15 Excuses Unproductive People Basically Use.

Unproductive employees have an excuse for everything Here are a few of the phrases they use to explain away the problem. Listen for them, then correct the action to get things back on track.

1. I am not paid enough

Well, everybody complains about their pay check at some point of time or other. But Unproductive people have a habit of using that as an excuse to not do things. They keep feeling that they are never paid enough and never taken notice of, and always get the worse appraisals, and that is reason enough to avoid doing work at all.

2. That’s not on my job profile

Whenever there is something extra that needs to be done, some extra effort that is required or some extra time, anything that might threaten to bring them out of their comfort zone (or maybe we should call it lazy zone) and it becomes something that is not a part of their job profile.

3. I am overworked

Some people who are whining may really be overworked. However, how we view it is what differentiates us from being productive and unproductive. Some of us see the heavy workload as a challenge in carrying out the task, while the rest take it negatively. They come up with excuses to avoid doing the job.

4. Procrastinate – I will do that later

Later in the day, later in the week, they keep pushing it and then they end up staying in office overnight and working like a maniac to get things finished overnight. Then they complain that people are not being understanding and just with them. They bide away time when they have it, and then end up doing a shoddy job due to lack of time.

5. I don’t have all of the answer yet

Overly detail-oriented people use this one. They wait until everything is perfectly lined up before starting a task, usually languishing in perpetuity because things rarely do line up. And, ironically, some of the employees in your company who are wasting time mindlessly browsing all day are the ones who think they have to wait for the project pieces to fall in place.

6. I don’t know how to do it

They will say they don’t know how to do it; and what it means is that they don’t want to even try doing it. And if they really don’t know how to do it, they don’t want to learn, they don’t want to ask for anybody’s help; they would rather be a chair-potato and spend the day thinking about football and baseball and when it would be time when they can leave and go to the pub.

7. I don’t understand all of the variables

Really? Is there an employee who won’t act until he or she has all of the answers? That is a sign of someone who will be waiting a long time because no one ever has all of the answers. The people who started Airbnb and Uber didn’t wait for all of the regulatory issues to be ironed out. And Google didn’t wait to test driverless cars until every country allowed them.

8. I am working too much

This is a very common excuse. Many employees say they are overworked without realizing that every single person is overworked. The difference is that productive people do not complain about having to work while unproductive people will moan about it to get out of work.

9. I don’t see the benefit for me

We are living in a world of narcissists who take selfies every 30 minutes and post about their inner feelings on Twitter. The underlying problem? They’re slowing down a project because they only care about their own rewards. Productive people see the greater reward of a successful company and want to play a part in building something cool. The selfies can wait until the weekend.

10. I might not get the credit

The employees who are slowing things down the most are spending too much time trying to get the attention of the boss.

11. I’m worried about my quality of work

This is a phrase some workers use when they care so much on the quality of their work rather than submitting it on time. They spend so much of their work time on what they are doing which makes them unproductive.

Fear of failure- Are you sure that I can complete this?

Unproductive employees can think of using it as an excuse not to do things. They will say that they are afraid they will not be able to do the task to satisfactory standards, and somebody would just have to do it all over again. They will say that they are not skilled and trained enough for it and are bound to fail. Here, the fear of failure is more of an excuse for failing on purpose.

13. I just forgot

As school kids we would say that when we forgot to do our homework or forgot to bring a book to the class. We did that because we were taught to be honest, but when an unproductive employee says that, he is using it as an excuse to cover up for the fact that he did not think that task was important enough to command his attention and action.

14. There was an emergency

The unproductive employee has a family emergency to deal with – a sick wife, a sick mother-in-law, a funeral to attend, a home repair to oversee, a doctor’s appointment to be present at, etc. Sometimes you might even end up being surprised at how creative they could get with brewing up emergencies in your head; so much so that, had they put even half of that effort and creativity in their work, they would be nominated for being ‘employee of the month’!

15. Feigning sickness- Sorry I was sick yesterday

Feigning a headache, a stomach ache, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, uneasiness, indigestion, etc. are common excuses. Most of these problems are not so hard to feign and do not require immediate medical attention or any serious prescriptions.

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