Something’s happened to our expectations. In my lifetime, I have seen the expectation of a response in business dwindle down from two days to no more than a few hours. Mostly, it’s my web friends to blame. Offline-only people don’t seem as frantic about their pace, but my connections via the web? If two or three hours pass between the time I receive a direct message on Twitter, or an email, I’ll get the opposite piece of correspondence asking me if I received the message (If someone sends me a tweet, I’ll get an email asking if I received it, and vice versa). Text messages slip past my screen asking if I saw the email come in.
When did we start expecting this kind of turnaround? When did we all opt to be Pavlov to the dinging bell? Who said this was how business gets done?
Equally interesting is that this seems to be the expecation regardless of time of day, and on weekends as well. I received a query on Saturday evening, and found a somewhat more anxious email in my box before noon on Sunday.
We’re all to blame. It’s no one person’s fault. But it doesn’t have to be like this. We can reinstate boundaries and manage expectations. Business has to move fast, but do we really want the future where we’re all tethered to Twitter?
Not even I want that.
Photo credit Deja V Maker
