How to tell the difference between being burnt out and just being lazy?
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I guess I'll piggyback on the other comment and say laziness doesn't exist at work. People definitely have off days or hate their job, but I'd say pretty much all the "laziness" I have experienced in my life at different jobs usually boils down to awful work conditions, managers or bosses that don't care about you, not getting paid enough for the actual work, or general distain for your corporate overlords if you work for a big company. Some may call me lazy, but I'm working exactly as hard as I feel like they deserve when I'm 30 years old and still living in a studio apartment one paycheck away from being homeless. And I'm not gonna work at 100% when 100% of my needs are not being met. And I make more than anyone else in my family so I'm technically the "successful child."
There is also people who just hang on their phone all day or gossip in the kitchen. I have seen that in the best and in the worst working conditions.
There is good reason, why the principle "same pay for same work" usually does not include surveillance of productivity. But it does feel infuriating to not make 3x as much despite having 3x the productivity of some people that have a similar or even higher salary thanks to seniority, when i am basically financing their lack of productivity.
I agree that the term "laziness" is often used by management to shift blame onto the workers and i don't know how a solution could look like that would address real laziness without infringing on workers rights.
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You're approaching this from a point where it's already too late.
If you're not capable of taking proper care of your pet, don't get a pet in the first place. Picking up the shit your dog left in a public place is part of owning a dog.
If your kid has a baseball game the next day, don't go drinking today. That's the selfish part. Although I would argue if you do get drunk, you kind of just have to deal with it and go to your kids game regardless.
If you’re not capable of taking proper care of your pet, don’t get a pet in the first place. Picking up the shit your dog left in a public place is part of owning a dog.
So you never ever think you took 3 waste bags when you took 1? Nothing ever falls out of your pocket? Forgetting something is "not being capable of taking proper care"?
Or maybe you are simply not capable of reading before answering. That's typical for people without ASD.
If your kid has a baseball game the next day, don’t go drinking today. That’s the selfish part. Although I would argue if you do get drunk, you kind of just have to deal with it and go to your kids game regardless.
I don't drink.
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There's no such thing as "lazy". It's always, always, always a word used to make someone feel guilty for hitting a personal limit or threshold.
Even if you want to work on those thresholds and improve them, you can achieve that without framing yourself as fundamentally selfish and uncaring.
One of the best replies I've seen on social media! Allow me to be a zoomer and say, absolute W!
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Is either diagnosis really helpful in figuring out a solution?
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Tricky one to weigh up there. It might not be that you're lazy, you may well just be burned out, not working effectively (i.e. overworking yourself), or it could even be imposter syndrome. On the other hand, yes you could just be lazy, or you might just really hate your job. Hell, there have been times where I've felt unmotivated because our leadership team were just arseholes - sometimes a lack of motivation goes beyond just your own choices.
There just isn't enough data in a short post.
Take some leave, go get checked out by a doctor, talk to a friend/partner, take a look at job ads to see if anything sounds better than where you are.
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Isn't lazyness just evolutionary trait? The need to conserve energy?
If lazyness is an evolutionary trait to conserve energy, why do we get bored (pushing us to spend energy) once we do so?
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If lazyness is an evolutionary trait to conserve energy, why do we get bored (pushing us to spend energy) once we do so?
I'm not an expert, just read it somewhere. But I'd guess it might be because our current lives are miles away from the ones we evolved for and may not get the stimuli we require.
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I'm not an expert, just read it somewhere. But I'd guess it might be because our current lives are miles away from the ones we evolved for and may not get the stimuli we require.
So then, which stimuli do you get and don't get that make you lazy and, for example, stop you from doing the dishes?
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Might be depression, at least it was for me
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Is either diagnosis really helpful in figuring out a solution?
One could be rehabilitation, the other discipline?
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Try to rule out mental health issues first.
You might have autism/ADHD/ADD/depression. -
So then, which stimuli do you get and don't get that make you lazy and, for example, stop you from doing the dishes?
As I said, not an expert on this topic. But I feel like you are combining two different things.
Doing dishes is persumably something you don't enjoy and your survival is not dependent on it -> you conserve energy.
Boredom, I think, comes from the brain not having enough stimuli.
I see it as two different things. But you are better of asking someone who knows more.
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As I said, not an expert on this topic. But I feel like you are combining two different things.
Doing dishes is persumably something you don't enjoy and your survival is not dependent on it -> you conserve energy.
Boredom, I think, comes from the brain not having enough stimuli.
I see it as two different things. But you are better of asking someone who knows more.
I was trying to get you to question the believe that lazyness is an evolutionary trait. Like the post you replied to said: Find the root cause of your lazyness.
Because it's almost always not an evolutionary trait, it's avoiding negative emotions.
As you said:
Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good)
But, with boredom, this would result in this:
Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good) -> boredom (bad)Thus, we get negative emotions again. But we can avoid the final negative emotions by lying on the couch and spending energy looking at a screen. And our chain looks like this:
Doing dishes (bad) -> looking at screen (good)Because being bored is hard. If you want to see how hard it is, decide to just stare at a blank wall for the next 30min-1h instead and watch your brain fight this decision as hard as it can.
Thus saying "I'm lazy" and "being lazy is an evolutionary trait" results in "I can't do anything about me being lazy". And that is an easy way to avoid having to face and work through those negative emotions.
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There is is "being lazy" thats just capitalism way of saying you're not making your boss or society enough money.
Enjoy your life.
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The word "lazy" exists for exploiters to shame their thralls if they aren't profiting them enough. Think about anyone who might call you lazy and their relationship to you. They are not your friends; you don't have to serve them.
If you're not satisfied with how you're living your life, that's meaningful. The protection from loss you have gained through your job doesn't balance against the stress of what you're doing. There are no easy answers but something needs to change. I would suggest working on those changes before you get burned all the way out, because at that point you'll be making changes whether you want to or not.
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I was trying to get you to question the believe that lazyness is an evolutionary trait. Like the post you replied to said: Find the root cause of your lazyness.
Because it's almost always not an evolutionary trait, it's avoiding negative emotions.
As you said:
Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good)
But, with boredom, this would result in this:
Doing dishes (bad) -> do nothing (good) -> boredom (bad)Thus, we get negative emotions again. But we can avoid the final negative emotions by lying on the couch and spending energy looking at a screen. And our chain looks like this:
Doing dishes (bad) -> looking at screen (good)Because being bored is hard. If you want to see how hard it is, decide to just stare at a blank wall for the next 30min-1h instead and watch your brain fight this decision as hard as it can.
Thus saying "I'm lazy" and "being lazy is an evolutionary trait" results in "I can't do anything about me being lazy". And that is an easy way to avoid having to face and work through those negative emotions.
Fair enough. I was not going for "it's evolutionary, so let's just do nothing". The whole argument herr is thay laziness doesn't exist, because there is a root cause. Well, this is just semantics really. Being lazy is not wanting to do something. Is there a root cause behind it? Sure. If you go far enough it's just biology (allegedly).
Does tiredness not exist? There is usually a root cause to you being tired.
I feel like this "lazyness doesn't exists" is there just because being lazy has negative conotations. I think being lazy is good. Sometimes you do need to wind down and save what energy you have. This ofc shouldn't be an excuse to not do anything ever. There is something as too much of a good thing and all that.
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That's not lazyness, that's looking after yourself and your own needs, and prioritising that over non urgent chores.
At some point, the balance changes, and you do the stuff.
And if the balance doesn't change, and you always put it off, even when you shouldn't be, there's something going on behind it.
I can believe that a lot of what we call laziness is really something else, but I'm not in the maximalist "lazy does not exist" camp. Whatever your goals are in life, you need at least some ability to buckle down and do those necessary things you'd rather not do. All else being equal, some people are better at that than others.
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I had one of the most desirable jobs in my field. It was one that everyone thought was very cool when I was asked. I got burnt out. I was sad and depressed every day. When I was done with work, I didn't want to do anything that required energy. I just sat and watched tv or similar. That's burnt out.
I am extremely lazy at my current job. It's a pretty easy job, but I resent being assigned more responsibility (happened the other day). The added responsibility isn't that difficult and only happens one day per week, but I'm still annoyed. After work, I pretty much scroll Lemmy and watch streaming content, but I don't feel used up; I'm just lazy. That's lazy.
The difference is when you can't do more vs you choose to do less. It's subjective. Good luck!
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I had panic attacks just before start working, and my productivity was quite low. I hope you don't reach that kind of reaction before looking for help.
I used to feel like I was going to throw up every morning before work. Didn't happen on weekends.
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That's not lazyness, that's looking after yourself and your own needs, and prioritising that over non urgent chores.
At some point, the balance changes, and you do the stuff.
And if the balance doesn't change, and you always put it off, even when you shouldn't be, there's something going on behind it.
What going on is I don't feel like doing it LOL.
