Brendon Connelly is proof that peon employees are not the only ones who slack. It’s managers too! Brendon, owner of popular blog www.SlackerManager.com and a University manager answers some questions for us. Check this out!

CubeSlacker: Brendon. Tell us a bit about your site SlackerManager.com. What is it and why did you start it?

Brendon: Well, I learned about ChangeThis and figured I could write about some of the stuff I’d been observing over the years. I wrote it and it was relatively popular. That made me think about writing more stuff, especially since I had begun reading business blogs about that time and kinda wanted in on the fun. I’d kept a personal blog for a lot of years (still do), but my friends and family didn’t really want to read about the wonky geeky business stuff that I was interested in. They just wanted more cat pictures. So starting a business-oriented blog seemed the way to go.

The blog is generally business oriented, but I digress once in a while. I like finding ways to do things easier, and I write about that. I’m hypersensitive to good customer service, so I write about that too.

CubeSlacker:  You spent a lot of time working in Human Resources and Organizational Development at a Fortune 500 company before becoming a University Administrator. Why did you leave the rat race?

Brendon: This is one of my favorite stories. I’d been getting pretty sick of working there—a major retailer. I was starting to understand and agree with Buy Nothing Day, for instance, and had a poster about it in my cube, which my VP took exception with. So I was feeling pretty cooked and had begun kinda looking around for something new. My wife and I adopted our first son from S. Korea, and we had to travel there to bring him home. When I got back to town, I logged into the HR system from home and saw that my department, with the exception of me, had be laid off. A few days later I went into work to introduce my son to my co-workers and I went to have The Conversation with my boss. Essentially, I was offered a nice severance package, or a new job as a business analyst. The business analyst work would’ve been fun, but I was done with that place, and who can argue with sitting at home with your new baby and still getting paid? I took the severance package. Part of the deal was that they paid for some career coaching, which eventually led me to realize that I really wanted to work in Higher Education. Here I am.

CubeSlacker:  Any funny stories from the ole Fortune 500 days?

Brendon: Probably, but my memory is shot. I do remember that N’Sync had a concert in our lobby before they went big time. I remember looking out my office window, which looked down on the lobby and laughing at the people dancing.

CubeSlacker:  Give us some of your favorite slacking tips.

Brendon: Well the 4-hour rule is a classic, but is definitely in a moral gray area. The 4 hour rule basically says that you can elevate your status around the office, while simultaneously working only a half a day if you indicate that you won’t be in at all on a given day, but end up coming in for half the day anyway. People will think you’re a hero. It only works in one direction, though. If you come in on time, but leave early, nobody will  be impressed.

Pure creativity and ingenuity are the best slacking tips. Figuring out how to do things faster without sacrificing quality is a hallmark of the true slacker@work.

CubeSlacker:  Any office prank favorites?

Brendon: I’m more of an accidental prankster, so I don’t really give stuff much forethought. I did recently buy some mousetrap decals, which caused a bit of a stir around the office. Good times.

CubeSlacker:  So what’s it like being a manager? Can you tell when employees are slacking?

Brendon: Ah, being a manager is like any other work. There’s a lot of stuff to do and there aren’t enough hours in the day. Delegation, man. Delegation is the secret sauce.

Yeah, sure I know when folks are slacking. Usually, they need the space because they’ve been busting their tail on a project. I haven’t really run into the “bad” kind of slacker—the kind of person that just doesn’t care and would rather be somewhere else.

CubeSlacker:  On your site I read some of your ideas which go nicely with one of CubeSlacker’s slogans – A slacker is a hard worker with a dream. What are your thoughts on this?

Brendon: I can see that. My outlook is that, in their essence, slackers are folks who want to maximize the stuff they like and minimize the stuff they don’t. When it comes to the stuff they don’t like doing, they want to make their work as efficient as possible so that they can spend more time doing what they like. That “what they like” is probably the “dream” that you’re talking about.

CubeSlacker:  You have an MBA degree. Do you really consider yourself a slacker?

Brendon: Well, yeah. At least in my definition of ‘slacker.’ An MBA and being a slacker aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, slackers are the ideal MBA candidates, since they’re the people who want to increase efficiency and do more with less.

CubeSlacker:  If you had enough money so you could stop working, what would you do?

Brendon: Move the family to someplace with warm water and good waves.

CubeSlacker:  Who would win in a mental mind match – you or Chuck Norris?

Brendon: I have no doubt that The Chuck would take me down with quickness.

CubeSlacker: Any advice to the CubeSlacker readers out there who want to become managers?

Brendon: That’s a loaded question, and I bet books have been written about it. Before advice should come an understanding of why the reader wants to become a manager. From my perspective there are a bunch of bad answers to this question, but if a person is primarily concerned with serving others, then they’re on the right track. Assuming there’s a service-centric outlook, then the next step is to begin looking for ways to distinguish yourself at work. Underpromise, overdeliver; deliver on time or earlier; have great ideas and execute them flawlessly, etc. Do all that well, and you can't lose.