You would be lying if you said you’ve never procrastinated on anything once in your life. It’s something everyone is guilty of doing at some point, especially during their semesters in college. However, those bad habits do not imply one has a bad work ethic. A continuous lack of productivity distinguishes the difference between a few instances involving procrastination, and prolonged negative work ethic.
Negative work ethic is a somewhat vague phrase. It can best be defined as a series of traits resulting in an overall lack of productivity and low-quality work. While procrastination would fall into this category of traits, a bad work ethic isn’t a one-time occurrence. It’s a bad habit developed over time that eventually manifests itself as a lifestyle.
A bad work ethic can seep its way into everything you do, even outside of the work environment. You may find yourself leaving common household chores undone, putting off important tasks—such as buying someone a gift—or even neglecting essential duties like cleaning your cat’s litter box.
This affects everyone you work with, especially if you work with a team to form a product. Certain jobs require cooperation from all workers, a good example would be a specific task that is composed of work from multiple people. An individual with a bad work ethic would either turn in their part late or not at all. This ultimately hinders the finished product of the company, as well as the process of creating said product.
If you understand you have a problem with poor work ethic, it mostly comes down to a matter of poor self-discipline. You most likely don’t finish your work because you can’t force yourself to sit down and do it.
This can also be a result of the inability to find a balance between work and fun. If you suffer from this, I suggest you learn to prioritize. Make sure you have an understanding that there is a difference between what you need to do, and what you want to do.
If you have to deal with coworkers who have bad work ethic, honestly, there isn’t much you can do. You can sit down and talk to them about their troublesome behavior, but this wouldn’t be of much help.
Once someone has developed a bad habit of putting off work and doing it poorly, it’s nearly impossible to break that habit. These are the same people who were able to easily coast through life doing the bare minimum, and now poor work ethic seems to be embedded in their minds.
