Are You a Loafer?

Social loafing is a phenomenon experienced by people around the world. Learning that the term “social loafing” is defined as one who is more prone to exude less effort when working in a group setting, is indicating how everyone will experience this encounter at some point in their life. 

Social loafing is a humanistic tendency that is highly relevant to everyone. Becoming aware of this setback is beneficial in our personal productivity. Since everyone struggles with motivation, from time to time, the following situations will be relatable and insightful. 

An example of this would be, in a professional work setting, an employee begins working under the expectations of her boss. She was given very clear and set assignments to complete the tasks she was hired to do. 

Because of her excitement to prove herself, as well as her own personal motivation, she shows up to work each day with an intrinsic motivational drive to complete her workload with efficiency.

As time goes on, she becomes acquainted with a coworker with whom she is designated to work alongside. Because of her work ethic, and desire to accomplish any task needed, he is now finding himself slipping into the temptation of becoming a social loafer. 

When paired up to work on a presentation together, he knows that she will step up and do what needs to be done. In his mind, his efforts aren’t necessary in order for this project to go well. Taking a small step back with the mindset that “I just don’t want to get in her way” was the first step for him to head down the road of social loafing.

Days pass, and he is becoming less and less interested in even pretending to help on this case. Because of his absence, she is now having to put both hands on the reins in order to keep up with the amount of work and pressure piling up. 

The hardest part of all, is when the day of the presentation arrives. Because she had to work twice as hard, she is now resentful and reaching the point of burnout, while he is simply happy to be there along for the ride.

They present to their panel and it goes well, because of her efforts. This man now has experienced no repercussions to his actions, and sees that it didn’t even matter if he was of assistance. 

Because of this simple, yet very real example, we see the beginnings of a social loafing habit. We all at some point in our lives have experienced the role of a social loafer in one form or another, yet some people reach an extent where they solely rely on the productivity of others to complete their tasks for them.

Not only was the man affected by his actions, but the woman was faced with the weight of his social loafing as well. While he went about his days worry-free because of the assurance that she would complete the project, she was put into overdrive to complete the project.

There was no purposeful malintention involved, yet simple-humanistic tendencies coming to the surface. She knew of the task at hand, and was more concerned about the completion of the task as opposed to her own self interest. 

Understanding the impact of both roles in this scenario, is crucial for becoming more self aware and improving our own social loafing tendencies. 

Social loafing can impact not only work relationships but personal relationships as well. It impacts the loafer and how they contribute in a group setting. They may come off as lazy and unmotivated.

An example of this would be within a family unit. If a family has gathered around the kitchen to prepare a Sunday dinner, and many of the tasks have already been delegated, it might be easy to fall into the temptation of social loafing in this circumstance.

Feeling the pull to draw back and let those surrounding you to take action, may become highly desirable. We see this throughout family units, careers, clubs, jobs, households, friend groups, students, and leaders. 

Simultaneously, it impacts other group members, who at times can feel underappreciated and overloaded. There are many instances in which one person works while the other willingly engages in social loafing. The same can be said for interpersonal relationships.

Our actions affect those around us, and because of this we are given responsibility to others when in a group setting. This enables us to contribute and help complete the task at hand, and do it well. The risk involved within this is social loafing. 

One person may put a lot of effort into a relationship while a loafer merely takes a backseat. Wherever there is social loafing, there is conflict in a relationship that is difficult to recover from. Trust can be broken. 

Members of the group may feel that the social loafer may not be committed to a given project or even a relationship. In an interpersonal relationship, one person may feel that the other is not interested in their well-being because they are distant and aloof.

There needs to be equal participation from each group member in order to reduce or eliminate social loafing completely.

A journal article entitled Social Behavior and Personality articulates this concept well: “Outcomes such as evaluation and comparison of one’s performance with the performance of others are typically eliminated in the collective work condition, where individual outputs are combined to form a single group product” (Charbonnier et al., 1998)

Another journal, “Managerial Solutions to Reduce Social Loafing in Group Activities of Companies”, stated that two factors contributing to social loafing are “weak employees’ emotional commitment to the organization” and “weak interrelationship of the staff and relationships that influence the reduction of group support and coherence”(Vveinhardt, 2017). 

There are several solutions that teams can easily implement in any work field. Examples include organizing team events or team building exercises, emphasizing the significance of each employee’s responsibilities, identifying key problems/lack of coordination, and observing team members’ behaviors and intentions going into each project.

If we are able to become individualized and then work together within our groups, we will be able to help prevent social loafing in all areas of our lives. Instead of seeing ourselves as the group, and nothing but, we will fall straight into temptation. Developing this skill will help all areas of our lives and social circles.

Awareness leads to action. If we are willing to act upon what we know to be true, we will be better able to combat the issue. 

Mentality is the biggest issue in this regard. We need to view the opportunity to stop social loafing as a period for growth, not a lack of it.

If we can see the positive impact lack of social loafing will have on us as individuals and as a group, we will be less likely to engage in the practice.