Morons and Slackers

Maybe I'm reading too much of Gevlon. I'm not really taking him seriously, but it's cute to see how his mind works from a coldly economical standpoint, and he's got little grains of truth and fun quotes of wisdom from time to time.

But I'm finding myself quite aggravated with various people in real life, mostly because they are slackers. Hell, they're not morons. They're bloody clever and devious for putting forward the minimum of work for maximal gain. But it pisses me off when it ends up being ME taken advantage of.

I either end up working harder and (to quote an MMO raid term) "boosting" them.

Or I am somehow responsible for their nonperformance (as leader/manager/chairman/chief scapegoat,) and so it's on my head ultimately whatever tasks are NOT being completed.

What are the solutions?
a) I could ignore it.
The problem with this is that they will continue as how they are. They will notice that no one is coming after them, so yay, they will slack even further and try and get away with doing as little as possible while getting paid as much as they can. Meanwhile, the actual "stuff" doesn't get done.

This is all very well if I'm not the one whose head is on the chopping block, to steal the old proverb. I know very well human nature. I do it too. Slack off if no one is watching.

(Except I have a little bit more work ethic and responsibility, so if there are major pressing issues that are going to blow up and are under my purview, then one cannot slack.)

So I cannot ignore it. Not those whose performance I'm responsible for anyhow.

b) I could use various means of communicating that someone has noticed what they are up to.

i) The really "soft" way.
Thing is, I'm still feeling my way around the soft way. I'm not a very sneaky social person, so I often come into conversations like a bulldozer driven by a drunk. This makes gentle hints hard to accomplish, and most of the time, they waft over people's heads anyhow.

Personally, I don't do gentle hints. It wafts over my head too. I get the inkling that someone is trying to tell me something, but it drives me mad that I have to figure out what exactly they want me to do.

ii) The "medium soft" way.
I can just tell them. Normal tone of voice. Or with just a hint of reprimand. I often try to clarify what the heck the task is that they're supposed to be doing. It occurs to me that I should try and set a hard deadline too.

This works with folks who are genuinely well-intentioned but just unclear on the details of what you want, and with a tendency to procrastinate. I like this way. I react best to it too.

Problem is, these folks are rarely the ones you would label the "slackers." Slackers are like the leeches of CoH, to varying degrees.

So what the hell do you do with a slacker? This one boggles me.

iii) The "hard" way.
Be assertive, firm, and give them a good scolding? Somehow, it seems to me that it just makes the aggravated one (ie the scolder) feel better rather than the scoldee.

Yes, it then becomes clear that you mean business. And you're not a pushover. Some people get the hint and will toe the line. This is great if they do pick up the vibes that you are not happy with their performance.

Short-term, it works for a little while, until they go back on their merry ways when no one is watching them again.

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But then you have the die-hards who are just frappin' used to doing it their way, and wants the universe to revolve around them and their slacker ways. And try as you might, none of the above options work for long.

WTF? What is a person to do now?

Frankly, my personal belief is more about internal motivators over external ones. You can't MAKE another person do something if they don't WANT to do it. (Not without a lot of guns and a fascist regime, anyhow.)

Problem is, I understand very little about what other people want. Maybe because I see things in my term of reference, but I tend to think that making people do something they really don't want to do is a lost cause.

Which then makes me very grumpy because I can't figure out a solution beyond the equivalent of /gkick or /outcast.

If I had my way with things, that's how I'd do it, frankly. I don't build frappin' teams with deadweight attached. That's how companies like Google and stuff do it. (Presumably. Who knows. Politics might be everywhere.)

It's all very well to say, oh, build up trust with people, etc, etc. Bleh, I'm not really a very sociable kind of person at all. I don't do the trust shtick very well.

Besides, the slackers are the ones who are not being watched. The ones who are out of view. How do you even build up a conversation, let alone trust, with people who are not there?

It's kind of a vicious cycle because I get grumpier and grumpier, and irritable to boot, and then I'm liable to tear off the head of the next almost-slacker that is still clueless enough to come near me to reveal their wannabe slacker ways.

Which scares me a bit because they might learn that the best way is then to not even come near me, aka stay out of sight for good, instead of being scared into the right and proper path.

(Because the sad thing is, most people in the world would slack if they could get away with it. So if you avoid the one watchdog, he or she cannot be everywhere after all, you get away with it, and you get positively reinforced to slack off more.)

I don't even want to use fear as a motivator, honestly. I think it's negative in the long run. But some people (aka the slackers) don't understand anything BUT fear and negative conditioning. But it then devolves into a vicious cycle that can only end in disaster.

I suppose a cheesy solution would be love and understanding and benefit of the doubt. That's all very well if you don't get titted for your tat and taken advantage of, by the 3-10% goblin/griefer fraternity - who then set a bad example for everyone else.

It also assumes you have enough time and social skills to spare to befriend everybody. (Never happen.)

It's all kind of bloody stupid the more and more you think about it. And the more I'm tempted to figure out freelancing.

At least then, you're only managing one person, yourself. But you still need social networking skills. And woe betide you if your company expands, because then it starts all over again with the additional of more than 1 person.

I hate people.

The world might be better off if we just didn't have people. :(