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"Are you busy?"
I'm sitting at my desk, with various papers spread across the top of it and half a dozen applications running on my computer, and these are the first words many people say after they knock on my office door. Of course I'm busy! The pressure to move the cases, to reduce our huge backlog it tremendous, so I'm always busy. These people are my co-workers. They should understand this. After all, they're busy too. But somehow its irritating to be asked that every time someone comes in with a question. I guess its an attempt to gauge my willingness to help. But I only rarely ask them to come back. They have a question or a problem, and unless someone helps them, they're not going to be productively working. So I stop what I'm doing and help them. And then, I try to pick up my work where I left off.
"I have a quick/easy question."
Why don't I believe that? Okay, some of the questions are easy and quick to answer. But everyone prefaces the question this way, regardless of the complexity of the issue they're about to ask me to help them with. I don't recall anyone ever knocking on my door and saying "I have a highly complex, extremely difficult question to ask you." Just doesn't happen. Maybe they're afraid I'll tell them I can't help them. I know that I'll make every effort to answer the question (or identify someone who can, if I can't), but maybe they don't realize this. Or maybe its just a figure of speech, and I'm the only one who finds it strange and annoying.
I have days when it is very difficult for me to get much of my own work done because of all the people coming to ask me questions. Sometimes on days like these I remember a sign I saw in a car repair shop a long time ago. I'm tempted to make my own sign and post it. It would read:
Answers -- $5.00
Answers that require some thought -- $10.00
Correct answers -- $20.00
I'm sitting at my desk, with various papers spread across the top of it and half a dozen applications running on my computer, and these are the first words many people say after they knock on my office door. Of course I'm busy! The pressure to move the cases, to reduce our huge backlog it tremendous, so I'm always busy. These people are my co-workers. They should understand this. After all, they're busy too. But somehow its irritating to be asked that every time someone comes in with a question. I guess its an attempt to gauge my willingness to help. But I only rarely ask them to come back. They have a question or a problem, and unless someone helps them, they're not going to be productively working. So I stop what I'm doing and help them. And then, I try to pick up my work where I left off.
"I have a quick/easy question."
Why don't I believe that? Okay, some of the questions are easy and quick to answer. But everyone prefaces the question this way, regardless of the complexity of the issue they're about to ask me to help them with. I don't recall anyone ever knocking on my door and saying "I have a highly complex, extremely difficult question to ask you." Just doesn't happen. Maybe they're afraid I'll tell them I can't help them. I know that I'll make every effort to answer the question (or identify someone who can, if I can't), but maybe they don't realize this. Or maybe its just a figure of speech, and I'm the only one who finds it strange and annoying.
I have days when it is very difficult for me to get much of my own work done because of all the people coming to ask me questions. Sometimes on days like these I remember a sign I saw in a car repair shop a long time ago. I'm tempted to make my own sign and post it. It would read:
Answers -- $5.00
Answers that require some thought -- $10.00
Correct answers -- $20.00
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