multislacking.

as of late, boss lady has developed a new habit: reading her mail during meetings. mid-issue, mid-idea, mid-collective discussion, she will pick up a pile of snail mail, rest it on her lap or table space and sift through it, opening envelopes and occassionally holding something up for a closer look. now, it should be duly noted that this is a substantial breakthrough from her previous behavior: sitting at her desk reading emails while pretending to listen as the meeting carried on without her, in her office.

i suppose the idea that we are sitting in her office with the physical presence of her somewhat human form somehow assures her that she too is a contributing team member. or if not, at least it attempts to feed her incessant curiosity of what exactly we all "do." regeardless, she has gone from one level of ineffectiveness to a truly impressive upper tier of nonfunctionality.

there was an article in the huffington post this summer about a study at stanford university exposing the futility of multitasking. it stated that "multitaskers are more easily distracted and less able to ignore irrelevant information than people who do less multitasking." irrelevant information, eh? "they couldn't ignore stuff that doesn't matter. they love stuff that doesn't matter." i see.

i actually read a similar article on an arts blog about a year ago and consequently tried to quash my own multitasking tendencies. i had to employ my left hand to extract my right wrist from the mouse when people appeared at my desk with a question. i also tried to turn my entire head including my eyeballs away from the monitor when i replied. this lasted about a week. but i still think about it and try to limit my nonfunctional multitasking urges.

unfortunately, i don't think boss lady will ever attempt the same self-discipline. i am pretty sure she combs her hair once a month.