https://fierceawakening.tumblr.com/post/789511335360806912
fierceawakening:
opinist:
fierceawakening:
Really confused by “laziness does not exist” now that someone who cut a lot of corners no longer works here.
Like, I feel bad for her? Getting laid off sucks, it’s happened to me too.
But I also think it was kind of bad that she told people she would complete important tasks (she was our social worker, aka the only one licensed to treat the people with the most severe mental health issues) and then didn’t.
Like it’s not JUST “productivity culture” that makes not doing what you said you were going to do bad.
It still sucks here but it’s refreshing to just KNOW “that’s not happening unless we hook this person up with someone who can treat them” rather than “I mean I don’t THINK Susan is going to bother based on prior observation, but I made the referral.”
(Not her name)
Hm…why couldn’t it be the case that laziness doesn’t exist and your former coworker actually did have legitimate executive functioning challenges, and the case that by not completing her tasks, she was causing harm to other people?
Because in my opinion it could be the case that both could be true. It could be true she has ADD or some other executive functioning disability, and true that having an executive functioning disability means she shouldn’t be a social worker.
Or she could just be lazy! I don’t actually have a consensus on whether laziness exists. But I don’t know that the fact that your coworker was causing harm to people by not completing her tasks is actually definitive evidence that she is “just lazy” either.
That’s fair, and she does have ADHD.
My problem isn’t that she has it, or that she has it and wanted to go into social work, or that she has it and worked really hard and someone found this sufficient to give her a license.
My problem is that when you’re hired, you’re asked whether you can do the job with or without accommodations. If you say you can do it without accommodations you’re taken at your word. If you say you do need accommodations you’re asked what they are and how they help.
If you discover that you can’t do the job without accommodations, the right thing to do is to confess, “I thought I could do Task without Thing. It turns out I can’t. Sorry I’m a bit late on this, but may I please have Thing?”
The not great thing to do is to say nothing.
The wrong, in the sense of mildly morally blameworthy, thing to do is to say, “I have ADHD. You should know I can’t write case notes.”
No, I shouldn’t know that. You were asked if you could write case notes at your interview and you said yes.
I guess people dislike that being called lazy because it’s not quite the standard definition?
Except that what makes “lazy” a judgmental word is when someone says it, they’re saying “this person isn’t just unable to do the task or refusing to do the task, they’re not doing the task in some kind of morally blameworthy way.”
But someone who said they could do the task and was lying, or someone who thought they could do the task but couldn’t and makes that everyone else’s problem instead of owning up, is…
…not doing the task in a morally blameworthy way.
So what I mean when I say we should keep the word lazy around is just, “well but… sometimes people actually ARE blameworthy for not completing tasks.
Usually, because they dishonestly promised they were capable and left the mess for others to clean up.
That’s where I suspect the idea of the vice came from, and while I think there are a whole lot of instances of not completing a task that aren’t instances of vice… there are a few here and there that are, actually. It’s context dependent.”
And like. The problem with not writing case notes, with not finding a solution like dictation software or even shorthand, is that it means that any progress you made is in your head and your memories. Which means if you leave, or get fired, or even go on a long vacation, your colleagues are staring from square one.
In this case, since she was the only social worker, she was assigned the people with the most severe mental illness. The kind of person who doesn’t communicate clearly because of disorganized speech or delusional thinking, usually. Which means they can tell you they were working on SOMETHING, but not how far they hit or who to call.
And while this instance was the most extreme example I’ve ever seen, I do see things like it a lot. “Oh, we’re never going to fix things for Bob, he’s nuts. I’m not taking his calls.”
And this type of person from what I’ve seen kind of prides themself on this? Like when Suzy was leaving she kept stressing that she hopes I “learn how to triage” and prioritize the people I can help.
While I agree that I can’t help everyone and that I need to set boundaries, her idea of “triaging” never sounded right. A homeless shelter isn’t an ER. No one’s going to die if I spend 30m talking to the hallucinating lady rather than ignore her.
And the thing about people like this from my observation?
It takes a very long time to get rid of them, but eventually they get laid off or even fired. No one says why this is, everybody just says how sad they are to see them go, but when you read between the lines (or go looking for the missing case notes), you get a clear picture. Also you r probably been begging this person to give you more info for like a year so you have your own opinion.
It makes seeing tumblr posts like “this is your daily reminder laziness doesn’t exist, no one fails to do important tasks because they don’t care!” or “Capitalism sucks so go ahead and half ass it, very few things are worthy of your entire ass” make me feel like im on the upside down.
Someone who’s too sick to take care of themself is WORTHY of my entire ass. I can’t GIVE them my entire ass because there are a hundred other people, so I’d never say I don’t cut corners. I’m human.
But the idea that “some things just aren’t worthy of your whole ass” is how these people languish for years and sometimes then just die here, which makes me want to scream.
If you’re trying and something just ain’t fixable fine. You’re doing your best.
If you’re not even trying, I’ll probably think of you as lazy at some point. Sorry not sorry. Haul me off to ableism jail.
https://fierceawakening.tumblr.com/post/789511335360806912
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fierceawakening_feed) wrote2025-07-19 03:24 pm
