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To say that a lot of people who claim to hate their jobs are just lazy?

68 replies

BeWaryNavySheep · 29/01/2025 08:58

I understand that some workplaces are toxic but isn’t it true that many people complain about work because they don’t like putting in effort?
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Sharptonguedwoman · 30/01/2025 09:57

Pancakeparlour · 29/01/2025 09:42

Define lazy.

Give some examples of what you consider to be a lazy worker.

I will give you an example of what you probably see as a 'lazy' worker.

DD16 is working in a minimum wage job (£6.40), she works in retail. She often works 6 hour days on her feet all of that time. She has to put up with crap from the general public. This weekend a lovely female customer call dd a 'bitch' and a 'hoe' simply because she had to wait for a while in the queue and it was pissing her off. She then took to Google reviews and gave a horrible review using my dd name throughout.

DD does not like her job, is she lazy?

Edited

That's awful. Were management aware?

BunnyLake · 30/01/2025 09:54

Orangeandgold · 29/01/2025 21:37

Funnily enough the laziest workers I have ever met are the most useless. It’s silly because they spend the day doing absolutely nothing and getting paid for it.

I think there are many reasons one might not like their job and one of the most common is actually being good at what you do, passionate but not feeling that you are appreciated. Or sometimes jobs are the same day in and day out and people get bored. Or some people land a job that doesn’t match them at all and they are there for the money.

Not everyone that hates their job is lazy.

Doing nothing is sometimes the worst part of a job. If I’m at work then I’d rather be busy. It makes the day go quicker.

Orangeandgold · 29/01/2025 21:37

Funnily enough the laziest workers I have ever met are the most useless. It’s silly because they spend the day doing absolutely nothing and getting paid for it.

I think there are many reasons one might not like their job and one of the most common is actually being good at what you do, passionate but not feeling that you are appreciated. Or sometimes jobs are the same day in and day out and people get bored. Or some people land a job that doesn’t match them at all and they are there for the money.

Not everyone that hates their job is lazy.

Elsvieta · 29/01/2025 21:01

I'd say showing up every day and doing a good job even though you're not enjoying something is the opposite of lazy. Refusing to work when you could is lazy. Calling in sick when you're not is lazy. Half-arsing everything in your job and letting colleagues pick up the slack is lazy. We all have to do stuff we don't enjoy all the time (household chores and admin etc). If we get on and do them regardless, we're not lazy.

whiteroseredrose · 29/01/2025 16:24

No. I disagree.

Work is necessary in our society to allow us to support ourselves. Most of us have no choice.

It's a shame because we only have one life - maybe 60-70 years and we have to spend the bulk of it working. Often hours working at something we don't hate but aren't excited by either.

There are so many more enjoyable ways to spend our time but that is usually confined to the short time that we are not wage slaves.

Sad really.

MarkingBad · 29/01/2025 15:21

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:24

Isn’t it annoying though when you have to pretend to an interviewer that it’s your absolute passion and has been since birth to work for them. When all you really want to say is, I’ve got bills to pay and that is the reason why I’m sitting here being interviewed. I’ll turn up everyday and do a good job because I have to.

I have sat in an interviews where I have outright said what attracted me to apply was because I could do the job and I needed a wage.

It filters out the jobs that will be terrible, you know the ones where "everyone here is like family", code for we expect you to work unpaid overtime and during weekends, evenings and holidays. Also the "good sense of humour (now rephrased as excellent soft skills) will help you fit in", code for we want an unchallenging sap and we will treat you like dirt and get rid of you the moment we need to save on the wage bill type of place.

One interviewer laughed his socks off and shook my hand for being the only honest applicant he'd ever met, I got that job.

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 15:19

JohnWickAteMyHamster · 29/01/2025 10:13

Yeh I'm pretty lazy to be fair. But I get up and go to work anyway cos I have to and I need money.
So why is my intrinsic laziness a problem if I'm still going to work? And yeh I moan about it cos I'd rather be spending my time doing what I want, hobbies and chilling and nice lunches and shopping. But I can't do those things, and I don't do those things, I go to work.

I happily admit I'm lazy by default. Why is that a bad thing?

I embrace my laziness now. I worked for many years and brought up two children alone so I feel I’ve paid my dues and if I want to spend all day mooching about doing sod all I will.

ChirpyDenimPombear · 29/01/2025 15:08

Most people don’t love their jobs but have to earn money so they have somewhere to live…

Pancakeparlour · 29/01/2025 15:07

malificent7 · 29/01/2025 10:30

What does your friend's dd do pancake parlour? Id love a job like that!

Something to do with the local council, not quite sure exactly but id love the job too!

Daisy12Maisie · 29/01/2025 14:55

I would have thought the people that love their jobs are more likely to be lazy. I'm now at a position I get paid for my expertise rather than hour by hour what I do. I work hard generally but if I decide not to then I have a day when I don't.

Sushu · 29/01/2025 14:09

Overall, I love my job, it’s a vocation, I am extremely passionate about it. Some days, I would easily use the word “hate” when I’ve been verbally and physically abused for trying to support people who claim to want to use the services. I am blamed for things that have absolutely nothing to do with me or my service. Our senior management team are great but on the board? They don’t seem to remember what it’s like do be on the ground. They make fucked up decisions that affect their staff and vulnerable citizens. So on those days, I will moan and say I hate my job today.

GCAcademic · 29/01/2025 14:05

HopeMumsnet · 29/01/2025 13:02

Hi all,
We're pretty certain that this was a troll post so that's why we removed the OP, however if you wish to discuss the subject you are more than welcome, especially if you don't do anything to contravene our guidelines and so don't cause us any work! 😉

Nicely played!

pelargoniums · 29/01/2025 14:01

What gets my goat about work (even jobs I’ve enjoyed) is 40-hour weeks. Eight-hour days! Made longer by the enforced lunch break in the middle. I wasn’t made to toil for nine hours like a medieval peasant. And most jobs don’t really need that many hours, a lot of it is made-up busy work. There’s a certain point in the day when you’ve done a lot of work then you’re burned out, but you can’t stop because it’s not the end of the day, so they just pile more on. Just let me toil for five hours in-between school runs, I promise you I can get the same amount of nonsense done, just drop the mental health zoominar and company-wide PowerPoint presentation on Teams and the remote stand-up meeting (an actual thing at my last job, so we were all standing up looming over our laptops giving everyone a view of underboob and chins), then there’s plenty of time.

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:58

HauntedBungalow · 29/01/2025 13:42

I absolutely hate all that crap. The day I feel passionate about administration is the day I know there is something drastically wrong with all my life choices that have led to that point.

For most people, for most jobs, the truthful answer is exactly as you said. No trust fund, no doting dead childless millionaire aunt, and state retirement age is 67, so work it is.

What better motivation is there than a mortgage payment and a gas bill. All this passion nonsense sticks right in my craw.

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:56

Disturbia81 · 29/01/2025 13:53

Yeah it's great, seen so many good and useful threads completely deleted because of it

Yes very disappointing when you’ve invested a bit of time and thought in to it. A great idea.

Disturbia81 · 29/01/2025 13:53

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:18

Doesn’t surprise me at all that it was a troll.

I like the idea you can remove the troll but keep the thread, is that new?

Yeah it's great, seen so many good and useful threads completely deleted because of it

pelargoniums · 29/01/2025 13:49

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:18

Doesn’t surprise me at all that it was a troll.

I like the idea you can remove the troll but keep the thread, is that new?

Can we keep Mumsnet but remove all the people? It would be so peaceful!

HauntedBungalow · 29/01/2025 13:42

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:24

Isn’t it annoying though when you have to pretend to an interviewer that it’s your absolute passion and has been since birth to work for them. When all you really want to say is, I’ve got bills to pay and that is the reason why I’m sitting here being interviewed. I’ll turn up everyday and do a good job because I have to.

I absolutely hate all that crap. The day I feel passionate about administration is the day I know there is something drastically wrong with all my life choices that have led to that point.

For most people, for most jobs, the truthful answer is exactly as you said. No trust fund, no doting dead childless millionaire aunt, and state retirement age is 67, so work it is.

IllustratedDictionaryOfTheDoldrums · 29/01/2025 13:40

I've a feeling it might be the other way around. Most of the people I know who hate their jobs do so because they're exhausted, under too much pressure and overworked. I find the ones who are happiest are the ones who don't pull their weight and just coast, letting everyone else pick up the slack.
Not everyone obviously! It depends on the workplace, type of job and person, but that's my experience.

AquaPeer · 29/01/2025 13:33

Are you Georgia toffolo OP? 😂😂

MurdoMunro · 29/01/2025 13:31

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:24

Isn’t it annoying though when you have to pretend to an interviewer that it’s your absolute passion and has been since birth to work for them. When all you really want to say is, I’ve got bills to pay and that is the reason why I’m sitting here being interviewed. I’ll turn up everyday and do a good job because I have to.

Oh jeez yes, excruciating. We have some £25k jobs (with no progression routes, just jobs) open at our place and the profiles are all filled with words like ‘passion’ and ‘laser focus’. Absolute tosh

evilharpy · 29/01/2025 13:27

Bullshit.

I hated my last job because I was completely ill suited to it. I spent several years training and passing exams and there was an element of sunk cost fallacy, plus I just didn't know what else to do that would be a better fit. I liked all my colleagues and the work was sometimes pretty interesting but I was just the wrong person to do it. I worked hard and nobody could have ever called me lazy but I hated 90% of it and every day was a slog.

I'm now in a different job in the same company that is a much better fit for my personality, interests and skill set. I like it much better. I'm not any more or less lazy and I don't work any more or less hard but it's easier to motivate myself to put the work in, and that almost feels lazier than when I was in the previous job and hated the work but did it anyway.

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:24

ItGhoul · 29/01/2025 12:55

Why should people enjoy putting in effort for their employer, though? Why would you expect them to be joyful about it? It's a means of survival, that's all.

And even if they don't enjoy their job, if they're doing their job they're not being lazy.

I don't hate my job at all - but I certainly wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. I wouldn't do any job at all if I didn't have to.

There are much more interesting and more important and fulfilling things in my life than work. I have many ambitions and passions and absolutely none of them involve making money and/or turning up to an office to serve an employer. That simply isn't important to me. It's simply a means to an end, a necessary evil that enables me to do the other stuff in my life that actually matters.

Isn’t it annoying though when you have to pretend to an interviewer that it’s your absolute passion and has been since birth to work for them. When all you really want to say is, I’ve got bills to pay and that is the reason why I’m sitting here being interviewed. I’ll turn up everyday and do a good job because I have to.

BobbyPeruLikeTheCountry · 29/01/2025 13:22

I think turning up for a job you hate day after day is the exact opposite of lazy TBH. I also don't think being lazy is necessarily a bad thing.

BunnyLake · 29/01/2025 13:18

Doesn’t surprise me at all that it was a troll.

I like the idea you can remove the troll but keep the thread, is that new?

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