When you feel as though you’re not meeting a deadline, it can be extremely stressful. That is, if you’re like me and you like to meet your deadlines. It doesn’t seem as though everyone does.
But given the amount of anxiety they produce, it surprises me the number of arbitrary deadlines I come across on a regular basis. For example, one of the rules here at work is that the window blinds must be dusted by the 2nd of each month. Why? What would happen if they don’t get done until the third? Will the dust bunnies stage a coup? What if the 2nd is your day off? Why isn’t it good enough to say that the blinds must be dusted once a month? Can we not be trusted? If so, why were we hired?
No one seems to be able to answer these questions. And there’s nothing that sticks in my craw more than the phrase, “Because we said so.” People are not robots. They like to know why. They want to see how things fit into the bigger picture.
That is, if there even is a bigger picture, besides some fantasy rose-colored world where everyone falls into line, never questions, and does things no matter how random and stupid they are.
End of rant.
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