This trend has become so common in the workplace over the last 10-15 years. Rarely a day goes by when I don't have some colleague tell me they're "busy" or "swamped" or "runnin' around like crazy" or "up to my eyeballs" or the worst one ever "crazy busy". I've been in the workforce for almost 25 years and I have seen this develop from its infancy. "I'm busy" has always been around to be sure. But it used to be rarer to hear that answer to the question "How are you?". Here is what I'm thinking when someone tells me they're busy in response to a polite greeting:

1. You have no confidence in yourself or the position you hold so you feel the need to constantly justify yourself.
2. You're a disorganized mess.
3. You mindlessly follow the herd.
4. You are setting the stage to not complete tasks or follow through with things in the future by trying to train the rest of us into believing you have more to do than than is humanly possible.
5. You've never read the book "Why Business People Speak Like Idiots" - a guide to avoiding trendy, meaningless cliches.

If you say you're "crazy busy", you can take each of those points and multiply it by ten to describe yourself.

I would like to send every follower of the busy boat to Dalton in Road House. He'd put an end to their shenanigans.

DALTON: I'm telling you, things are going to change around here. It's my way or the highway.
BUSYBODY: But Dalton, we're working as hard as we can already. For example, I'm behind the bar nights and I'm already super busy.
DALTON: If you say that again, one of my bouncers - who will be nice - will escort you to the door. I will then yank out the guts of your throat with my right hand. Any other questions?

You are looking for the polite response to your greeting and are now finding out that people are taking you literally.

You say: Hello. How are you?

Response from back in the day: I'm fine, thank you, and you?.........even though at that exact moment they are thinking about jumping off a bridge.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed that post lol mainly because my/our assistant does this all the fricken time.

"Hey, how are you?"
"Ooooomg I'm soooo busy"
And then I just leave. Cool talk!

I know more than a few people who feel the need to make sure everyone knows how busy they are.

When I here "How are you?" my go-to response is "happy to be here"

#4 sums up a lot of my coworkers.

Too busy to give a thoughtful reply

BRF;1838419 wrote:You are looking for the polite response to your greeting and are now finding out that people are taking you literally.

You say: Hello. How are you?

Response from back in the day: I'm fine, thank you, and you?.........even though at that exact moment they are thinking about jumping off a bridge.

I don't think people respond "busy" because they are taking my question literally. Societal norm says "how are you" is synonymous with "hello". I think they say "busy" because of one of the four reasons I listed. At the very least, they say it because they hear it so often from others that they don't want to appear to be the only one that isn't busy.

Maybe busy is code for "I dont want to speak with you, please leave me alone"

salto;1838442 wrote:When I here "How are you?" my go-to response is "happy to be here"

huh

I thought it would be "drunk as can be"

Or maybe they're just really busy.

I vote #2 then #4.

Spock;1838464 wrote:huh

I thought it would be "drunk as can be"

I've not been anything near "drunk" since the tOSU vs. UM football game.


Hope this helps.

Talked about this with a student/athlete yesterday. Told them that life is not much different than it was when I was growing up. In the summer it was sports, work, sports, sports, fun/play, sleep, repeat. And that was what we did, and we were OK. Nowadays, that same "grind" just seems "too much" for kids. Don't get me wrong... I think WAY too much emphasis is on summer workouts for athletics (and non-summer off-seasons), but put up or shut up.

If I say it, it can mean one of two things:

1. You happen to have caught me at a busy time.
2. Leave me alone. I have things I want to be doing, and I won't be making time for your bullshit.

O-Trap;1838598 wrote:If I say it, it can mean one of two things:

1. You happen to have caught me at a busy time.
2. Leave me alone. I have things I want to be doing, and I won't be making time for your bullshit.

Pretty much. #2 is a primary usage of that term for me. Makes me wonder if I've ever worked with Dr. O'Boogie, as the #2 reason would definitely get utilized if stuck talking to someone whose response to it would be a multi-paragraph rant about it.