The Parable of the Lazy Worker

Once upon a time, the manager of a department hired a worker to help the team out as they were all working until midnight. This worker took a list of problems and started fixing their causes one by one. Over 4 months, the team started finishing work earlier and earlier until they could all go home at 5.30pm. 

Other managers very upset as they saw how lazy this team was getting. They punished the manager by disbanding the team and moving him to a department he did not like. 

The worker was very sad and decided to join another team. This time, the worker was the specialist in charge of one area of the software which had multiple bugs and problems. Again, she worked hard to fix the errors and kept improving the system until there was little to fix. Because everything ran like clockwork, she could go home on time again. 

Her boss saw this and thought she was lazy. He passed her over for a promotion and she was so disappointed she left. But she taught everything she knew to her junior staff. Now, this junior staff was very good at looking busy. Instead of maintaining the systems and running diagnostic tests, and he would take short cuts and fake the results. This led to problems for the users which meant he had to stay late to fix them. He even came into the office on the weekends to clean up the mess he made. The boss was so impressed that he promoted this hard-working staff. 

The system eventually broke down and the whole team was replaced. 

Moral of the story: 

Don't hire someone just because they're hard-working. A hard-working person who can't get the job done only breaks things faster. Hire someone who can fix your problems at the source. Learn to tell the difference. 

First published on LinkedIn on 29 Aug 2020