Keeping Busy

I wonder if it really is more important to look busy at work than to actually be productive. I've found that the more items I have on my calendar the more acknowledgement I get from my boss and co-workers. It's not that I have a myriad of tasks to do, or even a series of urgent meetings to attend. In fact, the things on my calendar (MS Outlook) now are informational meetings, employee gatherings, and web-based training courses. I dont want to give the wrong impression though. These are all things I am supposed to do at this stage in the course of my Internship. I'm really not a slacker. And I'd have done these things (and more) whether or not I remembered to block out the time on my calendar.

One of my biggest strengths is my flexibility and ability to multi-task. So, when I first came to this company, I didnt think it was so important for me to fill in my calendar with such trivialities as, "How to XXXXX - E-Training" because I am able to do more things than one at any given time. But when I omitted these items from the calendar, I received calls from the Honcho saying, "Maybe we need to enroll you in some additional training courses." Or, "I think we need to meet at least a few times a week until you get ramped up into your project." And when he made these comments I just shot back with that day's goal and informed him that I'd already completed it! I'm not just flexible, I'm quick as well. His usual response, "Oh, I see. Excellent work. Let's schedule a time to go over this more this afternoon." So, I'd schedule the meeting and we'd go over it and he'd say the same thing again. It's almost as if he just wanted to be kept busy.

I thought I might test this theory out. I would schedule all appointments, meetings, training sessions, etc. and see what happened. Night and day! I noticed the difference almost immediately. Calls from the Honcho dropped off like a cliff and something even more interesting happened; I had fewer tasks assigned to me and was almost never bugged about delivery dates. It's not like he couldn't see what I had scheduled; he knew what I was putting up there and they were all true action items. But how could a company as leading-edge as this be so single-task oriented? Maintaining sole focus on one action at a time throws multi-tasking right out the window. I won't let that stop me though. I see this as just another way to get ahead. Make myself look busy, and then continue to over-deliver on my results. More kudos, more acknowledgement and a promotion/raise right around the corner. Thank you MS Outlook, Thank you!