In a work environments, which of 2 evils is the lesser?

[TuxDave]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: pontifex
damn, i voted wrong

So did I...I meant lazy. Stupid is the worst, at least the lazy person can do the job.

I cancelled one of your votes out because I voted wrong too. I think stupidity is the lesser of two evils.

 

[bobdelt]

you can motivate the lazy person, you cant teach the stupid

 

[yowolabi]

Originally posted by: Exterous

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteven

Originally posted by: Gibsons
Lazy people do less damage.

Especially if they know what they're doing. If you have a highly motivated stupid person that has no clue what they're doing, you are screwed.

totally agree

That's why I voted lazy. If the stupid person goes out and does stuff on their own, they'll destroy things. If I have to stand over the stupid person all day, I won't get my own work done, and ill still worry about them screwing things up the moment I turn around.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I think it makes a huge difference depending on the type of business. In general, lazy bright people tend to gravitate towards IT fields. Again, in general, motivated stupid people tend to gravitate towards the service industries.

Personally, having worked in both, I would MUCH rather work with a motivated stupid person than a bright lazy one. The vast majority of companies, both IT and sevice, don't want smart people making their own decissions, they want motivated people who follow company policies.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Vic
Believe it or not, stupidity is the lesser evil. All most employers want is just someone anyone to get the damned job done. If they're stupid, then they just give them a simple job to do.

If I could tell you how much time I've wasted re-doing things that all the stupid people we've hired here have messed up... FFS, we had a year long project that ultimately failed because stupid people were in charge of the database design.
So obviously stupidity is not the lesser evil in all cases.

Okay... now imagine how much time is wasted if the job is never done at all.

Well, having it done by stupid people probably cost our company around $100k, and ultimately was discarded... so we would have been better off if it had never been done at all.

 

[Tobolo]

Lazy for sure. You can't fix stupid.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: Tobolo
Lazy for sure. You can't fix stupid.

Bull, I continue to fix stupid every day but, I have totally failed to fix lazy. I have to fire them and they merely go be lazy some place else.

 

[Tiamat]

both are conditions for loss of job

 

[Slammy1]

As someone mentioned, if they're flipping burgers motivated/dumb is better but if they're tech support, unmotivated/smart. Even that can be situational and dependent on how dumb and how unmotivated you're talking about. I find that it's not that the smart people are lazy, it's just that the more you do the more chance you have of doing something wrong and people don't remember the 100 things you do right, they harp on the 1 time you mess up. It's an unfortunate state of American business that, at least in my experience, the smart/motivated people have a high mortality rate in business. Dumb but motivated tend to play politics (we call them managers), while the smart but unmotivated people tend to make their positions invaluable by witholding critical data and harping on their successes. I often think that a well timed hand grenade during meetings would improve the work environment/productivity significantly.

 

[JS80]

lazy people are generally extremely efficient.

 

[SirStev0]

everyone can be lazy at times... but incompetance... it is even worse when they think they can do it and they just have no gd idea what is going on...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: JS80
lazy people are generally extremely efficient.

Yeah, at doing the bare minimum to keep drawing a paycheck.

 

[eleison]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: JS80
lazy people are generally extremely efficient.

Yeah, at doing the bare minimum to keep drawing a paycheck.

Why work more than you have too???? I consider myself pretty lazy, but extremely efficient. Things people take a couple of weeks to do, I can do within a few days.

However, sometimes it does pay to "look busy" even though you completed your work just to make the boss happy...

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: Vic
Believe it or not, stupidity is the lesser evil. All most employers want is just someone anyone to get the damned job done. If they're stupid, then they just give them a simple job to do.

Not quite true. Being a lazy person myself, I know I'd want to get whatever that I need to do out of the way, the sit on my lazy ass. Not only that, if I have to do something seemingly difficult, I'd find a better way to do it. Why? Because i'm neither incompetent or stupid.

Yes, it's true that most employees just want the job done, but if you factor in the cost of error from fixing some stupid mistakes that could have been avoided, if the person performing the job was a bit smarter, I'd pick one competent, smart lazy person over a buncha idiots any given day. Don't even get me started on training efficiency and production efficiency.

 

[Mermaidman]

Originally posted by: TuxDave

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: pontifex
damn, i voted wrong

So did I...I meant lazy. Stupid is the worst, at least the lazy person can do the job.

I cancelled one of your votes out because I voted wrong too. I think stupidity is the lesser of two evils.

That's OK--The poll was designed stupidly . . . or perhaps lazily. A double-negative question!

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: eleison

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: JS80
lazy people are generally extremely efficient.

Yeah, at doing the bare minimum to keep drawing a paycheck.

Why work more than you have too???? I consider myself pretty lazy, but extremely efficient. Things people take a couple of weeks to do, I can do within a few days.

However, sometimes it does pay to "look busy" even though you completed your work just to make the boss happy...

I gues it has to do with your work ethic. After age 25 or so, people who want to get ahead start viewing work as a career rather than a necessary evil.

If you work for a place that merely gives you more work and responsibility but no recognition (monetarily sp? or otherwise) for more/faster/better work, find another job.

I can train and teach most people to do an adequate job but, I can't abide people who ride the clock.