Busy As A Status

Most people are busier than they want to be at this time of year.  To a person, every single co-worker told me that they were exhausted today from all of the holiday running about, stress and added activities. The people I work with are pretty real folks and I like them a lot because of this.  No one here does the 'busy as a status' routine because, frankly, we all work hard and are busy.  We do not feel the need to create 'busy'.  But I know people who do and I'll bet you do, too.  You know the one.

 Their cell phone is constantly buzzing or burping or chirping or whirring.  I used to wonder why this was happening to them because most of the time, my cell phone is as quiet as a crypt.  This is because, I have discovered, I have not employed the 'alerts' that come with so many apps, for example Facebook.  I have not employed these alerts because I do not care where someone is dining or the score they just earned on Candy Crush or how far they ran today.  I'm an introvert and there is way too much noise in my head to ever want to jump into someone else's.  It's not that I am self-interested.  My head is full of Wall Street Journal columns or a book I'm reading or a problem I'm trying to solve or how many miles I need to run and I just don't have time to think about the cute shoes an acquaintance just purchased or view yet another "Selfie" - the highest form of navel- examination yet.

The people who inflict 'busy as a status' on the innocent believe that their phone going bonkers day and night proves to the world that they are important.  Or loved.  Or interesting.  Or a workaholic. Or whatever they wish they were but are not.

One evening not long ago I attended a pre-wedding dinner for a bride in her forties.  The entire time our group of seven was at the restaurant, her phone was sending her endless alerts that interrupted every single conversation.  She had to answer them, of course, incredibly important and in demand as she was.  When it came to work, I always thought she must be a crazy workaholic because whenever I was with her, she had 'work phone things' that always interrupted any social occasion  A week after her wedding she was fired from her job.

I was shocked by this and when I ran into her co-worker, expressed my disbelief.  The co-worker smiled and said that the bride worked from home and the company did occasional IT checks on the remote workers to make sure they were actually working.  Turns out, she was working about 15 hours a week and being paid for 40. It seems she spent the other 25 hours on Facebook.  She was making 80K a year and she gave it all up for 'Busy As Status'.

Aside from the obvious rudeness of  this behavior - interrupting social gatherings, conversations and peace and quiet - it's a referendum on the personality of the offender.  "Busy As A Status' is a vulgar expression of self-involvement and narcissism, without even getting to the shallowness of it all.  It's gotten so that I avoid people who do this and I'm sure I'm not alone.  If you have to prove this ardently that your time is so in demand, you have an empty head and, perhaps, a small heart.  And stop pointing that camera at yourself.  Narcissus loved his own reflection so much, that it killed him.  There is a lesson to be learned here.