In 2023, the term “lazy girl job” took off on social media. It purports to represent female employees who are no longer willing to tolerate the traditional work environment impinging upon their health, wellbeing, or social activities. TikToker Gabrielle Judge, who coined the phrase, said it was a modern take on the “work-life balance” philosophy and an extension of “ quiet quitting ”.
But, when the idea’s biggest proponents say things like “I don’t have to talk to anyone and only want to go into the office once a week”, there appears to me to be a thin line between flexibility and laziness. Illustration: Dionne Gain Credit: Dionne Gain Unproductive and lazy employees exist in most businesses to some extent. Australia’s unfair dismissal laws have, on occasion, been lenient to them – except where blatant laziness is involved.
In 2019, as an employment lawyer I was involved in a case where the company won an unfair dismissal claim proving that a security guard who was often asleep and snoring in the control room, and who took a 90-minute break for every 20-minute patrol, was fairly dismissed. In another case from 2019, the Fair Work Commission found a cleaner was fairly dismissed when he engaged in “time theft” by spending 11 hours and 26 minutes over five shifts sitting in the tearoom doing nothing while being paid. Loading In December 2022, a council worker lost an appeal in the Fair Work Commission after his ute was tracked using GPS.
The worker fr.