[jodrellblank]

In a similar way that "broken" is a thing. If you have a device which doesn't work, you can call it "broken" but that doesn't help you do anything about it. It's useful if you want to filter out broken things from functional things, but if you want your device to work again you need more than that.

If you want to avoid lazy employees, and hire motivated self-starters, then "lazy" might work as a description. If a good employee is suddenly having problems and you would prefer to keep them, all "lazy" does is put a non-explanation insult on them, it doesn't tell you anything. "They lost a family member and haven't been sleeping properly and are exhausted" tells you something. "They just saw another team's project get cancelled on a whim" tells you something else. "They feel micromanaged and are frustrated" tells you something else.