top of page
  • Vernalee

WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING?





By Vernalee

According to the definition " to work hard means to work a lot, to work using much effort. While to hardly work means the complete opposite, namely to work very little. Though a play on words, I am sure that you can start rattling off names of people who fit both categories.

One of my favorites is a person that I know who spends hours trying to figure out how not to work! Geez! I often wonder where he would be if he exerted that same amount of time and energy into actually doing the tasks at hand.

My Daddy always said, "A hard day's work ain't never hurt nobody." I wholehearted;y agree! Here's the million dollar question. Let's examine who is working hard and who is hardly working. To find out who fits that mold, let's take a stroll through your office!

Here’s to the hardly working crew! I see several engineers shopping on the Internet (Walmart has a sale y'all); the clerical pool is on the phone gossiping (Hey girl!); a few managers are taking wagers and bets for the upcoming preseason game (Browns - 30; Bengals - 21); an energetic clerk speed walking down the hall loudly reveals aspects of her personal life that no one cares about but her (I.e. Her cat gave birth to five kittens); a marginal staffer telling anyone who will listen how much she hates her job (Oh my); and let's not forget the accountant who was sleeping at his desk. Zzzz! Sorry, I failed to mention the chain smoking architect who takes long and frequent smoke breaks outside! So much for the premiere of those hardly working staffers. They are not hard to detect versus the covenant group who are working hard with sweat running down their brow as their computer keys constantly click away! Report after report; product after product; they generate.

Now that we have the new virtual office mates, we can't see what they are doing off sight, but we should be able to see the evidence of their productivity; right? I wonder how many have figured out how to"beat" the virtual system? Just saying! Moving ahead ...

No matter what, Friday is pay day and all are headed to the bank with no thoughts of the work that they did or didn't do! How's that for redemption of mediocre productivity? No kidding!

Before signing off, where are the bosses? I am glad you asked! A few are setting sterling examples and a few are exercising their leadership authority by being on the golf course. No judgment; many deals are cut there. We really can’t say that they were goofing off! Or can we? Leaders ... Where are you? Please show up and provide the needed direction. It begs to ask, "Where is this lack of leadership heading?" Don't ask me! I am calling off sick tomorrow! I'm not paid to provide answers to difficult questions! That's not in my job description!

Photo credit: www.picturequotes,com



4 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page