We all know why we dislike lazy workers. They hold everything back. They never get work done. They never refill the coffee pot when it’s empty. Yes, the coffee pot! We would really prefer if these workers just got their act together. Everything would be so much better, right? Nope. It turns out there is one more type of person everybody would love to get rid of as well. Yes, we are talking about the humble honest helpful person in your office: the hardworking member.
But why would you hate on such a person? We are talking about a person that gets his work done on time (fast enough that he helps others with their work). A person who would offer to get you lunch. A person who is smiling all the time while we are buried in work and frowns. Why would we hate such a hardworking saint? Isn’t that the asset we all need?
Apparently not.
We will come to dislike such people as much as we would the lazy worker. In fact, there will be times we will hate this saint more. ‘Why?’ I hear you ask. Here are some reasons why we will hate the hardworking member in the first place.
Competition
When we are in the office, we want to get work done (or at least look like we are doing so), but someone comes along and makes us look bad. Imagine you sitting at your desk, writing out the memo for the Monday meeting when a face pops in, asking if you need help. You politely decline and he finishes with the statement ‘But I’m already done with my work, I thought you might need help.’ Doesn’t it grind your gears? It’s because of man’s competitive nature that we feel this way. We want to feel good in front of anyone. It’s not helping if there is someone constantly out-doing us. It will only make us feel bad so we will feel like getting rid of him.
Something is Not Right
We all know that when we work hard, we should play hard. It really only makes sense. Why would someone not do that? It’s common sense right? Nope, not for these people. They will work hard and take little. It’s like doing a hundred-dollar job and only taking twenty dollars as payment. It doesn’t add up. Why would someone do something like that? That’s what this hardworking member does. He will work very hard and only takes little in exchange. It really doesn’t make sense. To make things worse, no one likes difference. Humans like seeing similar things and we like seeing similar behaviours too. So if we have one person acting differently, we won’t really like him now, will we?
At the end of the day, it really doesn’t pay to be the hardworking member, in fact it would be a disadvantage. It would actually be better if they learnt how to not work so hard and just go with the flow like everyone else.
