{"id":8660,"date":"2022-01-04T15:29:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:29:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8660"},"modified":"2022-01-04T15:29:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-04T15:29:25","slug":"multitasking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=8660","title":{"rendered":"Multitasking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Temple in Singapore\/Steve Jurvetson\/flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been wondering who started this? Who was the bright spark that thought it would be a good thing to claim that \u2018women are better at multitasking\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wish to mount a strong challenge and expose the fallacy \u2013 not that women are incapable of multitasking, rather that the concept itself is ridiculous. Just how easy is it to do more than one thing at a time, if you want to do something properly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s keep it simple to start off with. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all read the newspaper while eating breakfast \u2013 an obvious example of multitasking. The result? Jam on the paper, egg down your front, and crumbs on the floor as you wave your toast around while turning the page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How many times have you had someone walk straight into you as they update their status on Facebook? And let\u2019s not forget the woman who actually walked off the end of a pier in Melbourne while glued to her smartphone. How about cycling and listening to music on your cool new buds? The result – a near fatal accident as you don\u2019t hear the idiot on the motorbike roar past you at 80 mph until he\u2019s far too close for comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now come on, I hear you say, that\u2019s not what it\u2019s really about. Multitasking applies to being able to make complex management decisions while instructing your team at work while you choose which pair of new boots to buy from your favourite online store. Oh yeah? So how come you managed to simultaneously add a nought to the sales figures, agree to the appointment of an office assistant even though there is a blanket ban on all new staff – and end up with a pair of lime green bejewelled flip flops instead of the knee high black leather boots?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking all this into consideration, I\u2019m rather dubious as to the implications of placing women on the multitasking pedestal. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything to aspire to. After all, wasn\u2019t the banking crisis a prime example of testosterone fuelled attempts at multitasking? A bunch of overpaid gamblers were given free rein \u2013 and still are \u2013 to invent new and unproved mathematical formulae. These were then used to manipulate pension funds, personal savings, mortgages and loans. The classic image of the banker at his screen shows a person frantically making a number of decisions simultaneously that all concern someone else\u2019s money. What of course is really going on inside his head is just how he is going to spend his latest bonus. Will it be a yacht or that cute villa in Tuscany? A fine bit of multitasking, and look where it got us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I\u2019m done with multitasking for both women and men. Instead I\u2019d like to propose a more considered approach where we don\u2019t all pretend that we can pay our credit card bill online while cooking supper and booking a holiday. I mean, with a nod to John Betjeman, did you really want to go Slough for a fortnight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a pair of lime green bejewelled flip flops instead of the knee high black leather boots<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,63,67,55,56,59],"tags":[76,80,97,92,82],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8660"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8663,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8660\/revisions\/8663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}