I like to use the idiom 'phone it in' in the sense described by Wiktionary:
To fulfill a responsibility with a minimum effort rather than the appropriate level of effort.
For example: 'He used to try his best at this task but at the moment he's really phoning it in.'
However, friends and colleagues do not seem to recognize the idiom. Is there an equivalent idiom that might be more likely to be understood?
He's really just going through the motions.
From the [Free Dictionary]:
go through the motions
Fig. to make a feeble effort to do something; to do something insincerely or in cursory fashion. Jane isn't doing her best. She's just going through the motions. Bill was supposed to be raking the yard, but he was just going through the motions.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
go through the motions
Do something perfunctorily, or merely pretend to do it. For example, The team is so far behind that they're just going through the motions, or She didn't really grieve at his death; she just went through the motions. [c. 1800]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
go through the motions
To do something in a mechanical manner indicative of a lack of interest or involvement.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
He's making a token effort.
http://i.word.com/idictionary/token
sense 2(a)
The above also mentions perfunctory. You could write that he did a perfunctory job, or that he did the task perfunctorily (don't try that last one in speech—you'll stumble on the pronunciation.)
How about "Half-assing" something?
"I don't feel like working on this essay. I'll play video games and just half-ass it later."
At the tech magazines where I used to work, we had several freelance writers who could produce good, in-depth feature stories when they had the time and inclination to do so. But they were good enough writers that they could (try to) get away with turning in articles that showed very little effort and even less research; I suspect that this happened when they overbooked assignments with multiple clients or when they found the subject they had agreed to write about unbearably tedious.
In any case, when the magazines' editors would receive one of these minimum-effort pieces, we would say that the author had written it "on autopilot." Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) defines autopilot as follows:
autopilot n (1935) 1 : a device for automatically steering ships, aircraft and and spacecraft 2 : AUTOMATIC PILOT [defined in its own entry as "a state or condition in which activity or behavior is regulated in a predetermined or instinctive manner"]
Another term we sometimes used for this phenomenon was skating, invoking the following meaning of the verb skate (again as given in the Eleventh Collegiate):
skate vi (1696) ... 3 : to proceed in a superficial or blithe manner
Both ideas are very similar to the idiomatic notion of "phoning [something] in."
Coasting works if the person is just about fulfilling their responsibilities.
Proceed without making much effort: "Colchester coasted to victory"
From Merriam-Webster (relevant meaning in bold):
to move forward using no power or very little power
to move downhill by the force of gravity
to progress or have success without special effort
... "He was accused of trying to coast through school"
... "The company is coasting on its good reputation"
This meaning is (I believe) an analogy to a bad practice in driving: letting the car just roll along with the clutch off, with no control or power from the engine. It is going forward, but the driver is neglecting to properly control the car.
As a commenter pointed out, "going through the motions" might be too strong since it implies not actually performing a task or achieving results. Coasting is more appropriate if they are getting adequate results, but via dangerously little effort. If someone says "You're coasting, Bob", and you reply "But I met my targets", that wouldn't logically contradict the accusation - coasting is a mild criticism that already implies nominal success or progress.
You could say this person is just punching the clock.
The phrase comes from old-fashioned mechanical time clocks at offices and other work sites. An employee would insert their time card when they arrived (and perhaps punch a button) and the clock would mark the card to indicate the time. They would repeat the process when they left, and then the employer would have verification of the number of hours worked (or at least spent on site) by the employee. Punching the clock can suggest that the person is showing up to work, but little else: they are doing the minimum needed to keep their job.
I use
Just scraping by
or
Being a warm body
To mean the same thing; barely completing the letter of the task.
Giving a half-hearted performance.
He is grabbing only for low-hanging fruit
In naval terms this is called gun decking. It means to give the appearance of having done work, without actually having done it. EG: filling out maintenance logs without actually doing the maintenance, painting over rust instead of first chipping it away to a clean surface, falsifying qualification requirements for advancement, etc.
In the US Navy if you're caught gun decking, the punishment can range from getting shouted at by a superior petty officer, to having to go before a kangaroo court (Chief's mast), to an article 15 hearing (Captain's mast), to a court martial depending on the severity of the offense.
a person who shirks assigned work
Can be used as a verb: "to shirk assigned work." Wikipedia's entry is good.
And, as the definition suggests, there's always shirk or dawdle.
We often use the term "shitheeling", in this way - for instance: to describe the efforts of a person who is paid to do a job by the hour, and so, drags the job out for as long as possible. Or, someone in a group, who relies on the efforts of the others to perform the task. Ex:
"He's really shitheeling that job". (US)
This person is just checking the boxes.
This implies that instead of putting forth a real effort or interest in the task at hand, the person is just doing the work to say they did it. In other words, so they could check a box on a task list.
Here are a few results for Googling just checking the boxes:
Urban Dictionary: A phrase which means to complete a task to the barest minimum standard, and subsequently cease working.
That was bush league.
This idiom borrows a term from early baseball referencing the teams from areas not in town (or away from "civilization"), and eventually became a term of derision, meaning less sophisticated. But I first heard it used on the West Wing television drama to berate unprofessionalism.
References:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bush+league
http://www.westwingtranscripts.com/search.php?flag=getTranscript&id=20
He fails to put his best foot forward.
This idiom means to give a best effort, "to act with purpose," "to try or do the best that one can," and requires the intent to do so, as well as a negative to approach the meaning of "phone it in."
References:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/put-your-best-foot-forward.html
http://www.idiomeanings.com/idioms/put-ones-best-foot-forward/
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+best+foot+forward
