Talent & Tech Asia Summit 2024
human resources online

Four proven ways to tackle lazy colleagues

From bad pantry manners to poor phone habits, it is never easy for everyone in the office to get along. Besides colleagues with annoying personal habits, colleagues who slack off at work are the worst. These lazybones slow down the progress of the team and in some cases force others to do the work for them.

To help you deal with slackers at work, the team at heawork has put together four tips.

1. Breathe down their neck A proactive approach towards tackling lazy colleagues is to let them know their behaviour is unacceptable. First, come up with a clear plan on division of labour - don't give the slacker any chance to blame others for falling behind schedule. Then, keep pressing them for updates on the progress of their tasks to a point where the slacker has no choice but to work harder.

Another approach is to expose the slacker. Open an excel file to keep track of the work progress of every team member. During team meetings, report the progress to the supervisor. There will be no excuse for the slacker.

2. Fight fire with fireAnother way to beat a slacker is to slack even more. This will slow down the work progress and the entire team will have to stay late to catch up. Slackers are lazy but they also want to go home on time, so the late nights should be able to scare them into working harder for the next project.

3. Positive thinkingWorking with a bunch of slackers means you have a chance to stand out. Work your way up to be the boss and then fire the slackers.

4. The ultimate solutionIf all the suggestions above don't work, it is time to get a new team mate. Be a nice colleague and keep referring recruitment ads to the lazybones. Talk to to him or her about the super-low workload and carefree working environment those jobs offer and hopefully he or she will go for it.

ALSO READ: 12 of the pettiest colleagues you’ll ever meet

Photo/ 123RF

Follow us on Telegram and on Instagram @humanresourcesonline for all the latest HR and manpower news from around the region!

Related topics

Related articles

Free newsletter

Get the daily lowdown on Asia's top Human Resources stories.

We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you're updated on the most important developments in Asia's Human Resources development – for free.

subscribe now open in new window