CMU School of Drama


Friday, April 25, 2014

Why You Need to Stop Bragging About How Busy You Are

Fast Company | Business + Innovation: Do you rush through the morning paper, barely skimming the headlines while answering emails and making kids’ lunches? Do you compete with coworkers over how late you stay at the office each night?
When journalist Brigid Schulte found herself immersed in one of the most hectic, time-crunched industries, she, like many of her busy coworkers, was feeling overworked and overwhelmed by the demands of her work and home life.

9 comments:

Camille Rohrlich said...

We could all benefit from this advice, especially in the SOD where the culture is all about working long hours. I think that part of the reason why we have that problem here is because crew and shows happen at night, so no matter what students (and some faculty) have to stay up late, it's part of the job description. Despite that, I think that we could definitely make a school-wide effort to change that. I've gotten to a point where I generally don't feel that overworked or stressed, but as soon as there's more crew hours or more work to be done it becomes difficult to balance it all since we spend so much time in class. While I'm not saying that the solution is less crew or less homework, I think that both of those factors validate this idea people have here that they should be working all the time. This was especially true for me freshman year, when I had less crew but didn't know yet how to balance work with other life things. I'm not sure how we could change the SOD culture, especially on the DP side of things, but it would be hugely helpful to all students.

Joseph Essig said...

I don't think anyone but the person complaining cares about how busy you are--loved ones who could help ya through it being the an exception, it is good to talk out some things--mostly because just about everyone who is at least half-attempting to be successful in life is busy. Talking about it will certainly not help the amount of work that has to be done, it's just better to DO IT. I do agree with the article's idea that businesses should not reward those who are overworked; one, because it is not healthy, and two, the quality of work is sure to be less than the best. Only people who are comfortable with their personal lives off the job have more to bring back in with them to work the next day; a more positive attitude, a good night's sleep, and time to cultivate a mindful and productive life, where productive does not mean logging a buncha menial work hours, but taking time to care for yourself as an individual before bringing that ripened, sunny personality back into the office for errybody to enjoy.

Carolyn Mazuca said...

It's interesting to hear the backstory of the "busy culture" we see so often in Purnell as well as seeing how workplaces are trying to change that. The truth is, that when people work in the same x amount of hours everyday, they seem to be less stressed and more productive, even in Purnell. The sad thing is that I still see from upperclassmen that sometimes even through their four years at CMU they are still trying to figure out how to balance all the busy things in life. I agree with Camille that we should work on changing the "busy culture" in SOD to a more positive approach on completing tasks at hand.

Albert Cisneros said...

This is interesting. I think what annoys me the most about "workload competition" within the school of drama is how people will endlessly complain to you about how busy they are. Look, we get it, we are all busy, we don't need to hear about your shit as well. Now that finals are looming over us and most of our final projects are well underway, I try to avoid asking people how they are doing because I know the answer is going to be some negative comment on how much work they have to do. Looking at this article I have mixed thoughts on how I judge my life in terms of workload and a life outside of studio. I feel that in our case here at Carnegie Mellon it is important to have a life outside of the school of drama, but at the same time we are paying a lot of money to be here, so the work here should be our main priority. In the future I hope to have a more balanced work and life schedule. Home will hopefully be a place to fall back on from the stress and work of my career.

Olivia LoVerde said...

Complaining about how much work you have to the people you are working with is just plan dumb. THEY ARE DOING THE SAME THING YOU ARE. Especially within out school of drama community, every freshman DP is doing the same projects and has the same amount of time to do it. You complaining about what you have to do is like talking to yourself because the other person is going through it too. I think another major problem in the SOD is the design and production people comparing what they have to the actors or MTs. There is a lot of talk that we do more work and have more assignments but that is simply not true. I have seen so many people stuck in purnell working late on one assignment or another. Complaining about work just wastes time of actually doing the work.

Philip Rheinheimer said...

This article really hits home with me. Carnegie Mellon definitely has the attitude that sleep is for the weak and the harder and longer your work, the better you are. I totally disagree with this idea and really agree with what this article has to say and I think we could all learn from it. Just because you don't sleep and work all the time doesn't mean you are a better student or a better worker. It might be that you are just working inefficiently. Finishing early doesn't mean you did a worse job than someone who spent all night working, you just managed your time better and worked more efficiently. Everyone at Carnegie Mellon, especially DPs, should have to read this article and hopefully change their mindset. Especially because this mindset is actually incredibly unhealthy. Pulling all nighters isn't just unpleasant, its damaging to your health. This is an issue that I think deserves more attention both from the students but also the entire school community.

AnnaAzizzyRosati said...

YES! Everyone should read this! In the beginning of the year, I admit, it was kind of fun and exciting to be so busy, and I loved to talk about it and let everyone know, "HEY YOU! I've been awake for three days, yo. Beat that."
And then the other person just says in their head, "Ok, I've been sleeping fairly well recently. beat that."
I quickly learned that people couldn't care one stitch about how busy you are. I've tried my best to stop talking about it at all. The person sitting next to me doesn't need to know what homework I have or how little I've slept. Since I've made the conscious decision to STOP telling everyone how terrible my life is I've noticed two things.

First of all, that's what 90% of conversations are, especially amongst DPs. We complain. A lot. And it creates a stigma around people in our major that we are unapproachable because if you try to talk to us we will instantly let you know how much busier we are than you. We will make SURE you know that last night we pulled an all nighter. Why do we like appearing to be in a constant state of crisis? It just makes doing work suck even more.

Secondly, I learned how to take a break from doing work. Maybe this is the opposite of what I should be doing as an obedient student, but I've tried to allow myself to prioritize things like riding my bike in circles for 30 minutes, listening to a new album, or going to a show. Although we may be students with way more work that is humanly possible, I don't think we deserve to hate our lives and deprive ourselves from things like sunlight. As the article stated, these breaks can make your working time even more productive!

Well, that was a long rant, but this article did a great job of addressing something that had been bothering me all semester. I really do hope everyone in my class reads this!

Unknown said...

I think that most of the people who have already commented on this have pretty much nailed the gist of it. You're busy, I'm busy, he's busy, she's busy. We get it. Stop bitching about it, just do something about it. It's not going to help anybody to hear about your problems that will just be over with and forgotten about in a week. So do yourself a favor, sack up, and go work. That's the best thing you can do for yourself, or for anyone.

Unknown said...

This article has so many great points. The idea of working very productively for a short amount of time to leave time for reflection and digestion of the amazing things out in the real world is a great concept. However, it often feels impossible in an environment that begs so much of us. It is very interesting that individuals who are more productive for short periods of time are more successful than individuals who spend many many hours working. It makes sense on one hand but in other ways it is sort of discouraging. It makes sense that the effort needs to be top-down and involve a culture shift. In theatre, where generally most artists work freelance, moving from one company to the next, who is there to provide this culture shift? I would be interested to talk to successful directors and designers and see which habits they themselves are caught in. How do they limit the amount of work they have if they do try to keep time for themselves?