Perhaps these students are not really engaged in the work they are doing or have serious underlying mental health issues.
Students may have jobs, be involved in athletics, or have really heavy course loads that stretch their time too thin and force them to often work to the very last moment. Perhaps money is tight and a student picks up extra shifts at work in order to pay the rent and tuition causing procrastination on homework or studying. Some students are just immature and irresponsible and spend too much time partying or watching tv and force out mediocre work at the last minute. Working at the last minute does not always mean the work is mediocre but the stress and crisis-mode of working at the last minute is too much for any normal human being to sustain. Professors may procrastinate tasks that are required of them in order to prioritize things that are more interesting or stimulating. The biggest difference is that professors can't get away with chronic procrastination as long as student can. In fact, a student can procrastinate all the way through school but professors generally have the motivation of keeping their job and the respect of their colleagues and students as a high motivation to avoid chronic procrastination.
Employee vs. employer
The roles of employee and employer are a little more similar than those of student and professor. In many cases, employees and employers are peers. They may have the same or similar demographic profiles, families to support, and extracurricular interests. In fact, they are also commonly depending on each other to accomplish the appropriate tasks by a certain point of time. Employers, in many...
Employees, on the other hand, may procrastinate because they are overworked and underpaid or because they are lazy and irresponsible. However, employees are unlikely to have any leverage to cast blame anywhere else but on themselves.
Similarly to the roles of students and professors, part of the problem can be a loss of respect. If an employer is chronically late with fulfilling his/her responsibilities then an employee is going to lose respect and assume that he/she can also pick and choose when he/she wants to accomplish something of importance if there are better things to do. Employees generally make less money and have less control over their roles and responsibilities than employers so they may procrastinate the tasks they feel are unfair or not worthy of their time and energy. Again; however, sometimes procrastination for anyone is the sign of underlying psychological or physiological problems, which an employer will have an easier time hiding than an employee whose evaluations will suffer and job may become unsustainable.
References
Angela Hsin Chun, Chu, and Choi Jin Nam. "Rethinking Procrastination: Positive Effects of "Active" Procrastination Behavior on Attitudes and Performance." Journal of Social Psychology 145.3 (2005): 245-264. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.
Fiore, Neil a. The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-free Play. New York, NY: Penguin Group. 2006.
