Brownian E-motion

One of the most common American management fallacies is that it doesn't matter what you're doing, as long as you're in motion.

Look busy ... look energized ... look enthusiastic ... go, go, go! Run, run, run!

Of course, if you're thrashing about in a constant frenzy, there's one thing that you are most definitely not doing --

thinking.

The ubiquitous electronic leash, otherwise known as e-mail, cellphone, pager, or Blackberry, does nothing to help this situation.

Instead, interruptions, diversions, and distractions become a constant.

Gatekeepers are completely absent from the environment [there's no limit on the number of emails, demands, claims on one's time that can be made on any given day].

Attempts to prioritize tasks or focus on any particular task are undermined both overtly and covertly by the organizational culture [which usually seems to paint anyone who insists on taking time to think about what they are working on as 'inflexible', or somehow 'negative'. God help any poor soul who actually verbalizes a desire to work on anything without interruption].

As a result, the difficulty of ever getting anything actually done results in frantic corner-cutting to complete tasks before the next interruptor lands;

which in turn results in errors;

which in turn result in the need for amendments and revisions and corrections [updated reports, patches to the code, revisions to the plans, changes in the blueprints, etc.];

thus, in a self-fulfilling prophecy, assuring that it is impossible to ever get anything actually done.

And we wonder what causes burnout.