Low motivation at work is a problem many people have dealt with, whether a person was unmotivated or tried to help along someone who was. There are many factors that can contribute to low motivation. The are affected by issues within the workplace and outside.

No Incentive
When people do not have goals or incentives to reach, they have no reason to work hard. The work will eventually get done, but there is no need for it to be done in a timely manner or in a mistake-free manner. Without goals there is often little motivation.

No Feedback
A lack of feedback, or a lack of positive feedback, are issues that can cause lack of motivation. Without any feedback a person has no idea of her performance. Some positive feedback can let a person know that she is working in the right direction and doing a good job. Negative feedback will only result in negativity. If everything a person does receives negative comments then a person could start to feel like she is doing nothing right.

No Help
Managers are there to help their employees so if a person is showing a lack of motivation and the performance is low, it is possible the person needs more training or a little bit of help. For example, if it takes a person a long time to create a document, show the person some tips. This will make the work easier and faster. Also, by offering help it shows that the manager took an interest in the employee enough to help out.

Not Focused
A lack of focus could produce low motivation at work. If a person does not focus on his work, tasks could take longer, mistakes could be made, and unmotivation can result. A lack of focus can be caused from different factors from a person's personal life to the working environment. If it is a loud environment, it may be hard for a person to focus on the task at hand.

Personal Life
While the general rule is to not let your personal life interfere with work, sometimes circumstances at home can carry over. This can easily make a person unmotivated because his mind is elsewhere rather than on his work. If this is the case, try to talk over the issues with someone so that it may become easier to focus on work.

Decision Making
In offices decisions are made. Sometimes the person in charge asks the opinions of the employees, sometimes she does not ask. Either case could result in a lack of motivation from employees. If a person never asks for the opinion of the people, then she could feel undervalued, and opinions and ideas do not matter. However, if a person asks the opinion of people, but does nothing with their suggestions, people could feel undervalued for this as well. The best thing to do is ask opinions, make choices with them in mind, then explain why a certain decision was made.