ABSTRACT
It is perfectly conceivable that slackers do their jobs and act responsibly, given their assigned duties, yet slackers are unmotivated to go beyond the bare minimum, even though they certainly could achieve more. In other words, slacking has to do with failing to accomplish one’s potential, rather than failing to do one’s duties. Slackers do not particularly care about being a disappointment. It is typically those around them who are frustrated or infuriated by their slacking. Apathy or indifference is at the heart of slacking. Although Russell uses “laziness,” “idleness,” and “leisure” interchangeably throughout the essay, what he has in mind is closer to how people ordinarily understand “leisure,” the sort of activities that they do beyond their everyday necessities. Within the neoliberal capitalist regime, leisure has been co-opted to enhance productivity and corporate performance. But as Pieper argues, while leisure may increase productivity, that is merely a side effect, rather than the purpose, of having leisure.
