The founder of Microsoft explained why he prefers people who take their time for leisure and thinking.
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, American philanthropist, claims that hiring “lazy” people greatly benefits companies.
It is generally believed that a lazy employee wouldn’t be good at their job and would hinder company growth rather than help it. However, one of the world’s richest individuals has a different perspective.
With the international press, he stated, “I will always choose a lazy person to do a hard job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.”
This was a surprise to everyone, but he explained that this was a technique he applied within Microsoft. This approach allowed these individuals to find alternative solutions to certain situations and problems the company faced.
Gates elaborated on this based on an experience he had as a student. For many years, he was a lazy student because he got bored doing simple tasks assigned in class. However, his eighth-grade teacher managed to tap into his potential and made him excel in mathematics.
From this experience, Gates understood that, in some cases, the best way to solve problems is by leveraging the ingenuity of those who are more averse to work, as they might come up with quick and simple solutions to advance a project’s development.
For the philanthropist, taking the easy path does not mean being lazy but rather the opposite, as it allows for working more efficiently and approaching problem-solving from a different perspective.
He also discussed the current work model, with which he does not entirely agree. He emphasized that many work hours do not guarantee the achievement of objectives. Instead, they often lead to working under stress and failing to perform tasks well.
“The general work culture has this problem: the perception that the number of things you do is more important than actual productivity,” Gates said in a conference.
While the entrepreneur has a certain affinity for hiring lazy people, this doesn’t mean that Bill Gates likes lazy workers. On the contrary, according to a foreign media outlet, during his early years at Microsoft, he had the habit of memorizing his employees “license plates to know who was working overtime and who was leaving early”