The study, which surveyed 2,000 UK professionals, also found that two-thirds (66.7%) of senior employees still manage to deliver results despite slacking off. This is supported by 95.6% claiming that nobody has ever commented on their laziness in the workplace.
The top reasons for senior employees slacking off include having a lack of motivation (57.7%), not feeling challenged (35.6%), feeling as if they’ve already achieved as much as they can (31.7%) and simply being bored (29.8%).
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library comments:
“There’s a big difference between straight-up laziness and employees who aren’t reaching their full potential. It’s shocking to see that so many professionals are able to do their job whilst putting in minimal effort - reaching the top is no excuse for taking your foot off the pedal.
“For your own job satisfaction and to set a good example for others, senior employees especially should always be striving for more. Indeed, disengagement appears to be the main issue that needs addressing in the workplace. If you notice an employee that seems switched off, a sideways move internally or increased training and development opportunities could make all the difference to their attitude.”
What’s more, 64.8% of senior employees believe they’re more likely to get away with being lazy at work than more junior members of staff. In fact, when asked how they get away with doing minimal work, senior respondents cited the following: not bothering with brown-nosing (36.7%), being out of the office a lot for their job (30.6%) and chatting to people in communal areas (23.5%).
Biggins concludes:
“It’s a well-known fact that when you’re starting out in your career, there’s marginal room for error and even less room for laziness, whereas senior employees have somewhat earned a little leeway. It’s also interesting to see that they recommended not trying too hard to please others to decrease your workload. There’s something to be said for having a straight-up attitude in the workplace, that’s for sure.”
