BUSY BODY

Deadlines, meetings, family commitments, personal errands... With a never-ending list of things to do, we have to ask: Is all this activity leading us to success, or is it deterring us from living the life we truly want?

- KARISHMA TULSIDAS

Leaving at 6pm, ah? Half day today?” This was a common refrain at one of my previous jobs. At my first proper job as a writer, my boss once told me ominously: “I know what time you leave…” What she meant was, she knew that I left work at 7pm on the dot (our work hours were from 11am to 7pm), while my colleagues would stay till 2 or 3am.

Looking back, I realise now that leaving on time meant that I was meeting my deadlines adequately and managing my time effectively – but back then, the implication was that my good performance counted for naught because I didn’t do OT (or over time, for those of you lucky enough not to know this term).

I ended up internalising these seemingly innocuous jabs, and they led me to believe that being constantly active and working till 11pm every night meant that I was being productive, efficient, and worthy of climbing the career ladder.

And I know I am not alone. In Singapore, the typical response to “How are you?” is “Busy”, and we wear that busyness like a badge of honour. “[We say busy] almost as a brag, or as a statement that shows [we] are part of the professional elite," says Mette Johansson, founder of Singapore-based career consultancy Metamind.

Research in the US has shown that people who are perceived as busy are rated higher on the social status scale. Writing for the Harvard Business Review, researchers Silvia Bellezza, Neeru Paharia, and Anat Keinan posit that "the more we believe that one has the opportunity for success based on hard work, the more we tend to think that people who skip leisure and work all the time are of higher standing".