Why are you so busy?
tomlingham.com
Why are you so busy?
1–10 of 130 posts
Re: Why are you so busy?
#2The Phoenix Project is a good novel where the protagonist cuts scope to save the company. It's been years since I read it, but this post made me think of it.
Re: Why are you so busy?
#3The Phoenix Project is a good novel where the protagonist cuts scope to save the company. It's been years since I read it, but this post made me think of it.
I would certainly be lying if I said the Phoenix Project hadn't helped me form some of my ideas around capacity and limits on WIP. Agreed, a great read.
Re: Why are you so busy?
#4I turned this into a poster and hung it in front of my desk. Great quote.
“as long as you are doing your work well and continuously working on the next most important thing prioritised by the business, any pressure to deliver beyond what your team is capable of is objectively unreasonable.“
Re: Why are you so busy?
#5A while back I took a couple years off from working. Sometimes I'd still find myself saying "I've just been too busy" when asking myself why I didn't get something done. Didn't take long to realize that "I'm too busy" had been an excuse I had been using to justify poorly thought out priorities. I still haven't fully broken the "I'm too busy" pattern but at least now I know there's a decent chance that I haven't actually been too busy and I need to look more at what it is that I have been doing and whether or not those things are truly more important than whatever I was "too busy" to do.
Re: Why are you so busy?
#6Those of us who loathe laying off good employees are busy because we are understaffed. We're understaffed because we are sure that a downturn, recession or worse is upon us (or coming soon) and that the agony, expense and distraction of layoffs (to equalize income & overhead) are a bear market squeeze not worth the bull market juice.
So we get by with fewer employees, more part-time & gig workers. We work harder than we probably should, and so do our employees. The imbalance this creates in good times is offset by the job security we enjoy in bad times. How do I know this is true? Because I'm old enough to have withstood three recessions, the last one by the skin of our corporate teeth.
We've had two good employees leave in good times for less work for more money. Both came back after a few years when boom business cycles that drove that dislocation reverted to the mean.
What the "anti-work"/"no wagie" crowd get's right is the inequity of hard work in a commoditized job at a company that doesn't give a rat's ass about you or your work product. What they get wrong is that small businesses like mine, who do care, require hard work to smooth the volatility - providing security for the business, the employees & the owner. We do this while insurance (health & general) rockets skyward, as the government stealth taxes the crap out of us, and while foreign competition engages in currency & regulatory manipulation for unfair advantage.
My advice to the "don't be so busy" folks... get busy. Do a good job and tactfully take credit for it. Work hard and make sure your name is associated with results.
An economic storm is probably coming as soon as politically motivated band-aids come loose. Most likely after the US mid-term elections, but perhaps after 2024 if they can somehow postpone it that long... get ready.
Re: Why are you so busy?
#7Those of us who loathe laying off good employees are busy because we are understaffed. We're understaffed because we are sure that a downturn, recession or worse is upon us (or coming soon) and that the agony, expense and distraction of layoffs (to equalize income & overhead) are a bear market squeeze not worth the bull market juice. So we get by with fewer employees, more part-time & gig workers. We work harder than…
did we read the same article?
Re: Why are you so busy?
#8Those of us who loathe laying off good employees are busy because we are understaffed. We're understaffed because we are sure that a downturn, recession or worse is upon us (or coming soon) and that the agony, expense and distraction of layoffs (to equalize income & overhead) are a bear market squeeze not worth the bull market juice. So we get by with fewer employees, more part-time & gig workers. We work harder than…
"more part-time" are there more part-time positions due to recession (or fears of one)? Are there job board for part time jobs, ideally remote?
Re: Why are you so busy?
#9A while back I took a couple years off from working. Sometimes I'd still find myself saying "I've just been too busy" when asking myself why I didn't get something done. Didn't take long to realize that "I'm too busy" had been an excuse I had been using to justify poorly thought out priorities. I still haven't fully broken the "I'm too busy" pattern but at least now I know there's a decent chance that I haven't actua…
Agreed, sometimes you can literally replace the phrase with "it's not important to me" and shock yourself
Re: Why are you so busy?
#10I turned this into a poster and hung it in front of my desk. Great quote. “as long as you are doing your work well and continuously working on the next most important thing prioritised by the business, any pressure to deliver beyond what your team is capable of is objectively unreasonable.“
I think the “doing your work well” part is often the question. Am I really doing all I can? Could I do better/more? This then leads to working more and being busier. Maybe the problem is that it’s hard (for some of us) to know what “well” really means.