The Lazy Government Employee

Several years ago, about 6 months after I started working for a new employer, my supervisor called me in to his office to give me feedback on how I was doing. During our conversation, he told me, “I only hire people who are lazy.”
Not wanting to be tagged with that moniker, I figured I had to defend myself! With all the gumption I could muster, I told him I took exception to his comment because I didn’t consider myself lazy and I didn’t appreciate being lumped into that group of “lazy employees” he was proud to have hired!
He laughed at my disapproval and said, “You’re at the top of my list! You’re one of the laziest people I’ve ever hired.”
Not wanting to get pulled into an adversarial conversation, I decided I’d better find out why he believed I was lazy; here’s what told me:
“When I find qualified, capable candidates for employment, I like to hire the laziest among them because these are the people who find better ways to do their jobs, ways to do them more efficiently without sacrificing effectiveness. These are the people who figure out how to shorten up the time they need to accomplish their work by identifying workable, functional shortcuts that also add value to their work products; these people are the most resourceful at finding the best and most efficient ways to accomplish their assignments. So, when I hire the laziest of the best candidates, I’m able to assign more & more work to them, I’m able to delegate greater responsibilities to them, and ultimately, I’m able to relax in the knowledge that volumes of work are getting done, assignments are getting done quickly, and they’re getting done with a high degree of effectiveness.”
What could I say? When I heard the term “lazy”, I thought of someone who wasn’t easily aroused to activity or of someone who was disinclined to work. This guy was telling me I was doing a lot more with less, and he was actually pleased with my performance!
In hindsight, I understand his logic and believe it can be applied to most Government employees as well. Most of us don’t come to work to do nothing or to be “inactive” every day. That would be incredibly boring and it would make for many long and mind-numbing hours. But, when you’re on the outside looking in, such as taxpayers are, it’s easy to point to someone sitting idle at their desk in the Social Security Office, or to see several government