thesis statement of laziness

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Laziness: Its Effects and Results, Essay Example

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Introduction

When a person decides to put up everything for later or for the next day, then he is immediately considered to be coined as lazy or simply put: wanting to do nothing [for the moment]. Most individuals confronted with the need to complete so much often find themselves out of the mood to finish anything, thus making it harder for them to finish anything especially when they believe that there is still time to complete such tasks or responsibilities later on. Noticeably, through time and history, it has become obviously distinct that laziness affects the overall progress rate that communities take into account; based on individual attitude, laziness becomes a rather consistent matter that basically mandates how a particularly designed plan turns out.

In the discussion that follows, Ernest Smartt’s article on Traits that Define Lazy People shall be given specific attention to, especially in the aim of making a direct interpretation on how Smartt tried to put up a pattern of belief that could be used in identifying the real effects of laziness in the human society and how it thrives within the constraints of communal progress. Furthermore, this discussion shall also try to provide a definite sense of presentation on how laziness basically affects the overall being of a person; as well as that of his relationships and connection with other individuals he tends to be close with. Practically, the article to be analyzed in this written work shall be scrutinized based on the reality of its assumptive connection to how lazy individuals actually are and what elements contribute to such attitude among themselves.

What Laziness Means

Laziness is the state of not wanting to do anything; most often than not, this attitude is likened to that of one’s application of personal procrastination. These two negative attitudes, however, should not be interchanged as they have very distinct differences depending on how a person reacts with regards the value of human development that they imply to embrace. On one side, laziness suggests a condition of failure on the part of an individual tasked to complete something; but has rather become mindless of the situation which makes it easier for a person to neglect such responsibilities set for him to accomplish. On the other end, procrastination is one attitude that suggests a definite sense of condition by which a person puts up something for later, especially if he believes that he still has more time allotted for him to complete his duties accordingly.

Nonetheless, both attitudes are intertwined although not really belonging to the same level of application and realization. In Smartt’s article, he points out that laziness is rather a state of mind. The mind governs every move of a person; it suggests whether or not he should go for something. The power of the mind to provide interesting motivations in a person plays a great role on how one would view his responsibilities as well as other matters he is expected to accomplish.

Hence, being a state of mind, laziness could be controlled. However, because of the emergent changes happening in the world today, Smartt implicates that somehow, the environment too has a great impact on how one develops the point of laziness. The article further insists on the fact by which cognitive adjustments occur based on how one perceives his environment, and how much he lets external factors affect his internal being. This is where the condition of thinking comes in; a person learns to perceive on matters; may it be positive or not, based on how he intends to become more involved in a situation. When an individual decides that he does not have any connection on something, the interest starts to fall off and somehow, the desire to engage in such matter disintegrates accordingly.

Another factor pointed out by Smartt to affect the modern concept of laziness is the emergent rise of innovations designed to make human life more productive, more convenient and more acceptable for those who might not fully want to work themselves or put forward a distinct effort that would bring them better satisfaction from their work. The determination to embrace a sense of purpose among themselves is then lost and somehow, relaxation and the desire to live within a luxurious, if not comfortable lifestyle that allows them to do what they want to do and not what they have to accomplish. Some of these innovations include computerized systems that give them a better sense of the value of improvement that they want to embrace. Humans now depend on machines to complete most of the household chores that they have to accomplish in a day; from cooking, to washing clothes, to mopping the floor, to entertaining themselves with television, radio, or modern mobile phones and other carry-on gadgets, humans have learned to fully depend on technology and what it is ready to provide them with to be able to experience a certain level of ease from the many works and pressures they may already be experiencing from working.

Media is also considered as a highly influential tool that basically affects the overall vision of humans towards matters of putting forth an extra effort towards completing their tasks or simply putting matters off to face different conditions of situations in their lives. The promotion of laziness in media does not come as a direct invitation; however, with the presentation of how one could ease out from living within a tensed situation, humans are taught that it is easy if not necessary to escape from the many detectable sources of pressure in life. Facing challenges and difficulties in life and in everyday dealings of individuals have become a thing of the past; especially if there are certain short cuts made available for individuals to take notice of.

With media and the power of social construction placed within the picture, it is rather important to note of the fact that humans receive bombarding ideas about how they should live their lives and how they ought to face challenges and particular tests to their capacity to put their best foot forwards. The power of media to implicate the development of certain points of thinking among human individuals basically create a more responsive process by which media-development is seen to have the capacity to create a controlling factor that would determine how a specific community is likely to accept the terms of progress they are being offered with through time.

True, there are different elements that could contribute to one’s development of laziness [may it be in a personal or a more distinguished condition of development that a person undergoes]. Nonetheless, none of these elements could be used to justify the laziness of an individual. Being lazy is a choice that one makes on his own. His unwillingness to work is a personal decision. True to its sense, being lazy is only affected by the fact that a person allows himself to adjust to such attitude of comfort and relaxation. When a choice has been made, laziness becomes intertwined with the idea of concentrated proof that as one nourishes an idea, it becomes a main stay in the brain and somehow is already able to control the whole being of the person allowing himself to be directed by such desire to simply ‘relax’.

What Effects Laziness has on Individuals

  When one decides to not do anything; it does not mean he will never ever work on matters appointed for him to complete. Rather, it means that at the time being; he may not be in the right position nor mood for him to complete that of the tasks that have been assigned for him to accomplish. Nonetheless, when such option becomes highly available for a person to embrace most of the time, then such culture of laziness becomes highly effective on how a person views the value of time, effort and determination to do good. Noticeably, the lines quoted from the essay saying:

Laziness can be called one of the scourges of the modern world. Though often seen simply as a forgivable weakness, it can have a number of negative effects on a person. In terms of these consequences, it should be mentioned that laziness often leads to the worsening of one’s relationships at work and decreased work performance, which can result into job loss, excessive stress, and psychic disturbance.

…these lines prove that laziness serves as a definite hindrance to the ways by which individuals intend to take the option of growth that are available for them to embrace fully. Laziness makes it hard for individuals to take on the next step or at times even the first step towards success.

Relationships, Connections and Laziness

  Most lazy individuals develop a lower threshold for tension; making it easier for them to say ‘no’ rather than ‘let’s work it out’ when dealing with particular situations within the relationships they may have formed with friends and family. Once a person decides to be lazy, it is most of than not harder to break into.

Laziness, as mentioned earlier is highly affected by both internal and external elements surrounding a particular individual. External situations and elements of survival often create a mandate of tension’ however, it is the inner elements [primarily including the original attitude of a person] that basically affects the overall decision making of a person; including the choice of developing into a lazier individual or towards a person who tries the best to avoid such condition of thinking and work.

Overall, it could be agreed upon that a person may be affected by media, social situations and other points of pressure to embrace laziness as means of directive culture among themselves. Nevertheless, the role of one’s decision-making culture determines whether or not a specific person would willingly accept laziness as a personal culture. Some researchers even admittedly took into consideration the fact that there are individuals who may not know of the fact that they are lazy; because of the fact that they have been the same ever since and that laziness has become a common notable characteristic or social norm for their part.

Hence, to explain one’s laziness is easy, but to justify the works from which such individuals function in, ought to give a distinct sense of knowing whether or not a person is lazy in culture or in mind. Then again, it should not be forgotten how laziness is also considered as a state of mind; meaning it could be fully controlled with the emergence of ample assistance coming from the surrounding individuals who tend to support the needs of the people who tend to develop such attitude especially in completing particularly assigned tasks.

  Being a sense of mind-set in persons, laziness could be eliminated through changing one’s attitude towards life and its challenges. Improving the sense of interest and enthusiasm that one has over life and the elements making it up could help eliminate the condition of laziness in an individual. Practically, it could be understood that Smartt’s article gives a definite insistence on discussing the primary foundations of developing laziness among individuals. It is only the willingness of one to avoid the constrains of such situation as part of their life that could help them avoid the degrading situations brought about by laziness as well as the damages that it may have on the relationships they are to form in the future.

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On Laziness by Christopher Morley

A Classic Short Essay

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• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Critically and commercially popular during his lifetime while unfairly neglected today, Christopher Morley is best remembered as a novelist and essayist , though he was also a publisher, editor, and prolific writer of poems, reviews, plays, criticism, and children's stories. Clearly, he was not afflicted by laziness.

As you read Morley's short essay (originally published in 1920, shortly after the end of World War I), consider whether your definition of laziness is the same as the author's.

You may also find it worthwhile to compare "On Laziness" with three other essays in our collection: "An Apology for Idlers," by Robert Louis Stevenson; "In Praise of Idleness," by Bertrand Russell; and "Why Are Beggars Despised?" by George Orwell.

On Laziness*

by Christopher Morley

1 Today we rather intended to write an essay on Laziness, but were too indolent to do so.

2 The sort of thing we had in mind to write would have been exceedingly persuasive . We intended to discourse a little in favour of a greater appreciation of Indolence as a benign factor in human affairs.

3 It is our observation that every time we get into trouble it is due to not having been lazy enough. Unhappily, we were born with a certain fund of energy. We have been hustling about for a number of years now, and it doesn't seem to get us anything but tribulation. Henceforward we are going to make a determined effort to be more languid and demure. It is the bustling man who always gets put on committees, who is asked to solve the problems of other people and neglect his own.

4 The man who is really, thoroughly, and philosophically slothful is the only thoroughly happy man. It is the happy man who benefits the world. The conclusion is inescapable.

5 We remember a saying about the meek inheriting the earth. The truly meek man is the lazy man. He is too modest to believe that any ferment and hubbub of his can ameliorate the earth or assuage the perplexities of humanity.

6 O. Henry said once that one should be careful to distinguish laziness from dignified repose. Alas, that was a mere quibble. Laziness is always dignified, it is always reposeful. Philosophical laziness, we mean. The kind of laziness that is based upon a carefully reasoned analysis of experience. Acquired laziness. We have no respect for those who were born lazy; it is like being born a millionaire: they cannot appreciate their bliss. It is the man who has hammered his laziness out of the stubborn material of life for whom we chant praise and alleluia.

7 The laziest man we know—we do not like to mention his name, as the brutal world does not yet recognize sloth at its community value—is one of the greatest poets in this country; one of the keenest satirists ; one of the most rectilinear thinkers. He began life in the customary hustling way. He was always too busy to enjoy himself. He became surrounded by eager people who came to him to solve their problems. "It's a queer thing," he said sadly; "no one ever comes to me asking for help in solving my problems." Finally, the light broke upon him. He stopped answering letters, buying lunches for casual friends and visitors from out of town, he stopped lending money to old college pals and frittering his time away on all the useless minor matters that pester the good-natured. He sat down in a secluded cafe with his cheek against a seidel of dark beer and began to caress the universe with his intellect.

8 The most damning argument against the Germans is that they were not lazy enough. In the middle of Europe, a thoroughly disillusioned, indolent and delightful old continent, the Germans were a dangerous mass of energy and bumptious push. If the Germans had been as lazy, as indifferent, and as righteously laissez-fairish as their neighbours the world would have been spared a great deal.

9 People respect laziness. If you once get a reputation for complete, immovable, and reckless indolence the world will leave you to your own thoughts, which are generally rather interesting.

10 Doctor Johnson, who was one of the world's great philosophers, was lazy. Only yesterday our friend the Caliph showed us an extraordinarily interesting thing. It was a little leather-bound notebook in which Boswell jotted down memoranda of his talks with the old doctor. These notes he afterward worked up into the immortal Biography . And lo and behold, what was the very first entry in this treasured little relic?

Doctor Johnson told me in going to Ilam from Ashbourne, 22 September, 1777, that the way the plan of his Dictionary came to be addressed to Lord Chesterfield was this: He had neglected to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord C. Mr. J. laid hold of this as an excuse for delay, that it might be better done perhaps, and let Dodsley have his desire. Mr. Johnson said to his friend, Doctor Bathurst: "Now if any good comes of my addressing to Lord Chesterfield it will be ascribed to deep policy and address, when, in fact, it was only a casual excuse for laziness.

11 Thus we see that it was sheer laziness that led to the greatest triumph of Doctor Johnson's life, the noble and memorable letter to Chesterfield in 1775.

12 Mind your business is a good counsel; but mind your idleness also. It's a tragic thing to make a business of your mind. Save your mind to amuse yourself with.

13 The lazy man does not stand in the way of progress. When he sees progress roaring down upon him he steps nimbly out of the way. The lazy man doesn't (in the vulgar phrase) pass the buck. He lets the buck pass him. We have always secretly envied our lazy friends. Now we are going to join them. We have burned our boats or our bridges or whatever it is that one burns on the eve of a momentous decision.

14 Writing on this congenial topic has roused us up to quite a pitch of enthusiasm and energy.

*"On Laziness" by Christopher Morley was originally published in Pipefuls (Doubleday, Page and Company, 1920)

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Analysis on "Laziness"

Favorite Quote: I know nothing, but of miracles.

On Christopher Morley’s “On Laziness”, he presents the topic of laziness, persuading his audience about the allure indolence through rhetorical effect and appeal to human nature. Slothfulness, which is typically regarded as a weakness or sin, is transformed into a means to “enlightened” living using rhetorical effect. As an essayist on laziness, Morley presents his subject to the audience in the didactic and amicable tone, using a sophisticated dictation to provide style. Morley advertises the attractiveness of laziness by appealing to some of society’s greatest desire: relief from responsibility, respect, happiness, and enlightenment. Similar to the styles of propagandist advertisers in unSpun, in his essay Chris Morley is able to guarantee the readers something valuable for nothing, or rather from doing nothing. As the common man, the writer achieves this scheme by being able to communicate with the common man, knowing their own traits and quims for his own. The tone of “On Laziness” is shrewd, yet friendly, like a wise mentor spreading his doctrines to benefit his pupils. Morley sluggish philosophy is a relative ideology, seen in even contemporary society today, i.e. “Hakuna Matata,” the popularized Swahili phrase (made famous from The Lion King,) directly translating, “No worries.” In addition, in spite of the vintage publication date (1920s), Morley use of prosaic anecdotes can be identified with the common man of any decade, “the bustling man… who is asked to solve the problems of other people and neglect his own.” “People respect laziness.” In this statement, indolence’s character is established and given an irrefutable, and admirable reputation. Everything knows about laziness, but this essay rather done condoning it, celebrates this human trait by exclaiming how the happiest men are often the laziest. Morley uses articulate vocabulary in his diction, using the eloquence of his speech to manipulate the audience into believing that the subject to whom he presents is as sophisticated and intelligent as his language. Christopher Morley further achieves his purpose by employing rhetorical effect, the means of persuasive speech that is established through linguistic appeals, logos- logic; ethos- character; and pathos emotion; Christopher emphasizes on the two latter rhetoric aspects, ethos and pathos. “Doctor Johnson, who was one if the greatest philosophers, was lazy.” Simply by mentioning the title, “Doctor”, Morley immediately establishes credibility, because who wouldn’t trust a doctor? Also, it is noticeable to see how Morley instantly links philosophy with laziness, inspiring a type of revered thoughtfulness that is linked with philosophers. Additionally, the “immortal Biography,” just like the Bible or the Torah or the Quran, merely capitalizing a letter creates a reverence relatable to sacred texts. “One should be careful to distinguish laziness from dignified repose.” Through quoting the words of O. Henry, the essayist further establishes ethos, connecting his own concept in a shared conviction with that a famous and talented writer. “On Laziness” also appeals to pathos in some of society’s most desired objectives, enlightenment, happiness, and relaxation. In an almost marketing sales- esque pitch, the writer implies that one’s state of torpor, which is attainable into any human psyche, can guarantee these qualities. Christopher Morley’s essay, “On Laziness,” rebuttals the dubiousness purpose of languor, showing the audience how this subject can eliminate the stress and trouble in our lives, by simply expanding on what we’ve naturally experienced and long for once again. This syntax of this document appeals to some of denizen’s longing to become enlightenment philosophers, laziness being such an enticing road to becoming so without actually doing any walking. The “acquired laziness,” though matter how much of an oxymoron it may sound like, is by Morley’s definition, a determined way of life, not by lack of strength or resolution, but as a premeditated choice.

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Synopsis VS Summary

On laziness essay sample, example.

Original by Christopher Morley, with edits.

Today, I intended to write an essay on laziness, but I was too indolent to do so.

The sort of thing I had in mind to write would have been exceedingly persuasive. I intended to discourse a little in favor of a greater appreciation of indolence as a benign factor in human affairs.

It is my observation that every time we get into trouble, it is due to not having been lazy enough. Unhappily, we were born with a certain fund of energy. We have been hustling about for a number of years now, and it does not seem to get us anything but tribulation. Henceforward, we are going to make a determined effort to be more languid and demure. It is the bustling man or woman who gets put on committees, who is asked to solve the problems of other people, and neglect his or her own.

The man or woman who is thoroughly and philosophically slothful is the only thoroughly happy person. It is the happy person who benefits the world. The conclusion is inescapable.

I remember a saying about the meek inheriting the earth. The truly meek person is a lazy person. He or she is too modest to believe that any ferment and hubbub of his or hers can ameliorate the earth or assuage the perplexities of humanity.

O. Henry said once that one should be careful to distinguish laziness from dignified repose. Alas, that was a mere quibble. Laziness is always dignified, and it is always reposeful. Philosophical laziness, I mean. The kind of laziness that is based upon a carefully-reasoned analysis of experience: acquired laziness. We have no respect for those who were born lazy; it is like being born a millionaire: they cannot appreciate their bliss. It is the person who has hammered his or her laziness out of the stubborn material of life for whom we chant praise and alleluia.

The laziest man we know—we do not like to mention his name, as the brutal world does not yet recognize sloth at its community value—is one of the greatest poets in this country; one of the keenest satirists; one of the most rectilinear thinkers. He began life in the customary hustling way. He was always too busy to enjoy himself. He became surrounded by eager people who came to him to solve their problems. “It’s a queer thing,” he said sadly, “no one ever comes to me asking for help in solving my problems.” Finally the light broke upon him. He stopped answering letters, buying lunches for casual friends and visitors from out of town, he stopped lending money to old college pals and frittering his time away on all the useless minor matters that pester the good-natured. He sat down in a secluded café with his cheek against a seidel of dark beer and began to caress the universe with his intellect.

The most damning argument against the Germans is that they were not lazy enough. In the middle of Europe, a thoroughly-disillusioned, indolent and delightful old continent, the Germans were a dangerous mass of energy and bumptious push. If the Germans had been as lazy, as indifferent, and as righteously laissez-fairish as their neighbors, the world would have been spared a great deal.

People respect laziness. If you once get a reputation for complete, immovable, and reckless indolence, the world will leave you to your own thoughts, which are generally rather interesting.

Doctor Johnson, who was one of the world’s great philosophers, was lazy. Only yesterday, our friend the Caliph showed us an extraordinarily interesting thing. It was a little leather-bound notebook in which Boswell jotted down memoranda of his talks with the old doctor. These notes he afterward worked up into the immortal Biography . And lo and behold, what was the very first entry in this treasured little relic?

Doctor Johnson told me in going to Ilam from Ashbourne, 22 September, 1777, that the way the plan of his Dictionary came to be addressed to Lord Chesterfield was this: he had neglected to write it by the time appointed. Dodsley suggested a desire to have it addressed to Lord C. Mr. J. laid hold of this as an excuse for delay, that it might be better done perhaps, and let Dodsley to have his desire. Mr. Johnson said to his friend, Doctor Bathurst: “Now if any good comes of my addressing to Lord Chesterfield it will be ascribed to deep policy and address, when, in fact, it was only a casual excuse for laziness.” Thus, we see that it was sheer laziness that led to the greatest triumph of Doctor Johnson’s life, the noble and memorable letter to Chesterfield in 1775.

Mind your business is a good counsel, but mind your idleness also. It is a tragic thing to make a business of your mind. Save your mind to amuse yourself with.

The lazy person does not stand in the way of progress. When he or she sees progress roaring down upon him or her, he or she steps nimbly out of the way. The lazy person does not (in the vulgar phrase) pass the buck. He or she lets the buck pass him or her. We have always secretly envied our lazy friends. Now we are going to join them. We have burned our boats or our bridges, or whatever it is that one burns on the eve of a momentous decision.

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How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

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A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

• Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
• Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

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Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

• Why you hold this position
• What they’ll learn from your essay
• The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

• In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
• In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

• Ask a question about your topic .
• Write your initial answer.
• Develop your answer by including reasons.
• Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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The Conception of Laziness and the Characterisation of Others as Lazy

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This paper is a theoretical investigation of the common conception of laziness. It starts from constructing a tentative definition of laziness, defining laziness as a negative term referring to people who do not show an effort corresponding to their abilities and/or prerequisites, and/or the difficulty of the task in question. Jerome Bruner’s folk psychology is applied to emphasise how the conception of laziness serves as a narrative re-establishing meaning when people do not act as they are expected. Furthermore, two perspectives concerning the characterisation of others as lazy are presented. First, Tversky’s and Kahneman’s Heuristics and Biases Approach, and second Moscovici’s Social Representations Theory. Common for the ways in which the concept of laziness is understood and applied is that the actual motivation, abilities and qualifications of the person being evaluated are hardly never assessed. Thus, the concept of laziness can easily function as a reductionist explanation why others are not acting as expected, with the purpose of making the act of not acting as expected more comprehensible.

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Acknowledgements

A great thanks to Luca Tateo for encouraging me to write this article and to the reviewers on Human Arenas for their insightful comments.

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Madsen, T. The Conception of Laziness and the Characterisation of Others as Lazy. Hu Arenas 1 , 288–304 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-018-0018-6

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Addressing the general question of laziness Addressing the general question of laziness remains a contentious issue, with numerous individuals testifying their attempts to tackle sluggishness. Numerous explanations seem to indicate the origins of laziness, and my experience here is a perception of it. For example, being unable to work enough overtime...

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Procrastination: The Art of Postponing Though unnoticed, every person has one or two activities that he or she is fond of postponing, maybe intentionally or by chance. This tendency is the perfect definition of procrastination. Literally, procrastination means placing “forward” to “tomorrow”; for it is derived from the Latin word, eras,...

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Kotler defines procrastination as the state of avoiding a task that needs to be accomplished; it is a chronic problem that needs to be addressed. He brings out a case of an executive publisher, Capp Robert, who tends to procrastinate. Laziness is distinctive as lack of desire while procrastination involves delaying...

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Chapter 22 laziness: a literary-historical perspective.

Michael Greaney .

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This chapter originated from talks Michael Greaney delivered at two Hubbub events: ‘Sloth: What’s in a Name?’ and the ‘Science and Politics of Laziness’, which took place at London Zoo and Wellcome Collection, respectively. Here, Michael draws on literary history, cultural associations and the poetic resonances of the concept of sloth, and considers laziness and inactivity from a literary perspective.

Laziness – whether in the sense of an allergy to effort, a morally questionable reluctance to pull your weight when there is work to be done, a fondness for shortcuts, or a well-developed appetite for the pleasures of idleness – has probably always been with us. In fact, laziness may well be part and parcel of what it means to be human. A machine could never be lazy; nor, it might be argued, could an animal. Some members of the animal kingdom are lazy by reputation (cats, koalas, possums) or by name (sloths), but when we accuse such creatures of work-shy behaviour, we are exhibiting our all-too-human habit of seeing aspects of ourselves in non-human creatures. What, then, should we make of our human monopoly on laziness? Should we be proud of our status as the lazy animal ? And what can literary and cultural texts – so often dominated by stories of heroic effort, desperate struggle, titanic conflict and epic journeying – tell us about the unambitiously sedentary and work-shy side of human experience?

If you are looking for a symbolic moment when laziness became a possibility within the range of human behaviours, you could do a lot worse than point to the scene in the Bible where Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden with the words of God ringing in their ears: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ (Genesis 3.19). Hard work is a crucial element of the punishment meted out by God for humankind’s disobedience. Cast out from the presence of God, Adam and Eve and their descendants are obliged to toil in order to feed themselves; but in the longer term, gruelling labour will be part of humankind’s redemption in the eyes of God. Laziness – the disinclination to work – is thus implicitly established as something that we simply can’t afford if we are at all interested in physical or spiritual survival; it is a vice that will in due course take its place alongside avarice, envy, gluttony, lust, pride and wrath in the catalogue of depravity that is the Seven Deadly Sins, versions of which have been circulating in one form or another since Pope Gregory I first drew up the list in the sixth century AD.

Definitions of the sin of laziness have changed notably over the centuries. What we now call sloth was originally understood as an occupational hazard for the early Christians known as the Desert Fathers, the hermits and monks whose punishing regimes of piety, prayer and self-denial exposed them to the temptations of demotivation and listlessness and a sorrowfully distracted state of torpor known as acedia . i In the medieval period, as sloth superseded acedia in the religious vocabulary of the time, the concept broadened to encompass all forms of sinful inactivity and work-shy idleness, from the neglect of everyday chores to falling asleep in church. Physical sloth became a favourite topic for the compact fables known as exempla that circulated widely in this period, not least because of the vivid kinds of poetic justice that could be meted out to those who indulged in sinful levels of inactivity. Tales of people who were victims of their own laziness included the story of the person who was so bone idle that when mice started nibbling at his ears he let them munch all the way into his head. Another legendary sluggard had a noose around his neck but couldn’t summon up the energy to shake it off. 1 Too lazy to recognize imminent and lethal threats to their own well-being, slothful people were envisaged in these exempla as a perversely self-punishing bunch whose indolence facilitated its own gruesome comeuppance.

The hair-raisingly severe, even sadistic, punishments meted out for sloth in medieval exempla were not simply preposterous scare stories designed to terrify the gullible into a love of hard work; rather, they would have been understood as conveying a sense of the profound spiritual dangers of laziness. Sloth was a gateway sin, a seductively effortless shortcut to self-destruction. If you lack the self-discipline to resist laziness, then the other six deadly sins – and with them the prospect of eternal damnation – aren’t far away.

The most elaborately conceived medieval ‘map’ of sinfulness and its consequences can be found in Dante’s Divine Comedy (1320), that epic guided tour of the afterlife from the deepest circles of hell to the exalted dwelling place of God, where the poet finds lazy and indolent people on the terrace of sloth on the fourth level of Mount Purgatory. Despite its name, the terrace of sloth is a hive of activity, a place where those who were slothful in their lifetimes now charge around with great energy, declaiming cautionary tales about excessive indolence and reciting edifying stories about the virtues of hard work. There is, it has to be said, something faintly comical about this mob of slothful runners frenetically catching up on all the exertion they thought they had dodged in their lifetimes. In Dante’s imagination, any labour we shirk in our time on earth is simply being deferred until the afterlife.

From the Bible to early Christian theology to medieval literature, it is possible to trace the emergence of what we would now call the ‘work ethic’, the notion that labour and exertion are indispensable sources of value, dignity and meaning in human experience. ii Nor does the work ethic vanish with the onset of the Enlightenment and industrial modernity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. One of the great hymns to the work ethic in English literature is Daniel Defoe’s classic desert island narrative Robinson Crusoe (1719), in which Defoe’s castaway misses no opportunity to remind us just how heroically unslothful he has been, just how relentlessly he has toiled to convert a hostile environment into a place where he cannot just survive but thrive and prosper. One of Crusoe’s favourite expressions is infinite labour . 2 With ‘infinite labour’, he tells us, he salvages material from his wrecked ship, masters the use of tools for the first time, chops down trees for building materials and firewood, constructs a fortified shelter, and provides himself with the means to cook and prepare food. But what is infinite labour? Can human effort ever truly be infinite in the sense of limitless, unrestricted and never ending? iii Crusoe’s self-congratulatory language sounds a lot like the eighteenth-century equivalent of the person who stresses their dedication to a given project by declaring that she/he is going to give 100 per cent to it or the authority figure who solemnly pledges that we will not rest until a problem has been solved, as though rest is an optional extra than can be subtracted from a given human endeavour at no cost either to the success of the endeavour or indeed to the humanity of those who undertake it.

For all its prevalence in the modern imagination, the work ethic that is celebrated by Defoe and embodied by Crusoe is not without its notable dissenters. Conspicuous among these last is the most radically lazy person in nineteenth-century fiction, Bartleby the Scrivener, the enigmatically and obdurately passive legal clerk in Herman Melville’s eponymous novella of 1853. Notoriously, Bartleby would ‘prefer not to’ do anything that his employers ask of him, and he makes this preference a point of principle from which he absolutely will not budge. Melville’s mild-mannered refusenik goes on a kind of indefinite one-man strike, but it’s not a campaign for better pay or conditions; rather, it’s almost an existential strike, a systematic campaign of resistance to the way in which our lives can be defined by the dreary monotony of work. It has to be said that Bartleby makes not working look anything but easy. To be as completely passive as Bartleby – in the face of all the pressure that conventional society can muster – would take huge reserves of stubbornness and self-control. Given that the easiest thing for Bartleby would be to put in a more or less half-hearted day at the office, maybe the really slothful people in the story are the other characters who gladly take the path of least resistance and carry on working.

In addition to giving us Melville’s fictional virtuoso of idleness, the nineteenth century would also witness the emergence of the laziness manifesto, a genre famously exemplified by ‘The Right to Be Lazy’ (1880), a vehement denunciation by the French anarchist Paul Lafargue of ‘the priests, the economists and the moralists [who] have cast a sacred halo over work’. 3 Almost exactly 100 years after Lafargue’s manifesto, there appeared an interview with the French cultural theorist Roland Barthes under the title ‘Dare to Be Lazy’ (1979), in which Barthes reprimands himself for being insufficiently committed to his own indolence. 4 It is worth asking whether, in the early twenty-first century, it is as daring or naughty as it once was to give ourselves permission to be lazy. Surely, by this stage of human history, mechanized technology should be taking care of most of the relentless and backbreaking toil that has been the lot of humankind ever since Adam and Eve were given their marching orders from Eden? Surely those of us who are lucky enough to live in reasonably affluent societies, with access to all manner of labour-saving devices, are in a position to enjoy the kind of leisure that our ancestors only dreamed of?

Reflecting on the emergence of the leisure society in the twentieth century, the sociologist Robert Stebbins has argued that it gave rise to a new category of person: homo otiosus , or ‘person of leisure’, a person defined by recreational pursuits rather than by what they do at work. 5 , iv In the era of homo otiosus , it may seem that we’ve long since abandoned the notion that laziness is a self-evidently punishable behaviour. However, censorious attitudes to real or perceived laziness have not gone away. ‘Where is the fairness’, asked the UK chancellor George Osborne at the 2012 Conservative party conference, ‘for the shift-worker leaving home in the dark hours of the early morning who looks up at the closed blinds of their next-door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits?’ Osborne’s modern-day exemplum invites us to look at but not through those closed blinds because he is satisfied with his preconceptions about what’s behind them – a grubby benefit addict whose reliance on state support is a lifestyle choice rather than the product of poverty, illness or structural inequality. The blindness – and, indeed, the laziness – in Osborne’s rhetoric lies in its inability to imagine recipients of state support as anything other than lazy, hedonistic parasites. v

Osborne’s polarizing rhetoric suggests that even in the era of homo otiosus , with its techno-utopian dream of leisure for all, the old division between virtuous workers and delinquent shirkers has lost none of its polemical force. The impulse to punish sloth is as strong as it ever was. Let’s consider, in this regard, one of the most powerful, if disturbing, visions of punished sloth in modern cinema. The film is David Fincher’s Seven (1995), a neo-noir thriller in which a pair of homicide detectives played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt track a serial killer who expresses his murderous contempt for the modern world by taking the lives of seven people in seven days, each killing orchestrated in such a way as to deliver a gruesome symbolic punishment for one of the Seven Deadly Sins. No one who has seen this movie is likely to forget the scene in which the representative of ‘Sloth’ is discovered, strapped to his bed, emaciated and clinging to life – a scene that gives us a ringside seat on the ritualized slaughter of homo otiosus . But, at the same time, no one who watches the movie is expected to share the killer’s morality, such as it is. The truly malevolent person in Seven is not the representative of sloth but his antithesis, the atrociously thorough, meticulous and obsessive killer who works so relentlessly at his craft. Which is to say that Fincher’s movie, rather than preaching the virtues of hard work, actually demonizes those who demonize laziness. Even so, there are subtle ways in which his narrative serves to reinforce the work ethic. After all, Seven is one of those films which revolves around the cliché of the veteran detective who catches the biggest case of his career the very week he is set to retire. Of all the fears explored by this macabre movie, the fear of doing nothing is arguably the most subtly pervasive, and a new case, even one as disturbing as Morgan Freeman’s last, grants the detective an 11th-hour reprieve from something as unimaginable, in its own way, as the serial killer’s crimes – the prospect of unstructured time that looms so emptily in front of the soon-to-be-retired detective.

The work ethic is curiously resilient. Even though it may seem high time that we abandoned its dour imperatives in a bid to inaugurate an era of guilt-free laziness, the celebration of idleness can seem like hard work, not least because, in the contemporary world, it’s increasingly difficult to tell the one from the other. Every time one of us checks a smartphone, it could be to receive an invitation to a party, confirm a holiday booking or read a work email that can’t be ignored – but whether it’s a matter of business or pleasure, we are always checking in , reporting for duty as loyal operatives in what is becoming known as the attention economy. And it seems to me that the relentlessness with which we pay attention – and I think we can take the word pay literally in this context – suggests that there are no limits to the attention economy. We carry it around with us and take it home with us; wherever we go, it’s already there. If one of the effects of contemporary technology is to make us work even when we think we are playing, then the attention economy has succeeded in finding ways of capturing infinite labour from homo otiosus . Once upon a time, the work ethic taught us that human beings cannot afford to be lazy; however, if we are going to avoid being defined as creatures of the attention economy, then we can’t afford not to be lazy. In fact, we’re probably going to have to roll up our sleeves and work at it.

Cf. Chap. 3 .

See Chap. 21 .

Cf. Chap. 23 .

Cf. Chap. 8 .

See Siegfried Wenzel, The Sin of Sloth: Acedia in Medieval Thought and Literature (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1967), 112.

Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-Inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque, Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself with an Account How He Was at Last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates, Written by Himself , ed. J. Donald Crowley (Oxford and New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 1998), 56, 59, 68, 122, 127, 152.

Paul Lafargue, The Right to Be Lazy (Chicago, III.: Charles H. Kerr, 1883), 9.

Roland Barthes, ‘Dare to Be Lazy’, in The Grain of the Voice, Interviews 1962–1980 , trans. Linda Coverdale (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1985).

Robert A. Stebbins, Personal Decisions in the Public Square: Beyond Problem Solving into a Positive Sociology (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2009), 5.

Further Reading

• Diski, Jenny. On Trying to Keep Still . London: Virago, 2007.
• Pynchon, Thomas ‘The Deadly Sins/Sloth: Nearer My Couch to Thee’. The New York Times Book Review , 6 June 1993.
• Rushdie, Salman. ‘Notes on Sloth from Saligia to Oblomov’. Granta 109 (2009): 67–80.
• Taylor, Gabriele. Deadly Vices . Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006.

Michael Greaney is an academic at Lancaster University (Department of English and Creative Writing). He researches modern/contemporary fiction and theory, and is currently writing a book on the representation of sleep and sleep-related states in the modern novel.

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• Cite this Page Greaney M. Laziness: A Literary-Historical Perspective. In: Callard F, Staines K, Wilkes J, editors. The Restless Compendium: Interdisciplinary Investigations of Rest and Its Opposites. Basingstoke (UK): Palgrave Macmillan; 2016. Chapter 22. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-45264-7_22
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A Quantitative research: The Effect of being laziness in Academic Performance of Grade 11 ABM students in Asia Source College of Arts and Technology

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Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business Report (Assessment)

Overview of topic, overview of concerns, recommended methods of managing scenario, reference list.

The topic of discussion is about the laziness in the workplace and the spread of its negative impacts on Chinese cuisines and restaurant business across the world. Management of human capital, how restaurants and hotel business is handled in the Chinese way and the city that should be dwelt upon is that of Ontario in Canada is also discussed. Laziness is an intolerable demise and it has never been recognised and accepted anywhere on the universe.

Most specifically, managers are known to be very harsh and strict on lazy characters in case they are identified. This is because laziness and productivity are a complete contrast of the other. One does not expect to realise growth in production where employees do not perform their roles within the required timeframe. One contributor to laziness derived from attitude in Chinese business is the fact that Cuisines of the Chinese are based on the Chinese culture and they are majorly based in the major Chinese cities of Lu, Zhe, and Guangzhou among many others.

Moreover, Chinese Hotel business spreads across the world like bushfire due to its uniqueness and its strong cultural base. What we ought to do is seeing on ways to solve this problem and hence support business growth. This is again supported by the fact that people are very open and willing to accept the Chinese culture hence big client and customer base which is the major prerequisite of business advancement.

The spread of Chinese ventures is not biased because that china is not a capitalist state and has belief bent on the welfare considerations of the people. Another reason is that of recent China has opened up itself to the rest of the world as opposed to previously when it believed in itself and her alone (Cho, 2010). This explains why even the labour industry and laws of Canada have accepted their operations in their land. In Ontario, Canada alone there are over 500 Chinese restaurants and the prospect of growth are highly expected at slightly over 50% p.a with the major obstacles being laziness at the work place and employee handling.

Punishing employees who do not conform to the policy and standards of many businesses in Canada has been a very great challenge due to the strong human right organisations and employee associations. Despite their members being on the wrong at times they always employ a great deal of resources to defend them to the last drop of blood (Ludmer, 2001). Our case in study is the Shanloon Chinese Cuisine House. Employers are also left in a dilemma at times when the government and the civil society engage in strife over their employees. This restaurant is located in a highly accessible street 41 Raglan St S Renfrew, ON K7V 1P8, Canada. The environment is serene, highly accessible to many and by extent have space for future growth (Mosher, 1998).

The research is geared towards the study about the basics of the foundation of the restaurant, the management of the restaurant including about how management and the employees relate, employee handling and the most important of this is how employee behavior such as laziness influences the operations of the restaurant. Another area of interest in our study is whether the operations of the hotel are in line with the Labor Relations Act of Canada. Labor laws in Canada are very strict and in so much favor of the laborers and therefore restaurant operators ought to be cautious, enough to handle their employees well (Taxel, 2009).

Research methods and techniques employed include both primary and secondary methods. To retrieve first hand information about laziness of employees and the restaurant, a one on one investigation is instigated on all the stakeholders of the restaurant. To reinforce the facts from the ground secondary findings are also sourced from books and journals with detailed coverage on laziness and its impacts as well as how it can be eradicated or managed so as to realize productivity out of it.

From our primary research finding it’s evident that Chinese Restaurant business is highly booming in Europe given the recent advancement of the Chinese in Europe with the major limiting factor to growth being employee behaviour, specifically, laziness at the work place. The idea of Chinese in Europe is still very sceptical since they have been secluded from the rest of the world for so long; other reports have also shown that their way of life is not easy to fit given their highly deviating culture from the rest of the world. Their foods are equally unique (Campbell, 2009). Management challenges have also been experienced for a while on occasions.

Relationship between demand and supply have not been that much but though at time the fluctuations of foreign exchange and the relevant risks at times affect the supplies which are majorly imported from China (Newman, 2004). Importation is the basis since the originality of the foods relies on the motherland that is China. The major management challenge that is experienced by operators in the industry according to the findings is that of the employees. Specifically, it has been observed that their laziness has been on the rise (Levine, 2002). The legal concerns as have been mentioned previously are in the favour of the employees.

This is in line with the countries policy to attract Foreign investments in the country through lenient rules and laws to alien investors. The reference to this is also The Ontario Employment Act (Mosher, 1998). It is in contradiction with the company policies of high productivity from its employees. They also demand that their employees adhere to its rule and terms of engagement to the letter. The future challenges that are unveiled include those such as undercapitalization which to and extent lead to the threat of collapse if liquidation is insufficient (Mosher, 1998).

The industry is also in the verge of rapid expansion and therefore firms in the industry may also find it difficult to grow due to the stiff competition and stiffened demand as well. This is despite the fact that the location of Shanloon Chinese Culture House is accessible and ample surrounding that highly favours hotel business (Taxel, 2009).Primary and Secondary Research Findings:

Source (Primary)

Our interviewee in shanloon Chinese Cuisine House Chinese Restaurant is Sun Kung; Sun Kung is an entrepreneur cum proprietor in Ontario State of Canada. We want to interview him on general employee laziness and how this has impacted on the operations of the restaurant. Sun, in the management of Shanloon hold a position of the overall management as the general manager of the restaurant (Newman, 2004).

He holds two bachelors degrees one in Business communication and the other in Hospitality Management. These Degrees are awarded to his from the Shandong University, majoring in Business and a Minor in Hospitality. He also has a diploma in Organizational Theory and management from Dips College in Toronto (Mosher, 1998). He lives in the neighbourhood of Renfrew ON Canada. This is a location just around the vicinity of the Restaurant. This he attributed to assist him reach his job in time, earlier than even their employees. The restaurant has high optimism of future growth. This is indicated by the level of management offered under Sun Kung.

Questions to ask

• When and why Shanloon Chinese Cuisine House established and what were why was it formed in the first place? Why was it established in Ontario in Canada? What are the Visions, Missions and Objectives of Shanloon Chinese Cuisine House Restaurant?
• For how long has the business been in existence?
• How many employees does your business have?
• What terms of engagement do you offer your employees? That is salary scale and working conditions.
• What led to the laziness of employees in the restaurant business if they have given an effort to this?
• What efforts has the management made to take care of the laziness problem?
• What are the impacts of laziness to the organization? How does it impact on the goals and objectives?
• What is the strategic plan as developed by the management of the company?
• What is that swot of the business and its competitive advantages and disadvantages if any?
• Into what proportions does the restaurant intend to integrate both the factors in its micro and macro environments to ensure the survival of the business?

The primary research methods adopted in terms of the questions developed above would be conducted in terms of an interview; both oral and written in a questionnaire. For consistency, anonymous telephone interviews would be conducted at times within the research duration.

Secondary, research methods to a large extent will also be extensively exploited. Here, information will be looked for from books, journals and even magazines that relate to the hotel industry. Information found from such sources will be coded and analyzed and then interpreted. Journals from the ministry of labor and those fro the civil society will also be scrutinized and relevant information analyzed.

Source (Secondary)

Secondary research information sort gave us detailed information about what laziness is and its various definitions. Causes are also highlighted and their detrimental impacts to businesses. Laziness apart from just being a vice at the work place since it cuts on productivity it is also a sin to be lazy. Other unacceptable acts at the work place include: lack of enthusiasm. Nay saying, gossiping, the know it all attitude, complaining and the worst is irresponsibility which is categorized with laziness as the worst acts that one should ever do at the workplace.

Ontario labour laws are so much in contention with the theoretical information sought from secondary sources. Managers are to hire and fire employees they consider to be of benefit to the business and those they have proof that do not yield much, that is the unproductive lot. While laziness on one hand would lead to weaker brains due to weak thinking, work only leads to creativity and innovation. It is through thinkers that greater innovations came by.

The ever increasing rates of crime have largely been attributed to excessively lazy minds. Criminals are a disgrace to its nation and gives a very bad image to the to a nation (Johnson, 2009). That’s why the laws and regulations of Canada is so cruel with the lazy youth. Through the labour ministry, the government of Canada has created several programmes for the youth just to ensure that its youth with vast energy are engaged in building the nation as well as themselves.

The second batch of our findings was on the causes or factors that are likely to lead to laziness in an organization. The first and most significant came to be the in built characteristics of and individual. If born lazy or if one develops laziness from child hood, this becomes part of them and therefore very hard to do away with. In such a case, it becomes upon the company to decide how resourceful the individual is to the business (Johnson, 2009).

Alongside this, the company policy should also be looked at. Other causes of laziness were got to be, poor relations in an organization. This was realised to emanate from poor leadership. Shanloon restaurant emerged best due to its exemplary leadership as demonstrated by Sun Kush. He employs the right leadership style where appropriate. Motivations and forms adopted of motivation may at times influence employees positively or negatively. Positive rewards like salary increaments and promotions when deserved are acts that will always make an employee be willing to work without supervision (Johnson, 2009).

Work place ethics as a policy strongly oppose laziness. This opposition is not for any other reason but for the good and success of the organization. To ensure that an organization is never derailed off its objectives. Laziness also leads to reduces output in terms of productivity (Johnson, 2009). This is against the major reason of firm establishments. Acts of laziness according to company policies are normally strictly and harshly dealt with most so if it is realised that it is likely to reduce productivity of an organization. Shanloon punishes its employees when it realises that their acts are likely reduce their employees.

The other secondary sources exploited explained the several ways through which laziness at the workplace can be eradicated. Eradication of laziness may be procedural in that laziness may be accepted and changed or it can be punished once and for all. Laziness at work steels both the time of employer and the employee in equal measure and therefore needs to be done away with almost immediately they are detected. There are ways that have successfully been deemed fit to solve laziness related challenges (Johnson, 2009).

First, problems at the workplace should never be taken out of the office, the worst an employee can do is to extend workplace challenges at home. Family environment can easily help one out of whatever made them feel like being lazy and solve the problem once and for all. Laziness at the workplace can as well be managed by making more friends at and out of ones workplace. This is basically done by assisting others when in problems and seeking fro assistance when in the same situations. This is also a suitable cure of laziness. The management can also plan for programs that are geared towards bringing employees together always like games, workshops and trainings where employees get to update themselves with the current market trends (Mosher, 1998).

To avoid stress and a lot of confusion that may come in the process of one’s duties and since this may at times be a source of laziness. One needs to always document each and every activity conducted. This will ensure that each employee’s piece of work is ever in order. Therefore chances of error and confusion are limited and quality time therefore geared towards productive work.

Source Canadian Company

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is an international company that is based in Canada with branches spread all over the world. It has demonstrated the highest level of operational efficiency from within itself in Canada and also in all its branches worldwide. This, it has managed to undertake by first of all being in the position of attracting a pool of managers from all over hence strong and efficient leadership (Johnson, 2009).

IDRC has taken gender mainstreaming as its main tool to eradicate laziness at work. Affirmative action is taken to ensure that whenever there is a shortfall in gender in any sector, the shortfall is reinforced. This has stirred competition among employees for tasks within the organisation leaving no room for any lazy click.

The best way to do away with laziness at the workplace and its detrimental effects is to give advice whenever a sign of their occurrence is detected in any department. Where this is not applicable, then this steps can be taken to do away with the problem:-

• Identification of the problem which in our case is evident; laziness at the workplace.
• Identify several ways of handling the problem.
• Identify alternative courses that can be taken in case the ways above are not appropriate as well as their impact.
• Make a decision on the best approach to use among the alternatives gathered.
• Implement the problem solving technique adopted.
• Perform a review and evaluate.

Other ways of solving the problem should involve conducting motivational talk once at a time within the organization. Trainings on employee handling at the workplace is also critical at such moments, this is to aid the employees in understanding their rights and duties when at work.

Campbell, J. G. (2009). A Double-Edged Life: A Memoir of a Young Woman’s Journey with Bipolar. Bloomington, Indiana: Author House.

Cho, L. (2010). Eating Chinese: Culture on the Menu in small Town Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Johnson, J. A. (2009). Health organizations: Theory, Behaviour, and Development. Mississauga, Ontario: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Levine, M. D. (2002). The myth of laziness. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Ludmer, L. (2001). Cruising Alaska: A Traveler’s Guide to Cruising Alaskan Waters & Discovering the Interior. Oxford: Hunter Publishing, Inc.

Mosher, C. J. (1998). Discrimination and Denial: Systemic racism in Ontario’s Legal and Criminal Justice systems, 1892-1961. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Newman, J. M. (2004). Food culture in China. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Taxel, L. (2009). Cleveland Ethnic Eats: The Guide to Authentic Ethnic Restaurants and Markets in Greater Cleveland. United States of America: Gray & Company.

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IvyPanda. (2024, February 11). Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business. https://ivypanda.com/essays/workplace-laziness-in-the-restaurant-business/

"Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business." IvyPanda , 11 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/workplace-laziness-in-the-restaurant-business/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business'. 11 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business." February 11, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/workplace-laziness-in-the-restaurant-business/.

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IvyPanda . "Workplace Laziness in the Restaurant Business." February 11, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/workplace-laziness-in-the-restaurant-business/.

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Thesis Statements about Social Media: 21 Examples and Tips

• by Judy Jeni
• January 27, 2024

A thesis statement is a sentence in the introduction paragraph of an essay that captures the purpose of the essay. Using thesis statements about social media as an example, I will guide you on how to write them well.

It can appear anywhere in the first paragraph of the essay but it is mostly preferred when it ends the introduction paragraph. learning how to write a thesis statement for your essay will keep you focused.

A thesis statement can be more than one sentence only when the essay is on complex topics and there is a need to break the statement into two. This means, a good thesis statement structures an essay and tells the reader what an essay is all about.

A good social media thesis statement should be about a specific aspect of social media and not just a broad view of the topic.

The statement should be on the last sentence of the first paragraph and should tell the reader about your stand on the social media issue you are presenting or arguing in the essay.

Reading an essay without a thesis statement is like solving a puzzle. Readers will have to read the conclusion to at least grasp what the essay is all about. It is therefore advisable to craft a thesis immediately after researching an essay.

Throughout your entire writing, every point in every paragraph should connect to the thesis.  In case it doesn’t then probably you have diverged from the main issue of the essay.

How to Write a Thesis Statement?

Writing a thesis statement is important when writing an essay on any topic, not just about social media. It is the key to holding your ideas and arguments together into just one sentence.

The following are tips on how to write a good thesis statement:

Start With a Question and Develop an Answer

If the question is not provided, come up with your own. Start by deciding the topic and what you would like to find out about it.

Secondly, after doing some initial research on the topic find the answers to the topic that will help and guide the process of researching and writing.

Consequently, if you write a thesis statement that does not provide information about your research topic, you need to construct it again.

Be Specific

The main idea of your essay should be specific. Therefore, the thesis statement of your essay should not be vague. When your thesis statement is too general, the essay will try to incorporate a lot of ideas that can contribute to the loss of focus on the main ideas.

Similarly, specific and narrow thesis statements help concentrate your focus on evidence that supports your essay. In like manner, a specific thesis statement tells the reader directly what to expect in the essay.

Make the Argument Clear

Usually, essays with less than one thousand words require the statement to be clearer. Remember, the length of a thesis statement should be a single sentence, which calls for clarity.

In these short essays, you do not have the freedom to write long paragraphs that provide more information on the topic of the essay.

Likewise, multiple arguments are not accommodated. This is why the thesis statement needs to be clear to inform the reader of what your essay is all about.

If you proofread your essay and notice that the thesis statement is contrary to the points you have focused on, then revise it and make sure that it incorporates the main idea of the essay. Alternatively, when the thesis statement is okay, you will have to rewrite the body of your essay.

Question your Assumptions

Before formulating a thesis statement, ask yourself the basis of the arguments presented in the thesis statement.

Assumptions are what your reader assumes to be true before accepting an argument. Before you start, it is important to be aware of the target audience of your essay.

Thinking about the ways your argument may not hold up to the people who do not subscribe to your viewpoint is crucial.

Alongside, revise the arguments that may not hold up with the people who do not subscribe to your viewpoint.

Take a Strong Stand

A thesis statement should put forward a unique perspective on what your essay is about. Avoid using observations as thesis statements.

In addition, true common facts should be avoided. Make sure that the stance you take can be supported with credible facts and valid reasons.

Equally, don’t provide a summary, make a valid argument. If the first response of the reader is “how” and “why” the thesis statement is too open-ended and not strong enough.

Make Your Thesis Statement Seen

The thesis statement should be what the reader reads at the end of the first paragraph before proceeding to the body of the essay. understanding how to write a thesis statement, leaves your objective summarized.

Positioning may sometimes vary depending on the length of the introduction that the essay requires. However, do not overthink the thesis statement. In addition, do not write it with a lot of clever twists.

Do not exaggerate the stage setting of your argument. Clever and exaggerated thesis statements are weak. Consequently, they are not clear and concise.

Good thesis statements should concentrate on one main idea. Mixing up ideas in a thesis statement makes it vague. Read on how to write an essay thesis as part of the steps to write good essays.

A reader may easily get confused about what the essay is all about if it focuses on a lot of ideas. When your ideas are related, the relation should come out more clearly.

21 Examples of Thesis Statements about Social Media

• Recently, social media is growing rapidly. Ironically, its use in remote areas has remained relatively low.
• Social media has revolutionized communication but it is evenly killing it by limiting face-to-face communication.
• Identically, social media has helped make work easier. However,at the same time it is promoting laziness and irresponsibility in society today.
• The widespread use of social media and its influence has increased desperation, anxiety, and pressure among young youths.
• Social media has made learning easier but its addiction can lead to bad grades among university students.
• As a matter of fact, social media is contributing to the downfall of mainstream media. Many advertisements and news are accessed on social media platforms today.
• Social media is a major promoter of immorality in society today with many platforms allowing sharing of inappropriate content.
• Significantly, social media promotes copycat syndrome that positively and negatively impacts the behavior adapted by different users.
• In this affluent era, social media has made life easy but consequently affects productivity and physical strength.
• The growth of social media and its ability to reach more people increases growth in today’s business world.
• The freedom on social media platforms is working against society with the recent increase in hate speech and racism.
• Lack of proper verification when signing up on social media platforms has increased the number of minors using social media exposing them to cyberbullying and inappropriate content.
• The freedom of posting anything on social media has landed many in trouble making the need to be cautious before posting anything important.
• The widespread use of social media has contributed to the rise of insecurity in urban centers
• Magazines and journals have spearheaded the appreciation of all body types but social media has increased the rate of body shaming in America.
• To stop abuse on Facebook and Twitter the owners of these social media platforms must track any abusive post and upload and ban the users from accessing the apps.
• Social media benefits marketing by creating brand recognition, increasing sales, and measuring success with analytics by tracking data.
• Social media connects people around the globe and fosters new relationships and the sharing of ideas that did not exist before its inception.
• The increased use of social media has led to the creation of business opportunities for people through social networking, particularly as social media influencers.
• Learning is convenient through social media as students can connect with education systems and learning groups that make learning convenient.
• With most people spending most of their free time glued to social media, quality time with family reduces leading to distance relationships and reduced love and closeness.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > How AI can help you improve your thesis statement

How AI can help you improve your thesis statement

Creating a thesis statement can be a challenging undertaking. Thankfully, today’s writers can use AI to assist in the creation process. While writing with AI can feel intimidating, the right tools and knowing how to use them can enhance your thesis statement and guide you through the creation process. From generating ideas to polishing your final draft, here’s how to use AI to create a quality thesis.

Selecting a topic

AI-powered tools have access to vast databases of academic papers, journals, and other scholarly materials. If you’re trying to choose a thesis topic or questioning the viability of your current topic, AI can assist by brainstorming ideas and highlighting relevant research you can use as evidence for your claims.

Creating an initial draft

AI tools can help you create a preliminary draft of your thesis statement, which you can continue to build on as your argument and research evolve. You can request a fresh draft at any stage in the writing process, as AI only requires basic information about your topic and area of research to get started. Based on your input, the AI tool will utilize its database of knowledge to generate a thesis statement.

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Refining your thesis with AI feedback

Once you have a solid draft, utilize AI feedback to refine your writing. Ask for an analysis of your thesis statement for clarity, coherence, grammar, and more. By highlighting areas for improvement, AI can help refine your thesis statement so it accurately conveys your research focus and argument. There are a few ways this process not only improves the quality of your statement but also enhances your understanding of what makes an effective thesis:

• Efficiency. AI tools can significantly speed up the brainstorming and drafting phases, giving you more time to focus on researching and outlining your thesis. This is especially useful for tight deadlines.
• Objectivity. AI feedback is based on data and algorithms that can provide a largely unbiased perspective on the quality of your thesis statement. This objective analysis can help you improve your thesis and overall writing.
• Consistency. AI tools can help you align the rest of your paper with your initial thesis statement to ensure consistency throughout your work.

Choosing the right AI tool for academic writing

When seeking an AI assistant for thesis drafting, choose AI tools, including GPTs, designed for professional or academic writing . AI applications that are familiar with academia can offer feedback and suggestions tailored to fit the conventions of scholarly writing.

AI has revolutionized academic writing, offering powerful tools for creating and refining thesis statements. By leveraging AI tools, you can achieve a higher level of clarity and persuasiveness in your work, so try them out the next time you need to write an academic paper!

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