Top 10 excuses unproductive people always use

It is common for some employees, usually those with a worse attitude towards their work, spend their days complaining and lamenting. They roam the office trying to scavenge candy or playing pranks on colleagues. They are not the only ones who do it: we have all noticed that there are many intermediate positions and even managers of companies that, although their responsibility should be maximum, do not give a blow during their working day.

They are a minority but with their no work ethic or their insecurity can contaminate the good environment and productivity of the entire office.

Unproductive people and their justifications

The following phrases are what these types of workers use to throw balls out about their tasks and their unproductiveness.

1. I have too much work

Unproductive people don't realize that the vast majority of workers in the world have a lot of work.

Unfortunately we live in a time that comes hand in hand with a hectic work pace. The difference between the unproductive subject and the good worker (or boss) is that the latter does not complain about his burdens, he simply does his work.

2. That is not my task

Every worker must know what is his function within the organization and know how to achieve the objectives. Now, there are times when a worker, whatever her position in the company, must pitch in. It is curious that unproductive people are the first to realize that they are working more than account or that they are doing a job to help a colleague who in theory goes out of the margins of their functions.

They tend to pay close attention to his role and what others do or do not do. Productive people do not care about these issues, and they try to contribute what they can to make things work, more flexible and generous.

3. I will finish it tomorrow

Unproductive workers waste a lot of time living in a permanent state of incongruity. They always end up extending their tasks, postponing them for a recent future.

They open a document word, write a paragraph, then start another document powerpoint… This constant opening and closing tabs is a disastrous time and energy management. It is what is known by the name of Procrastination.

4. I still do not have all the information

Retailers can also be unproductive. They wait until all the stars align to begin any task. And when this does not happen, which happens frequently, the jobs are falling on deaf ears. In this way, it is impossible for them to advance at an acceptable pace.

Productive people do not wait for the exact moment, but work on their projects and polish or modify the course when necessary.

5. I'm going to wait for the boss to tell me what to do

Lack of independence is a factor that minimizes productivity, especially in small businesses. When someone is waiting for someone else to tell them what to do, the common project can falter: the lack of rhythm spoils the good dynamics.

The productive person analyzes the needs of the group and gets down to business, while the person who expects every little detail to be told will probably may not contribute more than a reduced mechanical function to the project.

6. I don't understand all the variables

There are workers (and also many bosses) who do not start a task until they know perfectly how to act, or until they know all the answers to every problem. No one has all the answers beforehand, and it will be necessary to face the challenges in order to gain the necessary experience.

Without going any further, projects like Airbnb or Uber They would not have been released if their creators had waited for all the legal regulations to be perfectly verified. Sometimes technology and human projects are ahead of slow legislation, and this point is key to understanding the progress, both in business success and in the development of societies.

7. I don't get any profit from this

It is not uncommon to meet narcissistic people who spend the day taking photos of themselves or tweeting About every step they take The underlying problem in these attitudes of unproductive people is that, when working, they usually examine each action based on whether it brings them a direct benefit or not.

Productive people, on the contrary, contribute to the project because they feel that they are part of it, and that is precisely their main motivation, the be able to contribute to improve.

8. They will not value my contribution

Another point that buries productivity: the need to be constantly valued and praised for the tasks one performs.

The process of oversizing their own contributions, demanding valuation and being noticed so that everyone realize how much you contribute, it sows a ground for unproductivity because, as is obvious, other people are not constantly attentive to what another worker does or does not do.

9. I am concerned about the quality of my work

LProductive people know how to translate good tasks into a constant stream of skill and creativity. They care about quality, but are also aware that sometimes a push is required to maintain productivity. If the main goal is to always achieve perfection, productivity plummets.

You have to know how to combine quality and productivity without one of the two factors constraining the other.

By the way: sometimes it can be quite efficient for one to get carried away by law of least effort. We explain it to you in this post:

"Law of least effort: 5 keys to understand it"

10. I will fail

An immanent characteristic of every unproductive person is the worry about failure. If the worker never has his own initiatives and projects, obviously he should not worry about failure at all.

When one fails from time to time, it is a sign that he is trying to improve himself, he is trying new things and therefore, he is contributing to the project giving his best. If you expect all your initiatives to be resounding and indisputable successes, it is likely that you will stop proposing others that would have been very positive as well.