How many job applicants are encouraged to be good multi-taskers by the companies hoping to hire them? Are those companies hiring the dummies at the expense of good employees and then bemoaning the results? As Forrest Gump's mama observed, "Stupid is as stupid does." It's probably important to pinpoint who, precisely, is stupid in this equation.
Multitasking “produces shallower thinking, reduces creativity,
increases errors and lowers our ability to block irrelevant
information,” says Dr Sandra Bond Chapman, founder and chief director,
Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas, via email.
Because the brain was not built to multitask, over time it can lead to
heightened levels of stress and depression and lower overall
intellectual capacity, she says.
Yet
despite mounting evidence that multitasking isn’t effective, old
attitudes combined with new technology make juggling prevalent in most
work places. [BBC]
Met a career coach today whose conclusion was that I ought to be meditating.
ReplyDeleteLove to learn the specifics prompting this Rant/Post.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that multitasking is most often relegated to lower level, clerical workers for the most part. A sample task set -- receptionist duties: check people in, answer phones, do data entry, type letters, make appointments. In this case in poorly run offices overload is likely. A well run office would never allow a receptionist to lose composure as the loss of equanimity is a very bad sign.
I don't see professionals doing much multi-tasking besides taking priority calls during an appointment.
Is having a case load multitasking? Not really.
Is working on multiple projects sequentially multitasking. Not really.
I conclude that in any job if one is actually told to multitask that job should be left ASAP. It is not a well run business. Ion top of the impossibility of being even remotely successful, it would be highly likely that the supervisor or manager would be abusive.
I do see "workers" stare at their cell phones claiming they are multitasking. Ha!