Last Updated on January 6, 2023
We all want to be successful. We work, get things done, and do our best to finish tasks on time. But what if it’s the other way around, and some people choose to do otherwise?
Well, having these guys around your life is normal. They’ll always have excuses to just lounge throughout the day and do nothing but have small talk and sit on the couch.
It could be your family, friends, or co-workers. Their laziness is downright stressful for you. Their laziness can even affect your success. And most of the time, there’s just no way to ditch them out of your life.
That’s why it’s essential to know how to deal with lazy people.
Here are some of the best ways you can deal with these people.
Table of Contents
Be polite but straightforward in communicating
Lazy people are always tired of everything. And this includes reading angry emails from you.
Give them straightforward instructions that show the importance of the task instead of showing your discontent and anger to them.
Keep things professional and upbeat. Note that even lazy people want to get praise. They’ll also do better if there are fewer things to read because they’re lazy in the first place!
Keep things simple
Finding it hard to comprehend long instructions is one of the hallmarks of a lazy person. Giving them tasks that have long and wordy texts would just bug them out.
It’s best to follow the five-sentence approach instead of giving paragraphs of instructions.
You can also lay things out in bullet form, so they’ll think the task is short and easy. Make your communication as simple as possible, so they can easily digest it.
Get down to the most basic requirement. Don’t ask open-ended questions because this leaves much room for vague interpretations. Just state what and when you expect to finish a specific task.
Compliment instead of criticizing
You can’t stop a person’s laziness by criticizing them. Doing this makes them lazier, and they’ll feel demotivated even more.
Go beyond your emotions and think logically. Appreciate their minor achievements even if it’s not essential.
Appreciating them boosts their morale and compliments their work.
Criticizing will just put you into brawls and grudges, especially since lazy people have a bad attitude. Avoid this at all costs by making them feel special even if they’re not.
Choose the path of the least resistance
There’s a difference between laziness and procrastination. While the latter is burdened by the tasks at hand that they can’t get anything done, lazy people don’t want to work at all.
They’ll prefer effortless tasks instead of harder ones, even if the pay is lower.
This means you should assign them low-tier tasks that aren’t vital to your business’ success.
You don’t want to depend heavily on their output because there’s a considerable chance they can’t deliver. Give them simple tasks even if it does little to progress your project.
Patience, patience, patience
Patience is key to overcoming any challenge. The same goes for dealing with lazy people. You must be patient to create a positive working environment.
This also leads to better results instead of showing anger to the lazy person. Quarreling or violently confronting a person pushes them away further. This also makes them more stubborn.
Be patient and understand that they have a negative attitude which makes them lazy. Don’t stress yourself too much.
Remember that you’re above them because you are productive. Keep your temper down and approach them politely once they finish the task.
Keep emotions out
We all get pissed with lazy coworkers and other colleagues. But staying pissed will stress us out. And being stressed just because of lazy people isn’t worth the hassle.
Avoid getting too emotional about their lazy habits and focus on the job that needs to be done. Stick to the task and stay as professional as possible.
You can follow this to control your emotions:
- Breathe slowly and heavily
- Close your eyes and think of nothing
- Go outside and breathe fresh air
- Look at pending tasks positively
It also helps if you write a draft message before emailing them. You can then review this message and remove the emotions before you email.
Don’t think it’s unfair
Accept the fact that life is unfair. You might say it’s unfair because your lazy co-worker gets away with it.
They might have exerted less effort and time. But they didn’t get the experience and skills they needed to succeed.
Always pointing out that it’s unfair makes you feel bad. And it does nothing to help you finish the task. Just focus on how you can be your best self instead of complaining.
Work on your schedule and adjust to the pending tasks. Don’t be too preoccupied with your lazy coworker’s overdue tasks.
You can even work on their tasks yourself so they’ll see how much of a burden they have become. They’ll then feel motivated to fix themselves so they can’t burden other people.
Avoid gossiping
There might be times when you need to let your steam out. One common way to do that is gossiping your friends about how lazy someone is.
It might make you feel good at first. But doing this is wrong. Not only is this unprofessional, but it’ll just create grudges between you and the lazy person.
It will also just stress you out. Keep your disappointment to yourself and talk to the lazy person politely.
Confront them directly instead of talking behind their backs. Gossiping will do nothing to improve their personality. But confronting them about it does!
Proper communication is key
Communicating your disappointments with a lazy person is one of the most effective ways to stop their laziness.
There might also be times when they’re really not lazy and they just were confused with the instructions. Be clear about the task, goals, and deadlines because they can sometimes confuse a person with their own work.
There’s also a time when a person goes through personal problems with their family or self. And this might be the reason they’re unproductive.
Talk to them directly and clearly. Get straight to the point and ask why they can’t complete tasks within a given time-frame or their output quality has waned.
Remove them from your network
Ditch them out of your life if all else fails, and you tried your best to deal with them. Letting them stay inside your network would just drag you down and impact your productivity and work performance. Deal with them first and be patient.
Do the tasks assigned to them if needed. You can remove them from the team or your business once you finish the project. Tolerating people like this gives them a reason to continue with their laziness. You need to teach them a lesson so that they can help themselves.
Conclusion
Knowing how you deal with a lazy person is essential if you want to be successful in your life or career. We can’t avoid lazy people, but we can do something to help them and ourselves.
Be patient, improve communication, directly talk to them about their problems, and assign minor tasks. But don’t tolerate their laziness. Remove them from your network if you can, so you won’t be dragged down along with their unproductivity.
Surround yourself with achievers who think about personal and career growth. Learning how you deal with a lazy coworker or person is essential if you want to be successful. There are different people around you. And it’ll help if you learn how to deal with them.
A writer by day, a tech enthusiast by night, and a mountain biker at the weekends.
After four years in business school and working for multinational clients, Jomar believes he can improve the world through his writings.
Jomar has six years of experience as a writer and has a degree in entrepreneurial marketing. Some of his works have been published on Blokt, Clutch Points, and iTech.
