Organizations are made up of individuals. Although these individuals tend to act normally and productively, some react adversely to the specific roles and situations they face at work. At any level of an organization, you will find individuals who impede productivity and success through their interactions. Consequently, people can be dysfunctional at work in many different ways. Perhaps those who irk the most people are those who do the least work.

The worst of these offenders is the individual who remains committed to staying at the company, but isn’t engaged. That is, he or she does not make a meaningful contribution, and isn’t going anywhere.

You know exactly who these individuals are. You wonder, “Why are you here?” You cringe when you find out they are included on your project team. Some appear quite content, just non-productive. They just exist, occupying space in your organization. Other problem people fall at the opposite end of the satisfaction scale, complaining about anything and everything, but never proposing solutions or taking action to make things better.

Meet the Slackeys
Happy Slackeys are those who harbor no real dissatisfaction with the company. They just come to work, punch the proverbial (or literal) clock, and maintain some level of minimally acceptable job performance. They are friendly and pleasant, but don’t really contribute anything. They don’t see any issue with their behavior. In fact, they are shocked to receive feedback that they aren’t meeting performance standards.

Whiney Slackeys are those who are dissatisfied. These are the employees with an attitude problem. Unlike their content brethren, these employees complain about everything—whether it’s real or not—that is wrong with the company. Nothing is good enough. Management never makes the right decisions. Problems that arise are always someone else’s fault. These are the people who, if you ask, “How are things going?” you get the response, “Awful, as usual.” Despite their perception that all is wrong in the world, they do little to make things better or more positive. Why should they? The joy they get is in making the rest of the world look bad.

It is important to distinguish between the gripes of Whiney Slackeys and the legitimate criticisms of engaged individuals. Some truly engaged individuals also make constructive, critical comments about their organization. These individuals, however, are working to be part of the solution. They are engaged enough to want to make a difference. They offer suggestions for improvement, take initiative and actually work to make the situation better. You want these people in your company—they are engaged, action-oriented, and want the best for the organization. Whiney Slackeys are none of these things.

Slackeys are allowed to flourish when organizations fail to hold people accountable for standards of performance, fail to provide honest and direct feedback about performance, and fail to communicate clear standards of performance. Slackeys often fly just under the poor performance radar. They aren’t your worst performers because they don’t want to leave the organization. They are committed to staying as long as they can—they just aren’t going to make a real contribution.

As a result, companies end up reinforcing the Slackeys through neglect and avoidance. For a manager, these are difficult people to engage and motivate. The Happy Slackey is pleasant and their good cheer makes it difficult for some managers to have performance discussions with them. The Whiney Slackey is caustic in attitude and people tend to avoid them.

Slackeys won’t walk out the door, so you have to document performance issues if the organization would benefit without them. After appropriate warnings and opportunities to do better, show any Slackey the door if his or her performance doesn’t improve. Some Slackeys are victims of their environment, and when put in the right role, are motivated to do more. Others will never improve. As a manager, you have to give it your best try, but realize you are paying the Slackey when you could be using the same salary to pay another productive worker, or give a raise to the other workers who make up the slack.

You can also make sure those you hire have characteristics that fit with your organization, which will make them less likely to be Slackeys. These individuals tend to behave and think quite differently from productive performers. Knowing that these differences exist can help you avoid hiring Slackeys.

Slackeys can exist at all levels of the organization. Some are very skilled at hiding their incompetence or weak performance. Others are carried forward by systems that don’t recognize real performance, or that promote people to “get them out of here.”

Watch out for the Slackeys. They will drain your resources, and in some cases your personal energy. Recognize them for what they are—weak performers—and encourage them to move on.