What do you do about co-workers or employees who don’t pull their weight? Sheila Norman-Culp has taken a look at that situation and interviewed a few experts, including yours truly.
In the American workplace these days, teams are the hot commodity. And where there’s a team, there’s always one person whom others feel is not pulling their own weight.
So should the lazy worker be put on notice? Get more training? Be promoted? Be fired? Don’t laugh — experts say every one of those solutions could work.
I’m quoted as saying that the only cure for lazy employees is to fire a few of them, to put the fear of God into the rest. Or something like that – it’s been a while I since I talked to Sheila, I honestly can’t remember.
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fire all lazy workers
Ha, great post.
I remember at school I hated teamwork so much! I’d always end up doing most of the work, while the rest of the “team” did nothing. Yet we were all awarded roughly the same grade.
A team really is only as strong as it’s weakest link… and the weakest link either needs to be improved or removed.
But I also believe that many teams are ineffective because of a poor leader that can’t bring out the most in each member.
Matthew
http://www.InspirationToAchieve.com
James Baldwin said, “People do not wish to be worse, they really wish to become better, but they often do not know how.”
I think the leadership factor is the most important point. While there are always a few who “need to be fired” I think it’s up to the leader of the group to determine what each individual can best bring to the group. As part of that process they will need to determine the unique needs of that individual so they can find the appropriate ways to motivate them.
Working with human resource leaders in a variety of companies for the past two decades, I find that many of them are not tuned to the actual needs of the employer or employee. Caught up in the tempests of downsizing, compliance demands, acquisitions, mergers, and reorganizations, they are engaged in activities that have little to do with their central mission of filling a position with the right individual, instead looking at their own profit margin by providing a