Designers are more likely than others to admit to being lazy
One in five working Russians honestly admits: yes, I’m lazy. But the distribution of this self-assessment across professions turned out to be unexpected. Recently, a major IT recruitment service surveyed 3,000 economically active residents of Russia from 586 localities and found out which professionals most often consider themselves lazy. Could you be on this list?
Survey on Laziness in Russian Professions
First, we need to honestly acknowledge the limitations. This survey is a sociological study based on self-assessment. It does not measure actual labor productivity and does not suggest that representatives of one profession are hard workers while others are slackers. It shows how much representatives of different professions tend to critically evaluate their own productivity.
And this is perhaps even more interesting. It turns out that in professions with a clear rhythm and measurable results, people feel more productive. In professions where ideas, analysis, and strategy matter, people are more likely to doubt themselves. Perhaps it’s not about laziness per se, but about the fact that some professions find it easier to “prove” their usefulness to themselves than others.
The Laziest Professions in Russia
According to Superjob data, designers topped the laziness ranking — a full 33% of them called themselves lazy. In second place are analysts at 29%. Next come PR managers (28%), lawyers (27%), engineering and technical workers and system administrators (26% each).
Note: this is not about these people actually working less than others. This is specifically self-assessment — a subjective feeling that “I could be doing more.” Office managers admit to laziness in 25% of cases, procurement managers in 22%, HR managers and drivers at 20% each.
The full list of professions included in the survey covers 28 professional groups — from programmers to security guards. And the spread is impressive: between designers (33%) and call center operators (9%), there is a nearly fourfold gap.
The Most Hardworking People in Russia
At the other end of the ranking are those who don’t admit to being lazy. Here are the professions with the lowest share of “lazy” workers:
- Chief accountants — 9%;
- Call center operators — 9%;
- Warehouse workers — 11%;
- Salespeople — 12%;
- Marketers — 13%;
- Skilled workers — 14%.
The pattern here is quite transparent. Professions with a rigid external rhythm — calls, clients, warehouse, machines — leave no room for reflecting on one’s own laziness. When there’s a line of customers behind you or the phone is ringing non-stop, it’s hard to feel like a slacker. But in work where results are blurred, deadlines are flexible, and much depends on self-organization, the feeling of “I could do more” arises much more easily.
Call center operators hardly consider themselves lazy
Who Is Lazier — Men or Women?
In addition to professions, the survey revealed several interesting demographic patterns. Men are more likely than women to call themselves lazy: 21% versus 17%. At the same time, women are noticeably more likely to deny laziness — 72% versus 68% for men.
By age, the “laziest” turned out to be young people under 35 — 20% of them admit to this trait. Those least likely to report laziness are people aged 35–44 (17%) — that is, those at the peak of their careers. Among Russians over 45, the figure is slightly higher — 19%.
But perhaps the most telling breakdown is by income. Among those earning over 150,000 rubles per month, only 14% consider themselves lazy. In the group earning 100,000–150,000, it’s already 22%. This doesn’t mean that money automatically makes a person hardworking. Rather, high-income earners are less prone to self-criticism on this matter — or they truly work so hard that there’s no room for doubt.
Why Designers and Analysts Are More Likely to Admit to Laziness
At first glance, it seems strange: creative and intellectual professions — and suddenly laziness? But if you think about it, it all makes sense. Designers, analysts, PR specialists, and lawyers work in conditions where results are often abstract, deadlines are flexible, and a significant part of the work happens “in their heads.” In such an environment, it’s easy to feel a gap between how much you could have done and how much you actually did.
In professions with flexible schedules and abstract results, it’s easier to feel “not productive enough”
There’s another factor as well. Creative professions involve high levels of reflection — the habit of analyzing yourself, your states, and your effectiveness. A warehouse worker or call center operator measures work in concrete actions: processed this many requests, took this many calls. But a designer can stare at a screen for three hours trying to find an idea, and subjectively it feels like “I did nothing,” even though intense mental work was going on.
It’s important to understand: this survey measures not actual productivity, but self-perception. A person who calls themselves lazy may well be one of the most effective employees on the team — they’re simply more prone to harsher self-assessment.
