How do I handle a brilliant but lazy employee?

[marcusfe]

I have a confusing issue at my place of work. There is this particular employee, so brilliant and good but she's very lazy. Many a time she has failed I her duties and she does was to apologize that such will not repeat itself again but after a while she will do the same. Everyone in the company knows that this lady is good even the manager didn't recommend that she should be fired. Some people advised us to let her go that we can easily get someone who is better than her. This is an uncertainty which we don't want to take the risk.
The major question now has being how do we handle this lady that will not affect the organization negatively?

 

[btaliat]

That's a dilemma. And the case must be handled with care. The fact is that I don't belive in lazy worker. It is either the working environment is not conducive or the tasks are too many. So you may start by reducing her tasks first and see whether she will still be completing her task. If she still doesn't finish up the task even after reduction. It means she may be doing it intentionally meaning she doesn't want to work with you guys anymore. I don't think sacking is a bad idea.

 

[Peppul]

Lazy employees are probably the worst type out tof the bunch of difficult coworkers. They don't pull their weight, they distract other employees and they do anything other than work on a company time. Yet every workplace seems to have at least one slacker in the team, and it's your responsibility as the boss to manage the situation.
1. Have a private chat. The first step to take when tackling a lazy employee is to simply call them out on their poor behaviour. Its imperative to do this in private, you don't want to dishearten them even more by belittling them in front of their colleagues.
2. Set clear goals. It's most likely that your lazy employee need to be reminded of what is expected of them. If they have been working in the same role for a while, they can quickly lose motivation and self discipline and form their own set of rules to abide by.
3. Offer more training. To show that you really do care about their personal and professional development, you could offer additional training where needed. This could either be to refresh their knowledge or to expand on their current skills and learn new processes.
4. Create consequences. Once you have given your lazy employee all the tools they need to progress ( eg training) you must set some consequences in place, in case that they do not deliver.

 

[Kingsley]

Dealing with a lazy employee can be a difficult bone to chew, but I think everything here will have bulge down to what the organization truly needs at the point in time, the organization needs to set a clear goal and target for the set position. Even if is a genius and not meet in up to the organization's goals and objectives then there should be no need for her service. Every job position has a job description and and when the staff that is suppose to project that aspect of the of the organizationis not doing his or her part, this will certainly lead to a set back no matter how we see.

In an organization everyone working in the system in one way or the other has something to contribute mostly when they are going strictly by their job description. According to Adams Smith he believes when we focus more on specialization this will bring about effectiveness and efficiency. Hence he propounded the theory of division of Labour, when we break it down so that each part can specialize in a particular aspect this he believes will bring anout more productivity. So if she is not meeting up with the objectives she should be relieved of her duties.

 

[Stena]

Such an issue should be handled with care. Handling such workers who are good at their jobs but lazy is not easy to do, but it is best to try.
There is this lady at my place of work who showed similar trait. She is married with three kids and chubby. Coupled with the lazy attitude she puts up at work, she arrives work very late and gets a query very often. She is good at her job but the laziness always gets in her way because after few hours of work it is easy to spot her sleeping. We have given her excuses to do so since she shared her story of having to wake up at 3am to prepare her kids for school, but come to think of it, she was not the only one married with kids at work! Bottom line, she would be resigning next week, she says she cannot cope with all the stress put together.
I feel laziness can be tied to so many things for different people.

Others may have similar excuses. It is best to talk out things with such an employee, give them a second chance and place strict consequences. A lazy person is not employable in the first place.

 

[Holicent]

Managers have to deal with all sorts of employees, and one of the most difficult is a brilliant but lazy employee. The key to handling this kind of employee is to approach them with respect and empathy, but also firmness and boundaries.

First, make sure you understand what's going on. If you don't know why this person is both smart and lazy, it's going to be harder for you to get them on board with any sort of plan that involves getting their work done. It could be that they're distracted by stress at home or something else like that you need to figure out what's going on before you can move forward.

Next, let them know what you're thinking. Tell them that while they're obviously very smart, they need to start being more productive if they want to continue working at the company. Explain how your expectations are different from theirs, and why that is: "I know you're used to doing things your own way here, [name], but that won't work anymore."

Then ask them directly what it will take for them to start meeting their responsibilities at work: "What do we need in order for me