What does it mean to be "hardworking"?

To be hard-working, in my opinion, is to be devoted to, determined to follow-through with, and to try your absolute best at everything you do; to be willing to do what is expected of/ asked of/ needed of you.

To be lazy is to not want to/care to try

Hardworking is someone who works hard.

Lazy is someone who doesn’t work hard.

I’m looking for a concrete way to measure how hard someone works. Can you define it in terms of the number of hours per day spent in certain kinds of activities? The amount of output from those activities? The kinds of activities a person tends to engage in?

@niki; I really don’t know how to measure such a thing. How hard you’re working really depends on who you are. If you’re someone who, for example, has asthma, running a few laps around the track would be hard for them, thus making them hard-working. Now compare them to someone who is on a track team. Running a few laps around the track wouldn’t be hard for them, thus making them neither lazy nor hard-working. I don’t think that there is a concrete way to measure this, as it wouldn’t work for everyone.

I consider myself a hard worker, but I also consider myself lazy. I am a hard worker because when there is a job to be done I do it. I do it right, I do it well and I get it done completely. I consider myself lazy because most of the time I would rather not do the jobs there are to be done and sometimes I have a tough time getting started.

It seems to me that hard work could be measured in output and the quality of that output.

That can’t really be measured. My back-breaking work is my brother-in-laws easy day. He is an electrician and I nerd out on the computer for a paycheck.

Niki: that’s too broad. For instance, I don’t work as hard physically as a construction worker, but I put in very long hours and exhaust myself mentally in a way that laborers don’t. It’s all relative.

It can’t be quantified, and it is all relative, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be judged or measured. @flyawayxxballoon and @johnpowell, it sounds like you both are making the same point: the difficulty of the task for that person is more relevant than the difficulty of that task in some objective sense. That doesn’t mean you can’t judge one person (the asthmatic who runs a couple laps) as more hard working than another person (the natural athlete who breezes through a couple miles every day). Just another factor to consider. What else?

My only way of answering this is to say that I had two important jobs that were not quite full-time. But I worked full-time and sometimes overtime because I was a perfectionist.

They were both jobs requiring brain and not brawn.

I think hard working is someone who tries hard and puts heart into their work. For example fire fighters work extremely hard, albeit if only for a few hours a day if that. A scientist who works every day testing and developing cures for illnesses, even if their efforts don’t produce results, works hard.

I think devotion is more a sign of hard work than sweat.

Hardworking qualities are dependent on the individual. A student, for example, would be considered hardworking if they studied on a regular schedule, without making excuses and got the job done in a timely manner. Hardworking does not equate success. I would consider anybody who works regularly and consistently and accomplishes their goals for the day to be a hardworker. You can compare people on their hardwork if they are doing the same thing. So, I can compare two medical students in the same year of medical school based on which one is more hardworking, but I cannot compare a medical student and a college freshman since they aren’t on the same level.

@ niki – Is this kind of what you were looking for? Or am I just rambling for no reason…

Here’s my definitions:
Hardworking: put in the hours, accept any and every task assigned to you, stay on them till their done.
Lazy: do what needs doing, no more, no less.

“smartworking”: a combination of the above. Prioritize and focus your effort on highest priority first.

so, hardwork = effort?

I’d sooner say: hardworking=great effort (not necessarily strategic effort)

Someone smarter than me once said: “Give me a job shoveling shit, and I’ll be the best damn shit shoveler you’ve ever seen.” I try to follow that advice always.

PS: @supernutjob: I fall into this category also.