How do you motivate a lazy employee who refuses to carry his weight?

Question

He is 22 years old and is not bad at his job, but he is a very poor team player. He is one of these who waits for others to do his work for him. You know the type "Oh that's not my department", or "Oh I haven't been taught how to do that yet".
No amount of gentle encouragement has worked yet.
Any suggestions?? Don't tell me to get rid of him, because help is almost impossible to get these days and we are fortunate to have "any" help at all.

Answer 1

Truth seeker... there are many good videos' and training help available. My hubby has trained hundreds of people on being a team player, good customer service, etc. Look into this aspect. Buy some training tapes and start educating these kids. It is their future, teach them how to fish. Tangle raises and incentive programs. I understand they are your assets ( even poor employees). These kinds of tapes can make a difference. I will email you some titles after the weekend as I am about to catch a plane and need to pack. Also I starred this question so all of my contacts can see it!

Answer 2

You already prevented my first response, which was: Fire him today. (at a minimum, you should begin looking for his replacement because you should fire this guy....it is not worth your time to babysit him while he makes a feeble attempt at growing up). That said...



Plan A: Ship him to Cleveland for a week. I'll fix him for you.



Plan B: Bring him in, close the door. Clearly explain to him his current attitude is counterproductive. Use specific examples like, "Dude, when you say, 'that's not my department,' what you should really say is, "Okay, I'll get right on it." Then later, go to your supervisor and explain what happened. Circle back to the person that gave you the assignment, tell them that you completed it, but in the future, please take it to Dept X. Make it clear his current attitude won't cut it. It sounds like he lived in a home where his parents didn't hold him accountable. Now, the burden falls on you. Treat him like a child until he grows up, or See Plan A. Or fire him.



Also remember, any Manager worth his/her salt lives every day knowing anyone on their team could quit that day. So don't be too afraid about firing him........you CAN live without him until you find a replacement.



One last thought: You are LOSING credibility with your other employees by letting this loser hang around. You will lose good people in the long run.



I took over a department once with a retention problem. All the good people kept quitting. My first week, I identified and fired three losers. The rest of the department couldn't thank me enough for getting rid of those losers. My department didn't have another resignation the next three years, and everytime I had an open req, dozens of internal people applied...because....people knew I didn't put up with losers.



Best of luck. It is never easy. I don't like firing people, but some people simply have to go.

Answer 3

That's a tough one. Some lazy employees just refuse to be motivated. I'd start by positive reinforcement and maybe by giving them small projects to work on -- nothing big or terribly important, but something that will make them feel like they're doing something important. If that doesn't work, the next step would be talking to them about their substandard efforts. Hopefully that will get the mesage across. If not, it's time to start documenting their substandard behavior in very specific terms -- saying they're "too lazy" doesn't cut it. You have to show that they're not meeting expectations or they're late on deadlines or something objective. If all else fails, fire them.

Answer 4

I would have some sort of incentive plan for the employees so they will feel encouraged to do the best they can.

How about a bonus check (every 3 months) where if they really apply themselves you can evaluate their performance then hand them the bonus check after the evaluation and if they are doing poorly they don't get one at all.



Money talks.

Answer 5

When he says it isn't his department, remind him that as a team, whatever is needed is his department.



When he says that he hasn't learned that yet, squeeze the time in and teach him right there and then.



Many have problems finding a job in America, it is to bad he doesn't value his job.

Answer 6

Give him an incentive, idealy, just for him. Something that you know he is good at doing. Create something and ask for his input, something that will be good for the company, as a whole. As he is included, he will become inspired, without you having to push him. Incluse others and their input, so that he is surrounded with support. We all need to feel we have 'purpose' and that we are needed. That we have something to offer , to become a team player.

Some of us just need a little more encouragement to become inspired. :D Many Blessing to all! :D

Answer 7

Sounds to me like that's more burden than help.



However, you will have to implement 'tough love' sort of.



Sit him down and explain what is expected of him and what the consequences of not doing what is expected of him.



For each instance of his shirking dock his pay. If he's not doing his job he shouldn't get paid. Give him a limit of how many times you will put up with this before he's fired and FOLLOW THROUGH!

If he won't shape up you don't really need him.

Answer 8

If the guy is lazy find a replacement.There are lots of people looking for work these days (outsourcing,lay-offs,business downsizing,business take-overs,etc.) If you are his boss you need to let him know to do his work.

Yes,I have worked with people that don't want to do their share.

Answer 9

I would sit down and talk to him about it.



Find out............Is it laziness or is it depression?



He is only 22 years old.

Maybe he does not like his job and forced to work.

Maybe he has something else bothering him and it is effecting his work.



I am not making excuses for him...I am just saying to find out.

Answer 10

I hope you are not talking about me, is he really male and 22??? Because it appears you are my manager! Oh well, even if you are, its good for you to know, so i will share it anyways.





[If that is about me- i would be curious to know how you would know I'm on here...]





I have been doing that, so i have been told recently. I had no idea i do that, because the feedback i have been getting was always positive, and i never understood there were problems like that! yes, i was told i could improve, but i did not see it to be a problem....i thought "i'm good, but i could improve (who couldn't?), OK, sounds like everything is good..."





You may think "Why i didn’t strive to be "THE BEST"?"-



If i was striving for that, i would have planned my life differently. No of course i strive to be the best [as much as i don’t like to admit], but there are different parts to life, and family also... I try hard at home to take care of family.



I want to do good at work, and yes of course i would want to be the best, but i have to do both, which is fine...





Now on "waits for others to do his work for him.":

The culture in which I was brought up (and I’m not using it as excuse, but to give background) does not appreciate initiative.



Initiative is considered to be "pride", and is considered VERY BAD. Yep - opposite of what it is in your culture. The initiative taker will be the worst person...



Why is it that way- i cannot think of reason right now, but this gets very deeply into your behavior. It could have been intentional, they raised us this way so that we can be easily controlled. According to what I knew, the "worst sin" in the Bible was “Pride”!





No i don’t wait for others to do my work, that’s not my thinking AT ALL. These people end up doing my work, because of their culture- the "initiative". And i dont like this, and never did, but I thought I was being a "team player" by "coworking" with them!





By the way, it is not intuitive to me, why they would first offer to help me, and then think it was my work.



I don’t understand why someone would do it in such way... different culture i guess. If they don’t think it is their responsibility- why did they not tell me that? I was under the impression it is "team work". I'm honest. I am not lazy. I do not want others to do my work. But i didn’t feel it was polite of me to be more aggressive.





In my culture people are very straightforward, so we may not understand any hints, we don’t see any reason why a person would not want to say directly what they think. I think in American "working culture" people are very indirect... You know more than me about this!





Also in my culture younger people always yield to older people- that’s considered basic politeness.



I am trying to change this now that I know about this!!

I still feel guilt when trying to be more aggressive, and I will make it a point to ignore this feeling.





So, the reason why I acted that way, is that I was just trying to be a "good"(to my best knowledge), and I felt it would be impolite to be "the aggressor". It would have been BAD, impolite, etc. of me- to fight with them over this work. Lazy? I don’t think anyone is that lazy, that they come to work hoping to not have to do anything. In fact I always feel bad when someone ends up doing what I wanted to do. But I used to give in, because I felt it would have been the politest thing to do.



This is not an excuse- but an explanation…







It was a very BIG shock to me to find out I was “waiting on others to do my work for me”. I wish i would have known about this earlier!!!





If i knew about this problem, i would have worked on it earlier. Now that i know about this, i will be doing my best.





I am not lazy. There was some term like"no engagement." This is the case. I really want to be "engaged"! And I really want to be doing useful work!





It will be hard to do it NOW, because of the shock and depression, and some times I may even be depressed for a few hours here and there!- I need to control my emotions, but sometimes i feel BAD depression attacks, and i will make it a point to compensate for this by working extra hours!!!!!!



I will do good work.



You can be sure of that.



I will hurry up and send this now, before you close the question....



Thanks for asking!!!!

I hope i was able to give some insight...

Answer 11

work or quit