10 Ways Lazy Stupid Coworkers Can Help Boost Your Career

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10 Ways Lazy Stupid Coworkers Can Help Boost Your Career
Tuesday, January 15, 2008 at 1:26am by admin
By Jessica Hupp

Lazy coworkers may seem like a nuisance, but in reality, they offer a number of excellent opportunities to improve your professional life. Whether you’re simply outshining them, or being forced to innovate, those dolts you work with might actually be doing you a favor. Here, we’ll take a look at 10 ways they’re giving you a hand.

You’ll look better in comparison: First and foremost, a lazy coworker makes it easy for you to look good. Assuming you’re not just as lazy and stupid as your coworkers, having a few fools around can raise your perceived value. Yes, your boss really does notice.

Picking up the slack: By doing the work your coworkers are too incompetent to do, you’ll shine and be praised for your willingness to help out the team. Just be sure to make sure this doesn’t go unnoticed.

They’ll motivate you to do better: Chances are, your lazy, stupid coworkers of today were just like you yesterday-they’ve just become accustomed to a routine of slacking and underperforming over the years. You can use their attitude as a motivator to do better things, whether that means working harder to advance yourself, or breaking out of the rat race to create your own business.

They don’t bother recognizing opportunities: If your coworkers are too stupid and lazy to even do their own jobs, you can bet there’s a good chance they wouldn’t notice or care if an opportunity smacked them in the face. That means that you’re more likely to stumble upon and take advantage of a great idea, such as volunteering to head up a new and much needed committee that will grant you high profile success.

You’ll be able to work less: Working with slow coworkers often means that your work tends to trickle in as well. You should be able to run laps around them, freeing yourself up for career-advancing special projects.

Your suggestions for improvements will be noticed: If no one else cares enough to say anything about improving your workflow, bringing these issues to your boss can raise you to the level of confidant, and it shows that you care. These are great seeds to plant for future advancement.

You’ll become everyone’s new best friend: Again, underperforming coworkers often give you an opportunity to do things beyond your normal job scope. This leaves you open to help out in other departments and become more helpful and visible to your entire organization.

They’ll fill you in on the latest gossip: There’s one thing lazy coworkers are great at keeping up with, and that thing is gossip. Use them to keep informed about who’s leaving, what positions are opening up, and where your company is going in the future.

They’re open mikes: Another way gossip-loving lazy coworkers help is through their gift of gab. Pass along a rumor that you’re doing well or that you’re expected to receive a specific promotion, and this information just might land upon and influence ears that matter.

Sharing credit makes you look like a leader: When you swoop in to save the day after your stupid coworker did something inept, you’ll be the hero that got the job done. This is especially useful if you share credit with the dummy that started it all, because you’ll be perceived as the leader that brought everything together.