We’ve all known slow people. I’m not talking about people who are mentally challenged (or whatever the current term for retarded is). I’m not talking about people who are physically impaired. I’m talking about those people who seem to be stuck in first gear.
I work with a guy like that. Friend of mine. But Jesus Christ he…is…so…effin’…slooooowwwwwwww. Takes him three or four times longer to do something as anyone else. And he doesn’t do it better so you can’t say he’s just anal. I think it’s laziness. Gets him out of doing other stuff. Drives me insane. I once tried to move as slowly as he does and couldn’t. I really think you could set him fire and he’d just kinda stand there saying “Oh. I’m on fire. Hurts.” as he trudges oh-so-slowly to fetch a fire extinguisher.
So is he just being lazy or is there some rare malady that causes slowness? :dubious:
Back in the early 90s I worked for a research company in Wyoming as an accountant. Our accounts payable clerk (a real gem of an employee by the way) had been complaining about a check she had written. It had been a couple of months and still hadn’t made it to the bank. She had called and yes it was at the guy’s desk and he’d get right on it.
Another month goes by and still nothing. I wanted an excuse to get out of the office for a bit so I volunterred to walk over to the guy’s office and talk to him about it.
Got there and the fellow met me at the door. I told him what I wanted and he said the check was still on his desk and he’d get right on it. I said something like, “Well, let’s just toodle on back there and I’ll help you.” So off we went down the hall.
I’m a long way from a fast walker but in the less than 100 feet I had to stop twice and wait for him.
We finially get there and he rummages around a bit and turns up a stack of checks. It was easily an inch, maybe inch and half, thich. Of which ours was one.
I’m amazed. There had to have been thousands of dollars there, maybe tens of thousands. A number of them were older than ours.
So I had to ask, “How come you haven’t taken these to the bank?”
Sometimes when I catch up to people walking I will slow down to their pace rather than overtake, particularly if overtaking would mean I have to cut back across them quickly or do something else rude but some people walk so god-damned slow I almost fall over trying to match their pace. It baffles me how they cross the road without getting mown down, they would need a solid 2 minute gap in traffic to make it across.
I’m not slow in any other way, but I’m a terribly slow eater. I chew slower than most people, I have some troubles swallowing sometimes, I have some teeth issues - mostly it’s just the way I was born, though. I would assume most slow people are the same - just the way they are.
Most people move so slowly it hurts my feelings. Seriously, I simply don’t understand and am honestly offended by the way most people shuffle about their daily business as though they’re made of time, and no one else’s time matters. If it were up to me, the Golden Rule would be “Move faster, or move to the right.”
Hmmm…I don’t think that answers the question. I wouldn’t say I’ve enjoyed my jobs…some of them were OK but boring, some I’ve downright hated, but none of them were fun. I still tend to do tasks quickly because I just tend to do everything quickly.
I agree I have hated many of the jobs I have had. I mean I worked at McDonald’s of all places years ago and I still worked fast. And there were people there that I wanted to punch in the face because they moved so slow. But having a job you hate doesn’t give you a reason to be a slacker.
Well, true, but I’m not claiming that I’ve always done my jobs to the best of my ability.
Sometimes I move quick and do a good, efficient job, and sometimes it’s quick and maybe a little sloppy…I just tend to move quickly. And, I suppose some people probably react to having a job they don’t like by trying to get tasks done and over with ASAP, vs. losing interest and dragging it out.
And conversely, someone may go slow because they enjoy their job and want to do it well and thoroughly.
Are these slow people big and/or heavy? Because I have noticed that it’s the small, light people who are all the fastest ones (and this makes sense - they have less mass for their muscles to cart around.
I am a fairly slow person. Also, pretty tall. And yeah, it’s just the way I am. If I can leverage my size (eg, walking somewhere) I can do okay, but anything requiring moving backwards and forwards and I’m just shot.
Doesn’t help that I’m clumsy too, so if I try to do things quickly I make a mess, knock things over, and break stuff. So as well as being naturally slow, I’ve also learned to be slow, for my own protection (and everybody else’s)
Well, that’d be fine if others didn’t have to pick up his slack. And he’s the first person to bitch (and he does it quite loudly) if someone else forgets to do something.
Basically it’s okay for him to move slowly and half-ass everything but if you only stock nine loaves of bread instead of ten he’ll cuss you out.
The walking is the worst, when you have to walk with these people. I admit, I am a fast walker, but I am willing to come part way to meet you. It’s when we slow down to a crawl that I am like WTF? I am not saying that you should do everything fast, but efficiency is apparently an unheard of concept in their minds.
And that check story would have made me want to beat him with the checks. That’s people’s money! You do not mess with people’s money.
When my sister came home from the Army, she all-of-a-sudden started walking twice as fast as everyone else. My brother and I were always yelling at her to slow down and wait for us. Then I went and came back. My sister and I would yell at my brother to catch up. Then he went and came back.
Now our SOs yell at us to wait for them.
So my suggestion to you, OP, is to get the guy drafted.
Where are you from, and where is he from? I find that people from larger cities tend to move much faster than people from the country. It may just be simply a matter of differing upbringings - a pace of life thing.
My mom has gotten slow over the years, mainly in walking and I assume it has to do with age. I was watching her gait once and noticed she doesn’t step forward. She tends to rock back and forth to walk, a lot like this wind up toy. I’m not sure why she does this, I’m a touch worried her hips or knees are getting a little worn out with age.
But I had a roommate in college who was genuinely slow. It was like every single thing he did was a series of discreet movements and not one fluid process.
For example, I “tied my shoe”.
My roommate didn’t “tie his shoe”. He pulled evenly on both laces until the criss-crossing over the top of his foot felt snug, then he crossed the laces, then he fed one lace under the other lace using the index finger of his right hand, then he pulled the two laces to make them tighter using the thumb and fore finger of each hand gripping the ends of each lace, then he used his left forefinger and his left thumb to make a loop, about three inches long, with the left lace, then he wrapped the lace on the right once around the base of this loop, then he fed a loop of right lace under the left lace using his right forefinger again, then he pulled, both loops until they tightened to be snug.
The people you call slow are just doing what they do with care and caution instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off, bumping into everyone, going the wrong way, and causing the chaos that the ‘slow’ people have to clean up after. Unless they’re slower than me, and then they’re just idiots.
