In a competitive job market it is vital that all potential employees present themselves as capable and hardworking.
With most jobs being oversubscribed with potential candidates, anyone who comes across as lazy will rarely reach the shortlist stage and this element will therefore hurt your employability.
Laziness can mean many different things and can be ascertained through an interview, references, application forms, and even from your original cover letter or CV, and it is therefore essential that when applying for a new post you pay specific attention to avoiding demonstrating any incidences of laziness.
As an example, laziness could be viewed as an unwillingness to use initiative and this is often identified via interview.
An interviewer may ask questions regarding challenging situations that you have faced and how you overcame them.
If, as a candidate, you respond by saying that you simply asked your boss to fix the problem for you, or to deal with the customer on your behalf, without demonstrating any initiative or drive to solve the problem yourself, then this could be considered as lazy, and hinder your employability.
Similarly, your CV may hint at laziness if you do not address gaps correctly.
For example, if you have an unexplained gap of 12 months between jobs, an employer may assume that you simply sat back and did nothing.
The majority of the time this is not the case, and even if you weren't in direct paid employment you should still include details of how you spent this time, for example, caring for a sick relative, travelling around the world, or learning new skills through voluntary work.
Be explicit as far as possible to ensure that your CV gives the right impression.
This also applies to any unfinished courses or programmes of study.
Lots of students change courses halfway through, or indeed decide that work is a more appropriate path to take.
An incomplete course therefore shouldn't equate to laziness and this should be explained either at interview or briefly within any of the original application documentation that you present.
And finally, if your CV, cover letter or job application form is filled with spelling mistakes or grammar errors then this too demonstrates not only laziness but also suggests that you are not one who pays particular attention to detail, or who takes pride in their work; all of these elements contributing to diminished employability.
Furthermore, failure to respond to application form questions appropriately, or not completing the form in its entirety is another sign of laziness and carelessness.
Application forms are often long and sometimes tedious but completing them as they are intended is the first step to employment success.