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Why we feel overloaded, and can it be fixed?
The real source of our frustration is signaling with "face time."
People -- and not only at work -- get insulted if they are dealt with in peremptory fashion, even when the issue at hand can be resolved quickly. Imagine a visiting professor comes to give a seminar, but you can't find time for lunch. Lunch would have been chit-chat anyway, but now the professor feels you don't value his research -- or him -- very much. Can you imagine such vanity? And if others perceive your time as important, they want it all the more.
What are some possible solutions to this problem? After all, a day has only twenty-four hours and your face has (one hopes) only one side.
1. Pretend that some other privilege you offer (hand kisses? birthday cards?) is extremely costly to you. Offer this other privilege in lieu of large amounts of time.
2. Pretend to be busier than you are. Let people believe -- perhaps truthfully -- that everyone else receives even less time.
3. Pretend your time is unimportant. (NB: This may involve dressing down.) The hope is that no one will feel slighted if they don't get much time. Who feels slighted not to be given free thumb tacks? But there exists another equilibrium, in which the neglected person feels all the more insulted. After all, you are not giving away even your crummy low-value time.
4. Tell people you are autistic, or that you have Asperger's syndrome.
I await your suggestions in the comments.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on October 21, 2005 at 07:10 AM in Medicine | Permalink
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Comments
Probably no 2 is the easiest go get away with since it requires a min of effort and has a min of signal noise. No 1 requires more perfect information, no 3 requires inconsistency (since you are faculty and supposedly your time is then worth something) and probably takes more effort to "prove", whereas no 4 requires a stronger lie ie higher cost (see Gneezy's deception paper in AER 2005).
Posted by: Anna at Oct 21, 2005 7:45:36 AM
Tell them "Why don't you go cry to your moma about it?" or fake play the violin Now, you've used social forces to solve a social problem.
Posted by: joshg at Oct 21, 2005 8:07:28 AM
The best technique I've found -- though this works better in a midsize workplace than with your visiting professor example -- is to convince your visitor that your time would otherwise be spent working on something of more value to them than facetime with you would be.
For instance, if I am (or appear to be) working on fixing a software bug that is of particular concern or annoyance to one of my coworkers, that coworker is less likely to interrupt me (and more likely to let me interrupt him with useful questions) than if I am working on fixing a problem that is mine alone.
Moreover, this solution might even tend toward efficiency: It makes everyone at least partly internalize workplace-wide benefits of one's interruptable work and costs of facetime.
Posted by: Grant Gould at Oct 21, 2005 8:25:56 AM
I find your visiting professor example--odd. When I was in grad school, these dinners (and we usually did dinners) were always gladly attended by the invitees. Socializing was much more than "chit-chat", it was an open forum for discussing ideas which were not entirely appropriate at the talks.
I was fortunate enough that the national organization had its annual meeting less than two hours away my second year. I went, but ditched some lecture periods to "chat" with some of my undergrad professors who were attending. One of them commented, "I see you have already figured out what these meetings are all about."
My sense of being overloaded is pretty much connected to having bosses at levels 1-4 all agree that my team has 60% of the people needed to do the work they committed--and having this as a "stable" arraingement...
Posted by: Nathan Zook at Oct 21, 2005 9:17:26 AM
#4 works great for me
Posted by: notw eev at Oct 21, 2005 10:13:55 AM
1. Genetic splicing with the Roman god Janus.
2. "I'd love to chat about your speech, but I have to meet the deadline to write up my glowing review of your performance for publication in an important journal."
3. Genetic splicing with Cerberus, guardian of the gates of Hades.
4. Point out how important HIS time is, and how it is too important to waste on time with you.
5. Genetic splicing with a Hydra.
Posted by: Richard Bellamy at Oct 21, 2005 11:26:12 AM
Yes, Aspergers it is. Amongst academics in many cases it would even be true. Undiagnosed of course. Not hard to fake I'd assume, but have no direct knowledge of that.
None of the others would allow one to blog that day, would they? Or post comments.
Posted by: John B. Chilton at Oct 21, 2005 11:35:49 AM
I've had luck with making myself busy, not just creating the appearance of it, by getting friends to commit me to some event that I already wanted to do. I then offer the person an opportunity to come along and I've never had a person I judged incompatible accept the offer. Better yet, the person gets their "face time," I get my time and it seems that most think highly of me because of the "extraordinary accomodation."
Posted by: Steven Schreiber at Oct 21, 2005 11:35:51 AM
Singals that are easy to fake are meaningless. You have to make up for it by making *actual* sacrifices.
Posted by: Macneil at Oct 21, 2005 11:39:18 AM
As an addition, the times that it hasn't worked, I've capitulated. The position isn't as strong as it seems because I can easily impress the importance of the meeting onto friends. My cost in personal time is offset by, again, enhanced prestige because I was willing to cancel appointments just for this person.
Posted by: Steven Schreiber at Oct 21, 2005 11:44:24 AM
In the entertainment industry, some people with too many hands on their time cope by being extremely rude and ill-tempered. The "victims" of their abuse then have a choice of being offended, which gains them no sympathy from anybody; or, they can wear the abuse as a special distinction to brag about among their peers.
Posted by: Michael Giesbrecht at Oct 21, 2005 1:06:27 PM
Write thank you notes. By hand. I've found that people won't mind being snubbed if you're too busy, if you write them a nice note within a week.
Posted by: Timothy at Oct 21, 2005 2:17:57 PM
I think part of the reason I've been stuck in grad school for 6+ years is that I valued my advisor's time *too highly*, so I rarely talk to him.
Posted by: Paul N at Oct 21, 2005 2:20:11 PM
5. Use your ipod. Crank up the loud music I suggested and either ignore them when you see their feet in your office, or wave and go back to what you were doing while nodding your head in time to the music as if you thought they were just walking by. Speed metal is good for this.
Seriously, one of the best ways I've found to deal with Time Burglars is to tell them you are busy, and then ask to schedule a time to meet. It solves the immediate problem of the interruption, and actually makes them feel more valued because you show you are willing to make time for them.
Based on my own experience, Aspies either have a really hard time telling you to go away (they just get distressed and act odd), or no problem at all (they don't even pause as they point at the door and tell you to get out). But they never, ever explain. In the first instance (the distress response), they aren't aware of what is causing the distress (really! I have to look for the signs and ask), and in the second, they don't care if you know or not as long as you think about it on the way out. I assume you intend to use this second tactic? Good luck: there's a reason why "Aspie" is frequently pronounced as if it had a double "s".
Posted by: Eric H at Oct 21, 2005 3:07:18 PM
People demanding face time almost always want to structure it -- in their office, in a meeting, at a meal, etc. -- so it's leisurely and escape-proof. If none of the other strategies identified here is appropriate, and it's not the Big Boss, and yet you're going to have to do it, take them up on it instantly and crisply:
--Let's talk now. Now is when I'm available.
--What would you like from me? Exactly?
Don't sit down, and have an escape route to the door.
If they go into a long story, just keep asking, Exactly what do you want? How can I help you until you tell me what you want? Maybe you want to think about it some more. Let me know when we can move it forward. Etc. Etc. You will figure out what works best with your bete noire.
If they want to tell you something complicated that you need to know, ask for an e-mail.
If they ask for something you don't want to concede, ask for time to think about it.
If they honestly just want to enjoy your company, acknowledge sincerely how nice that would be to do some day, when time and circumstances allow.
Once you have worked with the timing, it's Jujitsu. With experience, it can also be crisply and honestly courteous. Most people don't want to be a bore. They just don't know how not to.
Posted by: dilys at Oct 21, 2005 3:32:15 PM
I'm not sure that's it at all. There are two problems. One is that you spend your time doing things that aren't important enough, but that you feel that you are supposed to, and meetings to signal importance is just one example. You might spend your time teaching, where you think research is where you derive the most value, or vice versa. You might attend meetings, you might sit in your office because your boss wants to see you there, even if you don't really have any work to do. I think these are relatively small problems (and often the issue isn't that it isn't important, but that it's not what you want to do.)
I think the second, bigger problem is the interrupt driven workday. Use the standard queing theory model you don't know when you're going to be interrupted, and add to the service time the time it takes to get back deep into work - your just not going to get your utilization up beyond 50-60%. Don't forget to include the arrival of good ideas that need to be developed. I don't know if this is true for academics, but in the real world this dwarfs the effects of the first problem.
Solutions:
1. Schedule blocks of interruptable and uninterruptable time.
2. Make the uniterruptable blocks as long as possible. Stop meeting people for lunch. Instead, meet people in 2 shifts around dinner time (coffee/drinks) etc.
3.
Posted by: Anand H at Oct 21, 2005 3:39:33 PM
A strange question for an economists who writes a blog inviting comments. But still the answer is straightforward: be rude and expect reciprocation.
Posted by: David Sisk at Oct 21, 2005 3:42:19 PM
Only an academic would have trouble resolving this "problem"! :-)
Your time has value to you, and your minute-to-minute happiness has value to you. The good opinion that another person holds of you may have more or less value to you, depending on the person. If the person's good opinion is worth more to you in any given situation than the time and happiness you would have to give up to get it, then you should be happy to pay the face time. Switch the values, and you should not care whether the person is miffed. There are of course multiple variations, since different situations bring different face-time costs, people respond with varying levels of good or ill will, people have different levels of risk aversion when it comes to offending others whose good will may someday be of value, and some are more skillful than others at getting more good will at less cost. But the basic calculation is pretty intuitive for us non-eggheads.
Now, maybe your question is, How can I develop the skill of getting more good will at less cost? I think, at this stage of your life, your time is too just valuable for it to be worth the effort of developing that skill. You won't get a positive return on the time invested. Just work with the skill level you have and calculate accordingly.
Posted by: John at Oct 21, 2005 4:59:14 PM
Too busy to socialize at lunch? Sounds like poor time management. Or you just don't enjoy socializing all that much.
I used to think that just putting my nose to grind stone was the way to get ahead - then I realized that making time to network with people was essential to success. I now structure my time in ways to accomodate normal social behaviour, such as arriving at work very early and doing the work that I need to do undisturbed in the morning. This way the rest of day is free to be interrupted at will by those pesky employees, who deserve face time with me :)
Posted by: Gregory at Oct 21, 2005 6:12:33 PM
TC: Imagine a visiting professor comes to give a seminar, but you can't find time for lunch. Lunch would have been chit-chat anyway, but now the professor feels you don't value his research -- or him -- very much.
Yikes. I know the Department of Economics at George Mason University is almost 100% monosexual. But even though it's almost unheard of in econ@gmu, there are women professors out there!
Posted by: Deb at Oct 21, 2005 7:53:45 PM
Deb, would you rather Tyler use the Spivak pronouns?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spivak_pronoun
I thought it was customary to allow a writer to choose the generic pronoun that matches his own gender. :)
Posted by: Jason Briggeman at Oct 21, 2005 9:13:28 PM
The problem with claiming Aspergers is that there's no possible way to pronounce it without sounding like "ass-burgers".
Posted by: Bergamot at Oct 22, 2005 1:36:43 AM
Another thought: Reduce demand for your facetime. I've found that being boring works extremely well with all genders.
Posted by: John B. Chilton at Oct 22, 2005 3:56:07 AM
Another aproach would be simply to make more time by doing less. As a budhist lama once told me, "we keep accelerating our lives, trying to finish all our tasks, but new tasks always come up". Tasks should be read in an existencial sense, here, obviously. Self-imposed tasks such as getting rich, or famous, or writing about every phenomenon we see, etc.
Posted by: träsel at Oct 22, 2005 9:04:18 PM
#2 works great for dating multiple people simultaneously.
Posted by: bago at Oct 22, 2005 10:38:35 PM
