Comments on: Because I are one

By: Deus Ex Macintosh

Deus Ex Macintosh — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:24:35 +0000

Memo to bargers ... learn to share. Deus Ex Macintosh's last blog post..Back to the Future

By: Fine

Fine — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:20:02 +0000

Ariane, I guess I’m saying you always need to leave time for the FUM , as you so aptly describe them. Sometimes friends tell me what they have planned for the day. And I go…ain’t gunna happen, ‘cos somewhere along the line things will take longer than you imagine and you’ll be held up in traffic or your train will be late etc etc… So, in that sense I agree with you. But the solution is more about people organising their time sensibly and not over scheduling.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:30:34 +0000

@Fine - that's why I said perhaps we need to have more slack in the day, if a schedule only ever allows for 15 minutes for a 15 minute journey, sometimes it will take 20 minutes. If you do that 3 times your day is shot. The idea that every minute of every day must be accounted for is fundamentally flawed. I still have a tendency to not leave enough FUM, being busy doing other stuff. It doesn't work, it causes completely unnecessary stress. And I am not dismissing legitimate stuff in your head, just that often the stress people think is coming from external pressure is actually coming from their own anxiety (like it generally is with me). That doesn't dismiss it, it just changes how best to react to it. Ariane's last blog post..Vale Spike Jones

By: Fine

Fine — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:48:53 +0000

Leeway time of 15 minutes just isn’t going to cut it. Say someone has an appointments on a half hourly basis and the meetings are regularly 15 minutes late. Not long for your whole day to be thrown out. and it all turns to chaos.

However, I agree the reasons for lack of punctuality are nothing to do with people walking slowly etc. It’s all to do with bad organisational skills.

By: hexy

hexy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:12:31 +0000

the problem is entirely in the head of the pressed for time

*points to previous comment*

Sometimes the stuff inside one’s head is far more significant than anything going on outside the cranium.

Personal gripe. I’m sick of “it’s all in your head” being used as a dismissive phrase. It’s incredibly ableist and silencing of people with mental and neurological disorders, disabilities and illnesses.

By: Ariane

Ariane — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:08:34 +0000

As a recovering Busy Person, I don't think the problem is so much that we think we are so bloody important, it's that we think whatever errand we are on is so bloody important - far more important than ourselves or anyone else. The logic is clearly flawed, but it is an easy trap to fall into. I completely agree with the being late thing. Being late is rarely anywhere near as big a deal as we think it is, and on the few occasions that it really matters, leave a huge FUM*. But there is a prevailing attitude in the business world that a few minutes late is unacceptable, and that is just plain ridiculous. Either there needs to be more slack built into the corporate day, or we have to accept up to 15 minute delays based on the fact that the universe does not exist solely for our own convenience. Nobody walking slowly can genuinely delay anyone by any appreciable amount of time, the problem is entirely in the head of the pressed for time Busy Person. I am currently trying to kick it out of my head entirely, but failing that, making sure I keep it in my own head and don't share around my neuroses. :) *Fuck Up Margin Ariane's last blog post..Vale Spike Jones

By: Mindy

Mindy — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:20:54 +0000

No, busy people don’t have the right to touch me, push me out of their way, abuse me or in any other way be an asshole to me because I’m walking slowly. There could be multiple reasons why I’m walking slowly. Maybe I’m just out of hospital after an op, maybe I’m holding my child’s hand and walking at their pace, maybe I’m always slow because I can’t help it. You can stop being rude and not willing to wait a few moments to get past. Some people would love to be able to stride down the street, but they can’t. So suck it up because they are people to with every right to use the footpath.

BTW – late for a job interview. Not my fault. It is highly unlikely that the few seconds it takes for there to be a gap for you to walk through is going to make you late for your job interview, and more likely your own fault that you are late and looking to blame someone else.

Busy people have a right to exist, but not to make my life or anyone else’s life a misery because they think they are so bloody important. Plan your time better, be early, factor some time in so you don’t have to push past people and be rude, have some bloody consideration and hope to gods that it’s never you who can’t walk fast.

By: Jemima Aslana

Jemima Aslana — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 02:16:33 +0000

So busy people don’t have the right to exist? Is that it?

By: Mindy

Mindy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:50:35 +0000

How about ‘insisting on my right to exist’.

By: Lauredhel

Lauredhel — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:30:56 +0000

Aren’t you a little extreme here?

Sure. Extreme, angry, oversensitive, uppity, demanding special treatment, and dripping with victim mentality. Did I miss anything?