Are You Thinking?
I started in my position as Web Development Manager about four and a half months ago. The corporate website was disorganized, impossible to navigate, inconsistent on different browser types, bloated, graphic intensive, and slow. The intranets, every single one of the dozens of them, were worse. My task to consolidate, reorganize, redesign, and reinvent these tragically useless websites is monumental, at best.
I’m a pacer. I nibble the bottom half of my lip when I ponder the possibilities of rearchitecture and reorganization. My whiteboards are a tool I use constantly, despite the noxious smell of the Expo dry-erase pens that I always seem to be using, scribbling my latest ideas and visions. I am slowly making headway in correcting the huge list of browser-accessible trash heaps we call websites.
I’ve had no less than six people ask me today, “Are you thinking?”
They obviously have no idea how stupid that question is. I’m not exactly saving lives here, but I’m contributing to the bottom line of the organization as best I can, wading through bureaucracy, usability references, internationalization guidelines, viewing the potential solutions with a global perspective, attempting to shake the historically US-centric focus. Disturbing my concentration in order to ask me such a meaningless questions is a waste of my time and theirs.
The fact that they asked me the question indicates that they have a pretty good idea what I am doing in the first place. Why do they feel the need to ask me? When I’m asked, “Are you thinking?”, the first thing that comes to mind is, “Well, yes! At least, I was until you derailed my train of thought!”
It’s almost as dumb as calling your friend at 4:00 a.m. in the morning and asking, “Were you sleeping?” Maybe I should surprise one of them in the cafeteria as they chow down on their burritos, their Chinese chicken salad, their club sandwiches. “Are you eating?”
