make them happier. If it fails or gets too exhausting, work on building a case to let them go.