"Ahh, I'm flat out mate".
Discussion
Those of us unfortunate enough to work in an office environment must be fed up with the above statement.
usually when asked "ah, how are things?" or "could you do this for me".
Everyone, always, manages to be "flat out" - Yet sales aren't making calls, projects aren't rolling in, etc.
Do people just enjoy lying or pretending to be busy, without realising that we knoooowwww they aren't?
usually when asked "ah, how are things?" or "could you do this for me".
Everyone, always, manages to be "flat out" - Yet sales aren't making calls, projects aren't rolling in, etc.
Do people just enjoy lying or pretending to be busy, without realising that we knoooowwww they aren't?
I heard tales of someone sat with a post it note on their head phones saying not today! I think it's more to do with feeling important, the company would collapse without these people! Despite being in a key position I'm under no illusions If I disappeared everything would rumble along fine.
I always find this correlates with people who talk too much. Those that are always on the phone and those that love hearing themselves speak in meetings are always the ones who complain about volumes of unopened emails and working late.
Those of us who are quieter and actually do some real work, rather than talking about it to everyone, manage our workloads just fine.
Those of us who are quieter and actually do some real work, rather than talking about it to everyone, manage our workloads just fine.
It annoys me too, in the office I work at it's very rare for anyone to need to be 'flat out'.
What normally happens when they say 'flat out' is:
A - They've f
ked something up, and rather than just admit it and ask for help that most of us could give them they try and work it out, whilst more work piles up
B - Lied
C - Do the job a long way round. We had a guy for 2 years a while ago who used to take 3 days to do a profiling task for a client. Always took him ages, he made a massive point of how difficult it was, how many rules there were etc. He left for another job, a few of the excel wizards had a look and got the whole thing down to 2 macro's and 2 hours fo work start to finish...
The managers take workload hours now, and there is now a team rule that if someone says they are over 7 hours busy for more than 3 days in a row they have to have an informal meeting to work out how the load can be lightened. Surprise surprise no one is ever flat out anymore.
I sit with a back office team, so no client contact, we deal with lots of bits for everyone. We had a meeting with our director once who wanted to 'better know what we do', and my 2 other colleagues said they were always stacked, always busy etc. I said I was never 100%, the max was 85%. I got a look of disgust from everyone, until I explained that as part of our job, people ask us questions that need to be answered NOW (client on the phone, email needing to be sent, supplier on the phone etc). If we don't dro pwhat we are doing and help, st goes wrong. So we should never be 100% busy, as that then means there is a problem.
I'm quietely chuckling away to myself now, one of my more stupid colleagues is bleating she's busy to one of the managers. I know she is fairly busy, but I could do 2 of the things she needs to do, other people could do other bits. I'll let her work herself int oa flap for a bit longer whilst I eat my sandwiches and browse PH and offer some help. Which she may hate, as she likes being the centre of attention, and being busy busy in a flapping way get s her that... (I give her 6 months, senior account manager my arse...)
What normally happens when they say 'flat out' is:
A - They've f
ked something up, and rather than just admit it and ask for help that most of us could give them they try and work it out, whilst more work piles upB - Lied
C - Do the job a long way round. We had a guy for 2 years a while ago who used to take 3 days to do a profiling task for a client. Always took him ages, he made a massive point of how difficult it was, how many rules there were etc. He left for another job, a few of the excel wizards had a look and got the whole thing down to 2 macro's and 2 hours fo work start to finish...
The managers take workload hours now, and there is now a team rule that if someone says they are over 7 hours busy for more than 3 days in a row they have to have an informal meeting to work out how the load can be lightened. Surprise surprise no one is ever flat out anymore.
I sit with a back office team, so no client contact, we deal with lots of bits for everyone. We had a meeting with our director once who wanted to 'better know what we do', and my 2 other colleagues said they were always stacked, always busy etc. I said I was never 100%, the max was 85%. I got a look of disgust from everyone, until I explained that as part of our job, people ask us questions that need to be answered NOW (client on the phone, email needing to be sent, supplier on the phone etc). If we don't dro pwhat we are doing and help, s
t goes wrong. So we should never be 100% busy, as that then means there is a problem.I'm quietely chuckling away to myself now, one of my more stupid colleagues is bleating she's busy to one of the managers. I know she is fairly busy, but I could do 2 of the things she needs to do, other people could do other bits. I'll let her work herself int oa flap for a bit longer whilst I eat my sandwiches and browse PH and offer some help. Which she may hate, as she likes being the centre of attention, and being busy busy in a flapping way get s her that... (I give her 6 months, senior account manager my arse...)
rossub said:
I always find this correlates with people who talk too much. Those that are always on the phone and those that love hearing themselves speak in meetings are always the ones who complain about volumes of unopened emails and working late.
Those of us who are quieter and actually do some real work, rather than talking about it to everyone, manage our workloads just fine.
This! So much this... We have got one in our office, talks non stop, loves the sound of his own voice, etc.Those of us who are quieter and actually do some real work, rather than talking about it to everyone, manage our workloads just fine.
What makes it even worse is he is full of s
t as well, he is called FIGJAM by others, stands for fk I'm Good Just Ask Me. In reality nobody believes a word he says, a proper eleveneriffe.The worst people for this are sales I find.
Some nice enough people but the type to say "ohh, I'm busy, can't you do that?" when it's not within my job description.
Slopey shoulders and all that.
I can't remember the last time I was ever "flat out" and there's only been 1 or 2 occasions in the last 3 months that I've had to say "sorry I can't take that task", 95% of the time there is always capacity but people just don't want to do it!
The sooner they get their tasks done the sooner they can go back to Facebook.
Some nice enough people but the type to say "ohh, I'm busy, can't you do that?" when it's not within my job description.
Slopey shoulders and all that.
I can't remember the last time I was ever "flat out" and there's only been 1 or 2 occasions in the last 3 months that I've had to say "sorry I can't take that task", 95% of the time there is always capacity but people just don't want to do it!
The sooner they get their tasks done the sooner they can go back to Facebook.
It's a term which pisses me off royally.
About 7 years ago, I transitioned from a Service to Sales role in work. I was told that I'd be joining a particularly prestigoius team, once which was critical to the business. Over the following 6 months, I'd always find it hard to get in contact with my team. They'd either never answer the phone, or when they did, they said they were immensely busy. At our bi-monthly meetings, our manager would always apologise profusely for "taking the team off the road" as we were all "stacked" or "up against the wall" with work.
The thing was though, with what? It transipired that all the "Sales" role consisted of was basically answering some questions once or twice a week from some business resellers about simple things. Noone in the team admitted it, but they were all incharge of a few customers, who never really called them enough to fill a 40 hour week and thus everyone was off slacking.
Due to abject boredome, I changed teams - and when asked why, I said 'because there isn't anything challenging to do' - which was met with "oh, but the X team are critical to the business! They are singlehandedly battling all the challenges of dealing with business partners!". Everyone believed this team when they said they were busy, but noone actually checked! Noone believed me.
A couple of years later, the company was restructed, and independant consultants sat with the team in question to see what they did day to day (as with most teams in the business). They were all disbanded in a week having been discovered that they were all nothng more than "6 figure party planners" as the report described.
About 7 years ago, I transitioned from a Service to Sales role in work. I was told that I'd be joining a particularly prestigoius team, once which was critical to the business. Over the following 6 months, I'd always find it hard to get in contact with my team. They'd either never answer the phone, or when they did, they said they were immensely busy. At our bi-monthly meetings, our manager would always apologise profusely for "taking the team off the road" as we were all "stacked" or "up against the wall" with work.
The thing was though, with what? It transipired that all the "Sales" role consisted of was basically answering some questions once or twice a week from some business resellers about simple things. Noone in the team admitted it, but they were all incharge of a few customers, who never really called them enough to fill a 40 hour week and thus everyone was off slacking.
Due to abject boredome, I changed teams - and when asked why, I said 'because there isn't anything challenging to do' - which was met with "oh, but the X team are critical to the business! They are singlehandedly battling all the challenges of dealing with business partners!". Everyone believed this team when they said they were busy, but noone actually checked! Noone believed me.
A couple of years later, the company was restructed, and independant consultants sat with the team in question to see what they did day to day (as with most teams in the business). They were all disbanded in a week having been discovered that they were all nothng more than "6 figure party planners" as the report described.
I prefer ''I'm drowning'' or ''Up to my eyeballs''
The problem we have is the site engineers will suddenly dump 10 drawings on us that need to be done for ''close of play'' and when you take a look you realise there's actually a solid 3 days work there. They are forever underestimating the time it takes to produce compliant drawings.
The problem we have is the site engineers will suddenly dump 10 drawings on us that need to be done for ''close of play'' and when you take a look you realise there's actually a solid 3 days work there. They are forever underestimating the time it takes to produce compliant drawings.
Its part of the "Self promotion: management BS culture.
"I am so busy, so stressed, but am awesome at my job let me tell you how awesome I am"
I had a situation at one company where I blew my targets out of the water even with them changing the goalposts every month, thus qualifying for the bonus, Nope I was marked down as "You havent communicated my success to the wider organisation so your not getting a bonus and being put on performance improvement plan"
I said "No please call HR as I can no longer work for a plum like you"
"I am so busy, so stressed, but am awesome at my job let me tell you how awesome I am"
I had a situation at one company where I blew my targets out of the water even with them changing the goalposts every month, thus qualifying for the bonus, Nope I was marked down as "You havent communicated my success to the wider organisation so your not getting a bonus and being put on performance improvement plan"
I said "No please call HR as I can no longer work for a plum like you"
MDMetal said:
I heard tales of someone sat with a post it note on their head phones saying not today! I think it's more to do with feeling important, the company would collapse without these people! Despite being in a key position I'm under no illusions If I disappeared everything would rumble along fine.
Girl at my old place used to put a sign up saying words to that effect. Even when the MD came over to ask her something she just pointed at the sign. I'd have sacked her but he just smiled and walked off.The joys of a family run business blundering from one disaster to another.
Gretchen said:
NHS.
Anyone who thinks they're constantly flat out or being burnt out should go spend a month on the NHS front line.
As Gretchen says, I know nurses that do 4x 12hr shifts a week (one day after another) with one week on days and one week on nights alternate. Most of the time they don't have time for a break/lunch either. Usually just a 10min stop to stuff a few biscuits down their gob. Same in care homes too...
There was a chap in my place who was always "too busy" to do anything. Then he went on holiday for two weeks, and I took on his job to cover. Had everything up to date within 6 days.......... He came back to no work whatsoever.......
Usually the ones complaining about how busy they are have little to do.
Usually the ones complaining about how busy they are have little to do.
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