You’re not really that busy. Stop lying.

Look, to a certain extent we all love to be busy — it gives us a feeling equivalent to being high. I get it.

But you’ve all probably worked with one (or more!) guy or girl who is constantly using how busy they are as an excuse to do absolutely nothing else at all. This person does this even though no one has any clue what their output actually is. They can usually get away with it because of one of these factors:

• They are close with someone high up
• It’s a dick move to outright ask someone “Well, what are you even doing today?”
• No one knows how long anything takes in a digitally-driven economy

The forms this takes

You: “Hey, Person A, can you help me with this project that seems pretty important?”

Person A: “Wish I could but digging out of my emails! I’m at 1,500!”

Or:

You: “Hey Person A, could I get that document from you that you were supposed to send six days ago?”

Person A: “Sure, but I’m slammed with client engagements through next Friday. It’s on my radar, though! Always something!”

In Situation 1, you walk past them “digging out of emails” and notice they’re in a heated Facebook Messenger exchange with…