I'm not Impressed that you are 'busy.'

A few weeks ago, an employee that I supervise asked me for some help in a class they were taking. They needed help on an assignment. I offered to help because I always want to be available to those that I manage. When I was given the assignment, I thought I could knock it out in a few minutes. This assignment, however, threw me for a loop. I took several looks at it, and couldn't figure out the solution. I told myself I would get back to it within a few days and let my employee know that I needed some more time.

A few days came around and that employee approached me, and asked if I had made progress on the assignment? I told them no and apologized. The response I got was, "Well, you're busy Chas! No worries." I shook my head. I told this employee that being busy is not an excuse. That I had plenty of time to do a few statistical problems and that me being "busy" was unacceptable. They nodded their head in approval, and eventually later that day, I was able to help with the assignment.

But the idea of using 'being busy' as an excuse for my lack of diligence was not okay with me. Let me say that I'm far from being the busiest or hardest working person on this planet, or probably the block that I live on. But I refuse to accept being being busy as a reason for why things cannot get done.

Yes I understand that things come up and continue to come up. People have lives outside of work, volunteering and even their personal life. But one thing that I'm seeing is that we use the phrase 'being busy' as some sort of badge of honor for not getting things done. A few days ago I texted a friend who is on national radio. I'm not going to get into specifics about who this is. They hadn't had a show in some time, so I asked them how they were doing. They responded with, "I'm busy grinding away." What does that even mean that you are busy grinding away. This is not to fault that friend at all. But to simply point out that as a society, we have become accustomed to saying we are busy and for people to accept that statement as a badge of honor.

While this may be an unpopular opinion, I'm not impressed when you tell me that you are busy. What I hear is that you need help in certain areas of your life. But I really don't fault any person in particular that has said that to me or that has used that phrase. Because the fact is we are all a product of this idea that has been imposed on us by social media, and the media in general that being busy makes you a hero. We've become so caught up as a society in this word busy, that we've failed to take a step back and understand the real root of our problems.

I will not get into the root of our issues. We as a society have plenty. But the idea is we can cut down on using the excuse that we are busy and take some time to figure out what's really going on in our lives that caused us to use that answer.

So next time you're in a meeting and you get asked why you didn't get an assignment done? Don't resort to 'busy.' Perhaps pause and think about why you may be delayed and give a more concrete answer. I can guarantee you that you're answer will be better received and you won't fall victim to the common, 'busy.'