# I'm a lazy-ass employee **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 17, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071 "2012-04-17T18:54:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![With\_Rye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/838e76/32.png) [@With\_Rye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/With_Rye)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/1 "2012-04-17T18:54:27Z")
I feel bad about it, thinking about unemployed people and all, but eh, I’m not one to give 110% every day on the field. I give more like 50%. (The Dope gets the other half, natch.) I’m incredibly lucky. I feel ungrateful, of course, taking from my company and not giving back all that much. I can’t summon enough will to care about what I do. I heard this changes when people find a career they like, and when their work starts to mean something to them. I can’t wait until that happens. ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/2 "2012-04-17T20:08:47Z")
No prob…cash your big Earned Income Credit check and buy something nice for yourself. You deserve it every bit as much as the rest! ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/3 "2012-04-17T20:17:02Z")
Don’t feel too bad about it - that super hard-working 110%er that’s unemployed is a myth. Everyone is lazy. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/4 "2012-04-17T20:40:55Z")
I can’t tell of the responses are sarcastic or not. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/5 "2012-04-17T21:58:14Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > I can’t tell of the responses are sarcastic or not. Maybe you need to work harder at it. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/6 "2012-04-17T22:31:06Z")
> [@With\_Rye](#): > > I give more like 50%. (The Dope gets the other half, natch.) Naturally. With the unemployment rate so high, this board practically gets ignored. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/7 "2012-04-17T23:44:54Z")
Moving from retail work to office work has taught me that there seems to be an inverse relationship between payscale and hard work (at least at entry-level). The people who get paid the least (retail, toilet scrubbers, unskilled caretakers of elderly) work the hardest. I pull down double minimum wage and work about half as hard as I did in retail. It’s sad but true; who you know and the impressions you make matter much more than what you can do. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/8 "2012-04-17T23:49:22Z")
I used to care. Then I got the boss from hell. So now I don’t ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/9 "2012-04-18T05:52:54Z")
I have the same problem. I just cannot maintain concentration on my work for very long. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/10 "2012-04-18T07:15:55Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Moving from retail work to office work has taught me that there seems to be an inverse relationship between payscale and hard work (at least at entry-level). Yep! My bosses do jack shit and get paid 3x as much as me. It’s a cruel world. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/11 "2012-04-18T10:27:03Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Moving from retail work to office work has taught me that there seems to be an inverse relationship between payscale and hard work (at least at entry-level). The people who get paid the least (retail, toilet scrubbers, unskilled caretakers of elderly) work the hardest. I pull down double minimum wage and work about half as hard as I did in retail. It’s sad but true; who you know and the impressions you make matter much more than what you can do. Also the penalties for screwing up. You can wreck a Fortune 500 company and walk away with a golden parachute. If you screw up in retail, you’re fired. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/12 "2012-04-18T10:42:39Z")
Yeah, hard work only applies to physically challenging, minimum wage positions. Anyone who sits at a desk in a climate-controlled environment with indoor plumbing nearby and a computer at hand can’t possibly work hard. It’s physically impossible. Buncha slackers. OK, maybe not totally slackers - I’m sure part of the time they’re thinking hard about how to spend all the loot they’re raking in… ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/13 "2012-04-18T16:40:55Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Moving from retail work to office work has taught me that there seems to be an inverse relationship between payscale and hard work (at least at entry-level). The people who get paid the least (retail, toilet scrubbers, unskilled caretakers of elderly) work the hardest. I pull down double minimum wage and work about half as hard as I did in retail. It’s sad but true; who you know and the impressions you make matter much more than what you can do. Yup. I used to care so much about the early ‘unskilled’ jobs I had, and used that same metric when I started working an office job. Now, I’m a [honey badger](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/honey-badger), but so is everyone I work with. I stay more productive than a lot of people I work with but boggle at how much less work it is anyway. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/14 "2012-04-18T16:45:39Z")
I don’t work well without consequences, and when I start to slip up and… nothing comes of it, that starts the beginning of dangerous cycle in which it becomes a game to see how much I can phone it in and still maintain stellar reviews. I’m beginning to think that pit is bottomless. Of course, in interviews, I’ll play up what a self-starter, take-initiative guy I am. Lies. All lies! Unless I actually enjoy the job and the tangible rewards of a hard week’s work. Then it’s true. But those jobs are quite rare. ETA: the most gratifying job I ever had was the summer in college I spent landscaping. At the end of the day, when I could physically perceive that I’d moved tons of gravel or built a substantial portion of a retaining wall, I was as close to fulfilled with my workday as I imagine is humanely possible. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/15 "2012-04-18T16:49:46Z")
I had a lazy as employee for years. My pay raises are merit based, so she never got a raise until minimum wage was increased. It actually worked well for me, and allowed me to be more generous with the hard workers. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/16 "2012-04-19T03:13:28Z")
I went from being in an underfunded network engineering position, where every accoimplishment was something I could feel proud of…sure, OTHER parts of the machine were seriously fucked up, but at least my part of the world was in order, and I felt was a better place as a result… …to a VERY high level policy position. All soft skills. I have no CLUE if I’m doing good job, if I’m making a difference, or if the place would be better or worse without me. Still working for the same pay I had (in 96…less losses in benefits and no COLA) as a network security engineer. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-a-lazy-ass-employee/619071/17 "2012-04-19T03:45:23Z")
That’s what Homer Simpson said: > [@](#): > > You don’t like your job, you don’t strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That’s the American way.