I’ve come across a two good articles in the last few days that are worth reading. “Fight the Urge to Look Busy” and “4 Reasons to Skip Chores This Weekend“. What I got out of these articles is this… Many people are more concerned with putting on a show of looking busy than they are with actually producing results and doing their part to support the goals and decisions of leadership. Also, many people have much more free time on their hands then they are willing to admit. I’m mostly around bankers and believe me, they have perfected looking busy. But I also know this is very common in any field.
Here’s the deal… if you’re not hitting simple goals and expectations set by your manager then you might fit into one or both of the categories above. If you aren’t getting referrals from advocates, there might be a problem. If you constantly find excuses as to why “it’s different here” or “that won’t work in my branch” then whether you realize it or not, you’re protecting the status quo of looking busy and you want to protect your free time.
Remember, your job is to support the vision and direction of leadership, to meet and exceed the expectations set by your manager and to produce. Whatever is keeping you from that can be put into the category of “looking busy” and “wasting time”.
