Hurry up and wait. . .

I think the first time I ever heard the phrase was shortly after I hit the ‘Boot Camp’ in 1971, I may have heard it before that, but I don’t recall it that way.

The Navy seemed famous for demanding we be somewhere, at some particular time, usually under threat of disciplinary action if we were not there at the assigned time. We’d go through whatever was necessary to get there, on time, and nearly always would end up standing around, waiting for who ever ‘demanded’ we be there to show up and let us know ‘why’ we were there.

It’s funny, I don’t recall ever having to be anywhere before that, except to work, at a specific time, and for me anyway, when I got to work, there was no waiting around, there was always something to start right in on. The concept of hurrying, to later wait, never even crossed my mind until my stint in the military.

It’s returned intermittently over the years, but lately it seems to have invaded everything I end up involved in!

The latest was a series of interviews I did, through a recruiter, for a company looking for a FoxPro expert. Prior to the first interview, there was a lot of discussion about ‘how fast can you start’, ‘the client isn’t going to want to wait’, etc… as there often is, but this time things progressed past that stage and on to the second interview.

In the first interview the call was within a minute of the time they’d agreed to call, the second was 15 minutes after the agreed upon time…. The interview went well, and I got a sense that the manager was looking at me for a broader role than the one I’d originally started interviewing for… after the fact, the recruiter confirmed that the person interviewing me had actually indicated exactly that in her summary of our interview.

Again there was a ‘you will be ready to move on this’ type of discussion, and again I’d confirmed my timeframes.

It’s been two weeks today since that interview, last week the company said we’d all talk on Wednesday, then on Wednesday moved that discussion to this morning… and today, it’s been moved off until next week.

I’m not quite sure what to make of all of this, initial urgent, pressing needs talk…. Followed by a rather lengthy ‘lull’ period post interview… the recruiter assures me I’m still in the game… that it’s not a matter of if, but when… If that’s true, I’m wondering now how ‘urgently’ I should be willing to transition… 2 weeks? 3 weeks? 4?

It’s not just this one incident; by the way, it seems life has taken that course over the years.

Doctor’s offices complain if you’re late, but if you’re on time, they have no problem letting you sit for an hour or more because the “Dr is running late”… if they expect a call from me, if *I’m running late, shouldn’t they extend the same courtesy to the Doc’s patients? After all we *are the ones paying the bill… and their salaries, the office rent etc…. Hell, if my cable company is running late, not only do they call, they give me a $10 credit on my account for my inconvenience!!

I find myself wondering when this shift occurred. When everyone, especially business folks, became so ‘all important’? I know it wasn’t always this way.

When I was a sales rep, my customers would almost always apologize if they’d kept me waiting when we had an appointment. I know that if I was running at all late, I would find a pay phone (remember those?) and call in, even if it meant I’d be a few minutes later. If for no other reason, than to let them know I respected their time at least as much as they respected mine.

When my wife was in the hospital recently, and she’d been instructed to not get out of bed without one of the nursing staff present, I went out to the nurse’s station (after pressing the call button and waiting 5 minutes) to request someone come to assist her to the bathroom… when I made my request I was told, and I quote

“Someone will be there as soon as we finish our reports”

I looked at the nurse who said that to me and replied

“I’m sorry, I must not have made myself clear, someone, will come with me, right frickin NOW, or I’ll have the hospital administrator up here explaining to me why reports are more important than you caring for my wife!”

Amazingly enough, ‘someone’, came right to the room with me.

Why were those reports more important than the patient? How many other calls were going unanswered? When did it become acceptable to provide care when it was convenient? I know it hasn’t always been that way.

Have we all become so disconnected in our electronic ‘space’ that we’re forgetting those intrapersonal skills we learned as kids? Do kids today learn those skills? Have video games, the internet, email, cell phones, text messages and the like so disconnected us from being human that we fail to see the ‘human side’ any more?

If so, then the promise of a smaller world as the result of ‘connectivity’ is a long way from fruition… the world may be ‘smaller’ in that we can reach out and touch folks around the globe almost effortlessly… if we lose sight of who’s on the other end of that contact though… what’s the point?

I’m waiting patiently to hear about the gig… patiently because I’m working… if I wasn’t I’d be snatching up the first gig that came my way. I wouldn’t be telling the other client to ‘hurry up’ though; I’d just take the first solid offer that came my way.

I remember the day I came to this gig, earlier in the day, I’d had another interview. At the close of the interview the fellow said:

“You should be aware I’ll be interviewing other candidates”

To which I replied:

“Thanks for making me aware of that, you should also be aware I’ll be interviewing other clients as well”

When they called me back in 10 days, I told them I’d already taken an assignment. The client (as well as the recruiter) was pretty upset, inferring that I should have ‘waited’ while they made up their mind. I remember thinking that had I waited, they might have never called back. They were, after all, interviewing others.

I don’t really have any answers, just more questions about this issue. I’ve thought about it quite a bit lately, but no clear, “ah-hah!!” has come to me… maybe it’s the general continuation of the *me generation sliding into more of the fabric of daily life… maybe it’s just the over all pace of life in general… I just don’t know.

I do know, I don’t like the trend though!

What do you think?


Technorati Tags: Life - Trends - Observations - Software Development
-IceRocket Tags: Software Development - Observations - Trends - Life