Does this sound familiar? Multi-tasking in the board room, at the office, at lunch, while you’re already multi-tasking. We are all pretty familiar with this deficit in human interaction which can arguably be attributed or relieved, depending on your view, by technology.
I have been working on developing my thoughts on what this says about the hegemony of co-dependence in the workplace, and ultimately in our lives. Let’s just break down communication. We are conditioned to reinforce positive and negative actions through feedback. Recently I had a chat with, Thomas Beckett, Esq., about the client relationship. We agreed that contracts can condition expectations, thus providing feedback. Should any of us have a superior over our project, we would naturally run new ideas by them. However, the need for instantaneous feedback has become an epidemic that crushes realistic expectations and time.
For me, being connected on Twitter, Facebook, Google Voice, Google Chat, Skype, and now Orkut makes me even more accessible to my clients. Nothing can take place of physical face time, but if you need something it will be expedited quickly. People tend to say that I answer emails fast because I try to keep my inbox as close to zero as possible, click for more on this principle of inbox zero. I can confidently provide this feedback, but I struggle when I have expectations for the same in return. I think that being in an office environment conditions the rate at which you manifest a reply. You can tell the leadership dictates the rate of reply and as a sole proprietor that works from home + coffee shops my rate of reply is determined by my activity online. When I’m offline, I’m connected, the direct messages from my über-personal Twitter gets sent as a text message to my phone. My Google Voice acts as a screen for me to hand out my direct mobile number, but it still goes to my phone.
The way most Americans work is at a fever pace. One thing I will try to muster is patience, particularly with myself. I need to disconnect often and realize there is a life to live, and plenty more Supernews to watch! Is it wrong to be diligent or right to become work-centric? The answer is balance for health, wellness, and piece of mind. You can be overly committed, so eliminate stress, I see many of my friends booked solid through the week. This year I will be taking a little more selfish me time to recharge those batteries and struggle to avoid the online feedback while I’m offline.
In the meantime, I will be synermonigizing tonight with my CHStwestival committee over some brews + basketball.