Good busy

Being busy is not a measurement of productivity.

Last week I asked a business partner how he was doing.

His answer was, ‘I’m good busy.’

I asked him what that meant.

He explained that he was almost always busy, ranging from extremely busy to good busy.

Good busy meant that work was not crazy but did not allow much thinking or reflection time.

I then asked him whether he thought it was expected that he was always busy.

‘I got used to it. This is how things go around here.’

Then he changed the subject, clearly not wanting to engage further in this topic.

We went on to discuss the challenges of his work and how he was dealing with the way of working of his new CEO.

Who was even more hands-on than the previous one, inserted himself in almost every conversation, and was willing to be ON 24 hours per day.

Busyness was not going to disappear soon, I thought.

The term ‘good busy’ got me thinking that evening.

Has ‘good busy’ become our new normal?

Has work evolved to the level that we always need to be busy?