Ever met the IT employee who does the bare minimum?

Would they get fired or never be promoted or get a raise?
Are there even people in the IT Field who the bare minimum?
How are these people handled?

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professionale

what i learned was

these lazy asses get ahead more than the hard workers SOMETIMES

Most IT workers are lazy

Iristheangel

I've run into these types many times. This is my opinion: They're lifers. Never had another IT job and never interested in getting a different one than the ones they have. They don't want to learn anything new and they create FUD and resist all new technology changes because it'll mean they have to learn something new. I don't see them promoted too often and most of the raises I see them get are the basic cost-of-living increases yearly. Situations and employees like this usually exist because of constant changes in management or bad management allows this oversight to happen.

gorebrush

The one notable guy like this I remember got laid off and I kept my job - which was nice considering I cost them 10,000 a year more to employ...

da_vato

Unfortunately I am all too familiar with this type of personality… I would like to tell you that they eventually get what’s coming to them but that is not always the case. I have seen several times, these types stick around way longer than they should and lower the morale across the board. From a management standpoint they are extremely difficult to get rid of, after all, they are doing the bare minimum which is generally all that is Required.

In regards to promotions/raises/incentives, I have seen the same as Iristheangel, basic cost-of-living increases and not much more than that. In order to effectively deal with personnel like this you or your supervisor needs to document everything and I mean everything. You have to show a trend that the individual is truly not helping the organization.

vCole

Yeah, 3 of the guys on my team are like this. All have 10+ years with the company - 1 whom this is his first IT job ever (and has about 15 years in IT but isn't very technical.) One guy in my group has been there for 22 years but still very sharp and works hard. Most days are very frustrating for me as I'm taking on the bulk of the work.

wahrheit

Yes...There are two types of lazy IT workers....

The good kind...who automate mundane stuff they don't want to do.

The bad kind...who sit around and bicker about having to do the same thing 900 times, always doing exactly what is required (sometimes less) until they are in the same 1st level helpdesk job for 10+ years...

The_Expert

Like I always say - not all IT is created equal. Some companies have better employees than others.

The lazy ones normally just stay in one place and their salaries reflect their attitude towards work.

joelsfood

I've definitely seen them, particularly when I was working at larger companies.

One thing to remember is that with companies that give a chunk of money for raises per department, employees like that can set the curve to help those who DO work get much better raise. Just like grading in college.

JasminLandry

professionale wrote: »

what i learned was

these lazy asses get ahead more than the hard workers SOMETIMES

Most IT workers are lazy

Like Bill Gates said, 'I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.'

joelsfood

"Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things" Heinlein

vlakarmis

Had exactly this type working on our support desk. Used to just pass the buck, when they got a call that would mention someone else's name, instead of asking if they could help instead they would just add notes like 'user called asking for so and so' rather than troubleshoot.

The issue is that they had been there for 2 years and I was just shocked at the little knowledge they had and the half baked attempts at troubleshooting they would do.

I surpassed them skills wise within 5 months of joining the organisation and basically started to document everything wrong they did and whenever they did things that showed blatant lack of ownership, teamwork and sometimes simply not doing their job.

Needless to say, he was on his way out after 6 months of me joining and is no longer here. Replaced by someone much more curious and willing to move up in the IT world.

I definitely think the fact they had been there for 2 years was a factor in their disinterest in their jobs, but that's their fault for not pursuing further career interests imho.

matai

I do the minimum work possible but my boss encourages it. I also do the maximum education possible, which my boss encourages.

markulous

This is very common at entry-level positions. They don't want to put in any effort in certs/education or learning. In their down time they are looking at youtube or memes. There's no reason to fire them if they are doing their job decently enough but they get pegged as someone that won't get promoted. As someone that supervises a group of people I try to give out free courses, certs, and training as much as I can to help but like the old saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water..."

snunez889

I don't mind when people do the bare minimum, it makes me look better. It can sometimes suck, but if that's what they want to do I don't let it get to me. I was hired to do a job regardless what my coworkers do, that's their business. If they are happy floating on by I can care less.

skully93

its easy to become this type too. You get in, and YAY! then after 4 years of flat wages, no company support, and people being jerks, motivation slows down.

Then you log back in here and remember that you're not stuck there forever!

OfWolfAndMan

wahrheit wrote: »

Yes...There are two types of lazy IT workers....The good kind...who automate mundane stuff they don't want to do.The bad kind...who sit around and bicker about having to do the same thing 900 times, always doing exactly what is required (sometimes less) until they are in the same 1st level helpdesk job for 10+ years...

This says a lot. As for people "Getting by in IT", I will say most of the people in situations like this tend to end up explicitly with obsolete knowledge because they "Don't need to learn that" or "Hate change". The fact of the matter is while many of these people end up eventually putting themselves out of business, some of them don't find necessity in learning the new stuff because of their swift tongue (Meaning they lack the abilities to do a job, but know how to snake through an interview or play words with the type of industry they will be working in. After all, most IT jobs are not industry-specific) supports them through their fractional effort endeavors. On the other hand, if it's someone architecting a model of "Work smarter, not harder", implementing automation techniques or other methods of saving time, that's a whole different story. Automation is an ever-evolving technology, not just in IT. Construction, retail, healthcare, the industrial age, etc. Making our life easier in certain aspects will help us look under the microscope to analyze where we could improve and enhance our methods. I just hope we don't end up like the culture portrayed on Wall-E.

NOC-Ninja

Bchen22 wrote: »

Would they get fired or never be promoted or get a raise?
Are there even people in the IT Field who the bare minimum?
How are these people handled?

They get fired or does not get promoted.
Yes
Most usually does not get promoted.

I used to have a co worker that went from networks to VOIP. He was in the company for 8yrs. He doesnt have or want to take any certs and works the bare minimum. He got fired and now his a desktop support technician.

Be thankful that they exist since those makes competition easier.

Xavor

He's sitting right next to me in the same office. Sometimes the employer literally needs a body in a chair to charge a rate to the customer.

It takes an act of god to fire someone in some industries unless they really screw up.

N2IT

Would they get fired or never be promoted or get a raise?
It depends on how well liked they are. This is a huge piece that I haven't seen brought up. The person you described with a bad attitude gone. The same person who is pleasant and kind they can get promoted, I've seen it happen before. (Not just once or twice either)

Are there even people in the IT Field who the bare minimum?
Yes, some are very successful some are terrible.

How are these people handled?
Depends on their skillsets and the culture. In some cultures the go getter get's squeezed because they are rocking the environment. I've seen this as well.

My best advice is just be yourself.

the_Grinch

I'm in the public sector and deal with this. Seems once you get past that initial period there is no way to get fired. I always think of it like that scene in Casino where De Niro wants to fire the guy and his manager says "you can't, he's juiced in". I get paid regardless, so I'll do my job and move on.

LeBroke

Had two at my current job. One, you'd expect - mid 20's hipster with a focus on music, in a band and basically did this job as something for a paycheck so he could play League of Legends for most of his shift, or write video game articles. Didn't care much for learning/improving, considered an A+ a difficult to do cert (even though a typical geeky teenage gamer could probably pass it after a week of studying). Postponed any tickets he wasn't explicitly trained to deal with.

This guy I understand; he didn't consider it a career, had other focuses in life and wanted a paycheck.

Another guy.. 12 years experience. Bouncing between a number of helpdesk jobs, staying 1-3 years in each (apparently always with glowing reviews on customer satisfaction, etc). Had pretty decent Linux skills to start. Overall, pretty hardworking in that he'd always find something for himself to do, which usually entailed building new server racks (from parts).

At the same time, absolutely 0 desire to get better. Would always talk about projects to do, but would never actually sit down and start fiddling. What annoyed me a lot is that since we don't typically provide managed services, would always politely tell the client to suck it, even if they had a pretty basic request like "can you mount a new drive as /directory please?" Justified it as "we don't want them to start expecting things from us." No certs. I beat his Linux skills in about 3-4 months.

Guess who got laid off recently when we lost a major client?

spicy ahi

I've seen all types of what I call tow liners (just towing the line) I did have one surprising one. He did the bare minimum, didn't really study, and always seemed distracted. Well, the joke was on me because unbeknownst to me (and everyone else who wasn't management) he was going to school to earn his JD. It was a night job at a NOC and he would leave work and head straight to school. When he put in his two weeks, he had just accepted a job at a law firm. He was using the company to pay for school and they even paid for his BAR exam fees! I still keep in touch with him til this day and at one point I asked him if he ever felt bad for "using" the company. He said that he did feel bad but the IT gods saw fit to punish him appropriately. At every law firm he's been with, they found out about his IT background and he always ends up being the point man for all things IT.

blargoe

I see two different kinds of lazy. There's the folks that got the paper MCSE's back during the technology boom in the late 90's, landed 90K+ jobs, and have managed to hang around keeping the same cheating/corner cutting habits that actually landed them the job to begin with. There are also folks from my generation or younger who for whatever reason just do not have the work ethic that used to be more prevalent.

Automating tasks to eliminate manual effort is NOT LAZY. Working smarter is not laziness.

RouteMyPacket

lol...75% of Enterprise is exactly that.

"Boohoo..I should be paid more, I know everything...certs are worthless and a waste of time..again I already know everything"

*In at 8:15AM, out at 4:45PM everyday*

"I don't have time to study"..."Documentation, no need since I am here everyday"...

Q: So what kind of exposure do you have to ABC technology?

A: "Hmm, well I have some but it's..umm..been awhile"

Q: How are you backing up configurations?

A: Well I log in when I remember to and copy/paste into a notepad or something

Q: What are you using for your IGP?

A: Umm, I think it's EIGPR

"I'd probably learn more but only if they paid me to do so"

I could go on forever but don't want to depress myself further.

Cyberscum

^+1
There are more lazy in my org than "go-getters" By a significant amount

Iristheangel

RouteMyPacket wrote: »

lol...75% of Enterprise is exactly that.

"Boohoo..I should be paid more, I know everything...certs are worthless and a waste of time..again I already know everything"

*In at 8:15AM, out at 4:45PM everyday*

"I don't have time to study"..."Documentation, no need since I am here everyday"...

Q: So what kind of exposure do you have to ABC technology?

A: "Hmm, well I have some but it's..umm..been awhile"

Q: How are you backing up configurations?

A: Well I log in when I remember to and copy/paste into a notepad or something

Q: What are you using for your IGP?

A: Umm, I think it's EIGPR

"I'd probably learn more but only if they paid me to do so"

I could go on forever but don't want to depress myself further.

You just summed up all the reasons I'll never go back to an enterprise

XiaoTech

Then you have people like me who try to do enough where I'm better than 50% of my peers, but don't put 100% effort in since I'm studying for other things outside of IT (film, foreign languages, other hobbies, etc.). I love my current job...contract assisting in a upgrade/migration of VMWare servers...half the eight hour shift I have free to study for my CCNA...which I'm doing right now. Okay, maybe I'm not lazy. But I feel lazy sometimes because I feel I'm not giving my 100%...

ArabianKnight

Between the military and contracting I have seen too many of these types. You can't really fire them, you can be a crapbag in the military for 20 years and get a life pension....and trust me some of them stay in for just this reason. Another I know of was on crutches for 2 years(complete bull****!) any other country military he would be executed in public for his extreme crapbagedness! As for contracting you can't really fire them unless the client really wanted them gone, even then the company would do whatever they could to keep getting paid like moving them to another site. I have been on phone "interviews" where all I needed was a clearance and willingness to work and they would hire me.

radarlove

This thread is a great reminder not to be "that guy."

Having a good work ethic really pays off in the long run.

H3||scr3am

The only issue I ever ran into was a low glass ceiling.

I started in a tech startup and at first there was always things to be done, learned, documented, automated, improved, streamlined, etc. As the company got to round 3 or 4 of funding, and we were on 50+ employees, I had held the same stale position for 4 years (others had too for 3-4 Yrs.), my manager had been the same since I started, raises were 6 months late and there was nowhere upwards to go or strive towards.... that is when I got lazy (less lazy then others certainly, but a lot more of my free time was spent wasted on the internet... I mean I got written up for reading Tech blogs keeping up with the industry :S... glad that one is behind me now, hope to find a new challenging position shortly