Jeff Jolton -
Organizations
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 7:27:57 AM
There are many different ways that people are dysfunctional at work. Perhaps those that irk the most people are those that do the least.
These are the people who are committed to staying at the company, but aren’t engaged. That is, they aren’t making a meaningful contribution, but they aren’t going anywhere either.
You know exactly who they are too. They are the one’s you wonder “why are you here?” or are afraid to have included on your project team. Some appear quite content, just non-productive. They just “are” – occupying space in your organization. Others fall at the other end of the satisfaction scale, complaining about anything and everything… but never proposing solutions or taking action to make it better.
Ladies and Gentlemen – meet the Slackeys.
The Happy Slackeys are those who harbor no real dissatisfaction with the company. They just come to work, punch the proverbial (or literal) clock, and maintain some level of minimally acceptable, or just barely not unacceptable, job performance. They are friendly and pleasant, but really are not doing anything. They don’t see any issue with their behavior. In fact, are shocked, SHOCKED!, to receive feedback that they aren’t meeting performance standards, or could do better.
The other variation is The Whiney Slackeys. Unlike their content brethrens, these are employees who complain about everything wrong with the company. Nothing is good enough, or right. Management never makes the right decisions. It is always someone else’s fault, or the system is messed up. These are the people if you ask “How are things going?” you get the response “Sucks as usual.” Despite their apparent clarity in all that is wrong in the world, they do little to make things better or more positive. Why should they? The joy they get is in making the rest of the world look bad.
Whenever someone talks about an employee with an "attitude problem," they are probably talking about a Whiney Slackey.
[A quick sidenote: There are some truly engaged individuals who also make a lot of constructive critical comments about their organizations. These individuals, however, are working to be part of the solution. They offer suggestions for improvement, take initiative, and actually work to make the situation better. These a great people to have in your company – they are engaged, action-oriented, and wanting the best for the company. Whiney Slackeys are none of these things.]
Slackeys are allowed to flourish when organizations fail to hold people accountable to standards of performance, fail to provide honest and direct feedback about performance, and don’t communicate clear standards of performance. Slackeys often fly just under the poor performance radar. They aren’t your worse performers because they don’t want to leave the organization. They are committed to staying as long as they can. They just aren’t going to make a real contribution either.