Summer is one of those times of the year, when if you are stuck in the office, you might find __________ wondering how to avoid work.

Lucy Kellaway has been studying two of her colleagues, both the same age, both equally talented. One is a magnet for extra work, which gets dumped __________ him all the time, but the other man never does any surplus tasks. He isn't exactly lazy, but only works on things that interest him.

Nevertheless, the first one has received no __________ for his hard work, while the second has suffered no punishment for doing nothing all day.

“And I have been trying to understand how he __________ with it,” said Lucy Kellaway.

It turned out that skilled work-avoiders hardly ever say no, they simply avoid being asked in the first place. There are some well-known strategies for this, including __________ around with a clipboard looking busy or wearing headphones and staring intently at the screen.

The secret of Lucy’s colleague is simpler – he just __________ to the minimum the amount of time he spends in the office.

If you aren't physically there it is really fascinating how __________ work you get asked to do.

Another highly effective work-avoidance strategy is playing on your workmate's fear of __________ unknown. This usually works, because we are scared of people whose behaviour we can't predict.

And finally the best work-avoidance technique of all is to be perfectly willing, but perfectly __________.

Being hopeless at small tasks like being late writing boring reports or writing lousy minutes for meetings prevents anyone from __________ you again especially if there is someone more competent around to do it instead.