Have you ever known somebody who always gave the appearance of being extremely busy at all times — and never having time to do anything — but at the same time it was almost impossible to discern what exactly it was that kept them busy?
I actually remember thinking this about my own mother when I was in my 20s, because she always seemed to be involved in something but during any of the times I went and stayed with her I could never figure out what exactly it was she was doing other than potentially planning the things that she needed to be doing.
From my current vantage point of being 66 years of age I still seem to encounter quite a few people in life who give the appearance of being busy without really being able to show anything for all their busy-ness.
Back when I was working in the IT industry, they seemed to be the people who congregated around the proverbial water cooler to complain endlessly about how many meetings and emails they had to deal with and yet they were somehow often absent from the meetings because they were busy dealing with e-mail and failing to send the emails because they were busy with meetings.
Underlying this appearance of eternal busy-ness was a subtext that they were always the victim of being overworked.
I've never quite been able to figure out whether such people are just trying to scam everybody into believing that they are busier than they really are, or whether the yardstick they're using to measure what busy feels like is very different from our own and the slightest bit of effort feels to them like they are being grown through the bone.
What I found particularly annoying back when I was working in the corporate world was the fact that these were also often the people who were towards the front of the pack when it came to being offered promotions and pay raises. The particular irritation arising out of the fact that their consideration came from the appearance of what they did rather than from actually producing any tangible work.
Maybe it was all just a master manipulation and I'm missing the point.
I guess I have never been particularly good at manipulation. While I definitely I'm not very fond of working and would just as well sit around and do nothing, I don't operate under the illusion that I should be compensated for my "massive" contributions when all I'm trying to do is not contribute.
Entitlement, anyone?
Maybe I just have an outdated work ethic, in the sense that actually working is the only reason I am likely to have for "looking busy."
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2026.10.02 01:52 PDT
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