41–50 of 96 posts
That's just rude. A short and polite "I'm a little busy, can we talk later" would require no more effort or concentration than just saying no.
We don't quite agree. It is upon the person who is taking it wrongly - that is negative on their part. Everyone should practice saying 'no' without having to explain themselves.
After fighting this culture for years, I couldn't handle the constant interruptions anymore and quit. I have a home office now and I control all the variables in it. I couldn't be happier.
A lot of this is culture dependent I believe, but i am under the impression that at least on western countries you cannot do this a lot of times without a high cost, specially if you re not a manager. If someone comes to your desk directly, you are supposed to stop what you are doing and give your attention to that person, even if you are working on something really urgent. Refusing meeting requests is also not well…
A lot depends upon what you are paid to deliver. If you're a software engineer, you are paid to deliver working software. You can deliver that software more efficiently if you do not let yourself be interrupted; hence, most good bosses will be okay with a "Shhh, not right now, send me an e-mail" if it's clear you're in the zone on a hard problem. And if you have a bad boss that cares more about attention than results, you should look for a new job anyway.
Same goes for traders, fund managers, and quants in finance - you are paid to make money, and it doesn't matter how rude you are as long as you deliver that.
It most certainly won't work for an administrative assistant, where you are paid to save time for your executive. It won't work for an advertising or marketing exec or salesperson, where you are paid for collaborative, face-to-face interactions. It probably won't even work for a lawyer or investment banking associate, where you are paid to be a partner's bitch.
A lot of this is culture dependent I believe, but i am under the impression that at least on western countries you cannot do this a lot of times without a high cost, specially if you re not a manager. If someone comes to your desk directly, you are supposed to stop what you are doing and give your attention to that person, even if you are working on something really urgent. Refusing meeting requests is also not well…
Forgive me for being cynical about the whole premise.
Saying no like this can also be used by people that fake being busy. The same way they always walk with a notepad and pens, and other such tricks.
So Dustin said "Not now!", and the author extrapolated this to a parable about how people at Facebook are so dedicated and productive that they are willing to be borderline rude to serve the company.
Dustin said "Not now", and that's it. It does not mean much.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My ex-company uses those. They would sync up with our Lync clients and you could even set the color for each status. If anyone is interested I'll ask my old contact there.
These? http://www.blynclight.com/
A lot of this is culture dependent I believe, but i am under the impression that at least on western countries you cannot do this a lot of times without a high cost, specially if you re not a manager. If someone comes to your desk directly, you are supposed to stop what you are doing and give your attention to that person, even if you are working on something really urgent. Refusing meeting requests is also not well…
That's just rude. A short and polite "I'm a little busy, can we talk later" would require no more effort or concentration than just saying no.
That's rude, and doesn't actually mean that the refusing party was being productive/busy at the time.
It just means "not now". There could be 100 reasons why.
A lot of this is culture dependent I believe, but i am under the impression that at least on western countries you cannot do this a lot of times without a high cost, specially if you re not a manager. If someone comes to your desk directly, you are supposed to stop what you are doing and give your attention to that person, even if you are working on something really urgent. Refusing meeting requests is also not well…
I agree with the above. Forgive me for being cynical about the whole premise. Saying no like this can also be used by people that fake being busy. The same way they always walk with a notepad and pens, and other such tricks. So Dustin said "Not now!", and the author extrapolated this to a parable about how people at Facebook are so dedicated and productive that they are willing to be borderline rude to serve the comp…
If you are interrupted in while working on a very complicated subject, going back to the same focus level takes up to 30 minutes for me. The time I could spent on fixing stuff.
I am happy that most of my employers / managers understood and appreciated this.
You can explain them with this comic as well: http://heeris.id.au/2013/this-is-why-you-shouldnt-interrupt-...