One comment that I hear on a daily basis from my co-workers is that they do not understand why my desk is never covered by piles of papers. Initially this comment used to bother me. Nowadays I am used to this kind of comment, given that I have heard it since my first job.
I often hear from some co-workers that they’d rather have lots of papers over their desks just to impress the boss. Even when they are not doing absolutely anything, they still make sure they cover their desks with papers to send the impression that they have a lot going on.
It is interesting that people judge me because I am very organized, but they never ask why I am how I am. Because I can not operate when my surrounding is messy, I make sure my desk is always nice and clean so that I take care of my responsibilities: at work and at home.
On page 80 of the textbook, we see that “the work ethic also shapes our very idea of what it means to be busy.” In my view, to be busy means to follow human conventions (pretend to be busy, do lots of things at the same time to show competence, etc). By following these conventions human beings are more likely to meet some of society's expectations.
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6 comments:
I would have to disagree with your definition of being busy. I feel that I am busy on a daily basis not because I am pretending to be or trying to look good for my boss but because literally I could work every minute of every day, come in early, work through lunch, and stay late and never feel like I have made any progress on my list of things to do. I am very organized as well but if you opened up my head and looked at my brain it would be moving 1,000 miles a minute and would have something going on in every last corner of it. To me, busy means that you feel like you are drowning at every moment of your day, always trying to get ahead or on top of things but moving two steps forward and three steps back. I hate to be as busy as I am but there are so many things going on in my organization that it is not just me that walks around wide-eyed talking to myself about what I have to do. We all are very organized and have great time management but in addition to all the everyday run-the-business activities we have to try to fit in, new transformational projects are added as well. I believe being busy is always working towards something but never having enough hours in a day or week to finish everything. I wish I had the time to “pretend” to be “busy”. It would be a nice break from reality.
To me busy means that I can't do something because I'm doing something else. Unfortunately, I don't know how to say "no" and it seems to push me to the limits of your "drowning" (crives). I am very organized as well. I can pack in tasks that take most people days into several hours. Most of the time I'm working on something that I love or enjoy doing. I love the work I do during the day...when I get home I work on projects that pay a fee or that I offered to volunteer. Either way they are projects that I have the opportunity to turn down -- and I don't.
I think you hit a hot button with the topic of being busy. Although the term is subjective, I do know that if you ask people, they will always say they are busy. Being organized is a way of breaking tasks down into managable portions, but at times the number of tasks just keeps adding up. I think organizational climate also makes a difference in how people talk about the topic. For example, I found out that my company had laid off most of the staff in one department yesterday, and will be closing it down altogether in December. Under the circumstances I don't think anyone would admit to not being busy.
My desk is always horribly messy and overflowing with papers. I don't do it on purpose, but no matter what I do it just keeps getting messier. Where I work it's the opposite, everyone's desk is usually neat and organized, mine is one of the exceptions. In my mind I am organized and I always get everything done but my area is just cluttered. My co-workers always make fun of my mess. I don't think this means that I am any busier than anyone else, my working style is just different. I define being busy as always having things to do and not enough time to do it.
In my last job as a part time employee, i was the line server where all i had to do was serve and when no one is on the line the supervisor made us clean the line. But many a times my no customers used to be on my line and even though i would have already cleant my line i would be with a towel in my hand just because i did not want my supervisor to tell me that i should clean. But why should i clean if i already cleaned the table and it was clean. I think some times one has to do certain things just for the satisfaction of the other
After reading this conversation, I noticed that there are some ambiguities about the term busy and the appearance of it. On one level, understandings of "busy" will depend on the position within the organization, and the culture of the organization. In my current job, the work is done in the open; there are no personal desks or spaces, so "busy-ness" is determined by the presence of customers, or the visual image of a person doing something. But even in this situation some people have taken up the habit of carrying papers around with them to point to the "fact" that they have tasks in the queue. On another level, "busy" is simply a term that is thrown around. It can mean unavailable, preoccupied, or overtaxed in workload. Finally, and in conjuction with the second level, "busy" can simply refer to the appearance of it, frantically running around or engaging in other "hectic" behaviors.
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