In the workplace, being lazy is frequently viewed negatively or ostracized. In essence, someone is not engaged with their job when they are unwilling to put effort into it. Although it is still debatable if it is possible to have a "lazy" personality, we can all probably recall instances in which we chose not to exert the necessary effort to complete our tasks. This frequently results in procrastination or excessive delegation, which makes it difficult to achieve short deadlines. Fleeing the situation when one does not want to work is one sign of laziness. Another sign is acting the victim and finding excuses to cover up a lack of effort.

The study that has been done on lazy reveals that laziness trait attributions are complex, despite the fact that there hasn't been much of it done (or perhaps those who have tried just haven't been able to muster the effort!). People frequently admit to having more personality qualities than other people, for instance, "I am a very complex, multi-faceted person." People sometimes qualify lethargy with "diminutive" terms (for example, "I am a little bit lazy..."), even though they wouldn't hesitate to describe themselves as "very energetic" instead. When taking into account the attributions of others, similar strange results appear. Despite the fact that halo biases can occur when positive judgments are made about other people (e.g., "She might have easily lied to me about mistakenly handing the client an additional $20 in change when she first started working here. Horns biases do not occur as widely as these positive traits when considering laziness (for example, a supervisor who witnesses an employee lying when she first started working there may believe that the employee will lie frequently but will not label the employee as lazy).

Laziness can slowly worsen or spread among others, which is even more concerning. For instance, sunk costs can accumulate to the point where you rationalize that you will "start over tomorrow" as a result of one lazy behavior leading to another. Furthermore, recent research indicates that laziness can spread; individuals, ignorant of their own inclinations toward laziness, began to support the same lazy actions and judgments that the fictional, computer-generated players were taking. The implications are really fascinating here. "Will you become more or less lazy, for instance, if your lazy boss rewards you for putting more effort into your work?" Even while idleness has a bad reputation, some people believe it has some advantages. Author of Moneyball Michael Lewis claims, for instance, that being lazy isn't always a bad thing and has even aided in his success: "My laziness serves as a filter... Prior to deciding to work on something, it must be truly good.

Questions:

1. Do you think we occasionally feel laziness more as a motivating mood or more as a personality attribute? Why? Is it possible that it might be a combination of the two?
2. Do you concur with Michael Lewis that there are benefits to being lazy? In what way?
3. What are the best ways that managers and organizations may "manage" laziness to reduce its negative consequences while maximizing its beneficial ones? What kinds of activities and programs could a company launch to fulfill these objectives?

PLEASE HELP!!