‘Tyranny of Busyness’

linebaugh

Well-known member
I think more important than busyness is peoples capacity for doing things other than fuck all. People always have time
 

sufi

lala
Interesting session - focussing on coaching and supporting one another during the busyness phenomenon, which is part way to where i think i'd like to take the conversation...
 

sufi

lala
To the people I just had a very important meeting with:

I tried to take you all seriously. I really did. Except since I’m at home, watching you all crowded into a conference room, the effect was more like toy figures sitting around
Polly Pocket’s kitchen table. I spent most of the time imagining picking you up with tweezers then zipping you into my change purse.
 

martin

----
Busyness is a survival strategy. Nobody can possibly meet all these targets and KPIs and dynamic 'roadmaps' to success , so your best bet’s just to be constantly ‘busy’, 9 to 5, and kick it down the line to the next person.

My boss got a bit cranky with me in late 2021 because I hadn’t taken annual leave all year (well, would you squander your holiday during a lockdown?), so I needed to take late November and all of December off. I had to explain to him, I was so damn BUSY during the year, I didn’t have time for a luxury like ‘holidays’. I even suggested that some of our line managers who DID responsibly book their annual leave probably weren’t that busy after all!…and he said “Yes, that is something to consider…I just don’t want you to burn yourself out”!! I wasn’t born conniving but I am a quick learner.

It’s the M.A.D. of the office world. Don’t pull me away from watching my mates DJ mid-afternoon on FB Live, and we'll all pretend you haven’t spent the past six hours playing Candy Crush.
 

Leo

Well-known member
sufi, did the seminar focus only on work busyness? I also see lots of people over scheduling their personal lives, calendar stacked with meeting people, participating in organizations, online gaming, going to the gym, learning a new language, etc. people can bear to have free time to contemplate, think about the future. scares them to just stop and smell the roses, always need a distraction.
 

sufi

lala
sufi, did the seminar focus only on work busyness? I also see lots of people over scheduling their personal lives, calendar stacked with meeting people, participating in organizations, online gaming, going to the gym, learning a new language, etc. people can bear to have free time to contemplate, think about the future. scares them to just stop and smell the roses, always need a distraction.
not really, on reflection it was more about how you cope if you are forced into that mindset, and how you support others to handle the trauma and nonsense involved with having such a mechanistic approach to time

But definitely some workplaces seem to cultivate that culture, as Martin was saying, of being booked solid every hour of the day or bluffing it if you are not, i guess that can spill over into personal time too :(
 
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