7 common characteristics of the laziest employees

REUTERS/Chris Helgren

When it comes to a business setting, you can think of "unproductive" in three different ways.

First, an employee can be so outgoing and bubbly in the office that you actually miss the fact that he or she has never actually been productive.

Second, you can see that an employee's work is starting to decline and realize that the employee has become unproductive.

Or lastly, an employee may just plain be unproductive and everyone knows it.

However, in all three situations, the characteristics are the same. How these employees got there, or why they're there, might be a different story, but for employers, it all starts with being able to recognize some of these characteristics. If you can recognize that an employee is unproductive, that's the first step in making changes.

Consider some of these traits and actions to look for below:

Complaining

It doesn't matter why someone is complaining or whom he or she is complaining to (or about), complaints often show that someone is not willing to put in the work to make a change. It's a time waster, and it's almost always easier to complain than to be productive. As John Brandon mentioned in a past article, "The really productive people don't dwell on the problem. They just do the work."

Making excuses

Similar to complaining, making excuses is not the way to be productive. It's one thing if things don't get done because other things take priority, but if something doesn't get done because of an unfair excuse, then that's a problem with the employee. Start paying attention and see if there seems to be an excuse for everything. One or two every once in a while is OK, but excuses can get out of hand quickly.

Putting things off

This characteristic can go right along with excuses. Most of the time, an employee will put something off because of an excuse, but sometimes you'll notice that he or she will act like it can wait and brush a task off as "not a big deal." Again, while this might be OK in small doses, if it becomes a habit you have a problem.