People Who Are Incompetent & Kinda Lazy Usually Do 7 Things Casually In Everyday Life
Eugenio Marongiu / ShutterstockWhat it means to be truly incompetent and lazy is somewhat subjective, but when you're dealing with a person who lacks both the ability to get things done and the desire to do the work required, it becomes obvious fairly quickly.
People who are not only incompetent but also completely unmotivated rarely take control of their lives and tend to consistently do things in their everyday lives that are intended to both hide their lack of skills and their sheer unwillingness to try to do the best they can. Even if they try to act like the smartest or most confident person in the world, their behaviors let you know they absolutely aren't.
If someone is incompetent and pretty lazy, they usually do these things casually in their day-to-day lives:
1. Ignoring tiny issues instead of addressing them head-on
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A lazy person’s life can become chaotic quickly, because they often ignore tiny, initially fixable problems until they become so big that they're impossible to avoid. Something minor can quickly become gnarly and expensive, despite being a fairly small issue just a few months or weeks before.
When people do this, they're usually in search of constant comfort. They want to avoid anything that might put their blissful ignorance at risk, even if it means sabotaging their future in the process.
2. Canceling plans on people at the last-minute
Even though it inconveniences other people, if someone is incompetent and lazy, they're rarely afraid to cancel on people at the last minute. They’re the workers who are frequent no-shows and the students who skip class without any real reason. As friends and partners, they don't often keep their promises or commitments.
Behaving this way sabotages their relationships with others in favor of feeling instant, albeit temporary, relief. Constantly canceling on people ruins friendships and leads to isolation, and for what? A few minutes of relief that they don’t have to get dressed or leave the house?
3. Making the same mistakes repeatedly
When you’re not interested in learning from your mistakes or taking accountability for them, you stop growing. If you’re too ignorant to accept that you have space to learn and are instead completely driven by comfort, you’ll be stuck in that same place forever, usually at your own expense.
Incompetent, lazy people blame their issues on others, and because they don't change, they make the same mistakes daily. They can’t learn, because they’re too focused on the vain social image they’re protecting or the comfort that comes with true ignorance.
4. Cutting corners that really don't help anyone to cut
Cutting corners is second-nature to someone who’s truly incompetent, because they care more about their own comfort and convenience than the integrity of a project. They frequently sabotage other people and add more work to their plates for the sake of their own time and energy.
Until someone catches them or calls them out, they’ll continue doing the bare minimum, because they don’t care to understand what they sabotage or who they hurt in search of their own comfort.
5. Spending more time avoiding things than doing them
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Chronic procrastinators usually have the skills to do things, but only once they get to the point where their deadline is impossible to ignore. However, someone who’s truly incompetent can’t even get their act together at that point, and ends up spending more energy on avoiding, ignoring, and making excuses for why they can’t do something instead of just learning to do it.
In the end, they spend more energy avoiding things than just learning how to do them or even asking for help. While it might offer a sense of immediate comfort, in the long run, this kind of avoidance only creates more chaos and anxiety.
6. Give up almost immediately
When something doesn’t go right, it’s the most incompetent people who immediately give up. They can barely follow explicit instructions, let alone go off script and think critically about solving a problem when nothing goes to plan. They’re essentially helpless until someone else steps in and takes over, relieving them of having to work hard or focus.
Doing something is almost always better than doing nothing, but these kinds of people still refuse to lean into that kind of effort.
7. Avoid accountability
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In small, everyday ways, these are the kinds of people who shift blame onto other people and make constant excuses in an effort to soothe their fragile ego and sense of self. In larger ways, they don’t take responsibility for the direction of their own lives, and wait for things to fall into their lap or someone to solve all their problems for them.
They truly believe that life is happening to them, instead of coming through them, because that makes it easier to cope with struggles, mistakes, and a meaningless life.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a senior editorial strategist with a bachelor’s degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.
