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Are You Lazy?
I know many people who are lazy. Yes, lazy.
That’s not a word we’re supposed to use
these days. The supposedly more insightful terms
include, “fearful,” “stuck,”
and “procrastinating,”
Yes, sometimes, fears are so severe as to be
paralyzing, but often with reasonable effort, a
person can feel the fear and do it anyway. Those
who don’t make that effort are lazy.
Are you like any of these people?
The Professional Student. School is fun:
You’re always learning new things and doing so
on a pleasant college campus. Plus, you’re not
responsible for anyone but yourself. So,
professional students, after finishing their
bachelor’s degree (usually taking more than
four years) decide to get a graduate degree, often
in an impractical but fun field of study. And if
they do choose a practical field, they don’t
do what non-lazy people do to ensure future
employment: do papers and theses that would enhance
their employability and build relationships with
potential employers. Instead, a few years after
finishing their second degree, many professional
students contemplate pursuing a third. Thus, they
take, take, take from society, but never
contribute.
The Slacker. They take sick days when
they’re not sick, take family leave using a
bogus excuse, or play on the Internet or chat with
friends during the workday. I had a client who
bragged that she has managed, for 10 years, to hang
on to a 70K a year job at BART while working less
than one hour a day! Slackers don’t think of
the above as stealing from their employers, but
that’s precisely what they’re doing. In
addition, slackers force their already hard-working
co-workers to do the slacker’s work.
The Workers Comp Fraud. This is a variation on
The Slacker. Of course, many workers compensation
claims are legitimate, but many are not. I know. In
my private practice, I’ve had quite a few
clients admit they were malingerers or had
exaggerated their disability’s severity.
The Long-Term Stay-At-Home Parent. Even though
their kids are in school all day, these people
rationalize that it’s better for the kids that
they not work outside the home even during the
school day! This forces the other parent to have a
high-paying career such as manager at a widget
corporation, which is often less rewarding than the
career they’d otherwise choose: for example,
teacher or artist. The unvarnished reason why many
long-term stay-at-home parents don’t look for
a paying job is laziness.
The Phony Job Seeker. These people hide their
laziness by claiming they’re holding out for a
great job. They’re unemployed or employed in a
too-easy or part-time job for a long time, and make
little effort to find that great job, certainly not
the 20 to 30 hours a week that all career experts
recommend.
I find it hard to believe that such people, as
they put their heads on the pillow each night, feel
good about themselves
I’m hoping this column is a wakeup call. If
you see yourself in any of the people above, ask
yourself, “Do I really want to live my life as
a lazy person? Is that the role model I want to
provide to my children? When I’m looking back
on my life, how will I feel that I was a lazy
person?”
The irony is that work, along with love,
enhances your life more than anything. And I mean
anything. Whether you’re a clerk or a CEO,
knowing you are contributing to making the world
run will make you feel good about who you are. You
will have legitimately earned good self-esteem.
There is no cure for depression more potent than
throwing yourself into work. And of course,
there’s the money. The harder (and smarter)
you work, the more money you will likely make.
Advice I’d Give My Child
Fortunately, my child is far from lazy. But if
she were, I’d first ask, “Amy, compare
yourself not to fellow slackers, but to the people
you most admire. How much harder do they work than
you do? Do they seem less or more happy than you
are? Are they more or less financially
successful?
Then I’d tell her to try to go cold turkey:
“Amy, from this moment on, instead of using
that good brain of yours to figure out ways to
avoid doing work, think of all the ways you could
be as productive as possible. Try it for a week,
even a day. See if you’re happier or
sadder.
© 2007, Marty
Nemko
* * *
Marty
Nemko holds a PhD from the University of
California, Berkeley, and subsequently taught in
Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. He is
the worklife columnist in the Sunday San Francisco
Chronicle and is the producer and host of Work With
Marty Nemko, heard Sundays at 11 on 91.7 FM in
(NPR, San Francisco), and worldwide on
www.martynemko.com
 .
400+ of his published writings are available free
on that website and is a co-editor of
Cool
Careers for Dummies.
and author of The All-in-One College Guide.
E-Mail.
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