Why is being busy some kind of brag nowadays?
Is it to prove to everyone that we’re so incredibly awesome that we’re in high demand everywhere?
I know that there are a bunch of ways of being “busy” – among those are the people who are actually overextended, those who use busy as a convenient excuse when they don’t really want to do something, and those haven’t figured out how to say ‘no’ or multitask.
My favorite is the people that use “busy” as a way to brag about themselves.
I’ve had full conversations with people where they basically list their task list with the expectation of me just oohing and aahing over their fabulous busyness.
You can really add in the fun if you want to then tell them about YOUR crazy schedule and get into some sort of busy pissing match with them.
You know how it goes:
Busy Person #1: “Sorry I didn’t get back to you by that deadline that you reminded me about three times over the past eight weeks. You need to realize that I’m busy. I work full time, have kids and a husband, run a blog, participate in volunteer activities and also wipe my own butt.”
Busy Person #2: “Oh WOW. You ARE busy. I’m really busy too… I work full time, have kids and a husband, run a blog, participate in volunteer activities, wipe my own butt, bake cakes from scratch and make out with unicorns.”
Busy Person #1: “Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I bake cakes from scratch, make out with unicorns AND ALSO clean the boogers out of my dog’s eyes, make quirky furniture from discarded pizza boxes, place abandoned baby birds into cross-cultural squirrel foster homes and haven’t slept in like 8 months.”
Busy Person #2: “So funny you say that… I haven’t slept in 10 months… and I’m training for a triple marathon.”
We’ve all met them, right?
Do you take the high road and just smile and nod at their bragging or are you like me and enjoy poking the bear?
That bugs me. When I get emails like that at work, I literally talk back to my computer with snarky responses. The guy with the office next to mine will occasionally giggle at my ridiculousness, when he’s not planning to have me committed.
I personally hate being busy. I was in an organization that was designed for people to be superhuman busybodies (like how I changed the meaning of that word?) and constantly one up each other…needless to say, I’m out.
I dislike people like that, too! My husband and I took a class together and he casually mentioned that he was happy the instructor didn’t give us work to do outside class since his job had him answering about a hundred emails a day. A girl in the class just had to top this with her five hundred emails a day. Why are people like this? Personally, I’m ok not being in competition with everyone else. 🙂
Wow I have been guilty of this lately, but mostly as a reason why I’m not doing what I WANT to do, and not necessarily as an excuse for why I can’t interact with or do anything for others. I’m generally not very competitive like that, unless I’m one-upping you with details about my gifted children who get straight A+++’s and are currently applying to Harvard (even the 2-yr-old), do triple marathons themselves AND all make out with unicorns.
Love it!
Reblogged this on Career Girl Guru and commented:
I love this girl’s blog, especially this post