Going to lose my nut. How do you deal with this?

[Coffeetree]

Happens all the time. Is it a woman thing? Where am I going wrong?

Family member/colleague/client: "Zomg stop what you're doing right now need to ask you something. Zomg now"

Me, gracefully setting a boundary: Just finishing something now but we could speak later today if you wish.

Them: Zomg no now now I'm just going to start asking anyway blah blah blah it'll take a sec.

Me, graciously giving them the benefit of the doubt: okay go ahead.

Them: Question

Me: Okay, that is a quick one. The answer is X

Them: The answer is X?

Me: The answer is X.

Them: yeah but I thought and are you sure and Facebook and my dad but yeah but what and yeah

Me, not at all graciously: That's my answer, bye.

Them: Why you gotta be so impatient and stuck-up like you have no time to talk to anyone.

Me: exploding

What is Zomg? I don’t really know what you’re on about.

@PinkiOcelot

What is Zomg? I don’t really know what you’re on about.

😂 so original

@myotherusernameistaken

let me clear it up for you, you're an idiot for not knowing AND not googling briefly AND/OR being snarky with OP & derailing the thread

@MrsBumm

Excellent - so when someone posts to ask a question that is easily solved by a quick google, (which is a pretty high proportion of posts every day) we are OK to call them idiots?

Don't think so.

Maybe we should all give it a go and just refer @MNHQ to you when they delete our posts.

I don't know why I'm wasting time to explain it AGAIN, but it isn't a simple asking of an innocent question. The tone of the constant repetitive question is derisive, meant to belittle OP and derail the thread.

OP: discussing a situation that may or may not be rooted in sexism

All the PPs referenced by the highlighted comment: wHaT dOeS ZOMG mEaN? YABU to use it, it makes so sense, I can't POSSIBLY understand the post and you must just be trying to show off you're in with the 'cool kids' 🙄

It's like focusing on a spelling or grammar mistake, and just makes one look like an ass

[quote 5zeds]**@RacistAngst* She would also have lost half an hour of her time.* bollocks. It sounds like 5 mins absolute max she just finds their interaction an intrusion and an affront and sees it as a lack of “respect”.[/quote]
Bollocks to your bollocks. I manage software developers. A two minute interruption can trash half an hour or more's work as the stack of things they have in their head at that moment gets trashed and has to be rebuilt.

I expect the same would be true of most people deep into a complex and/or time sensitive piece of work - writing/reading contracts, arranging schedules with lots of interdepencies, in the middle of cooking and so on.

So no, 5 mins is not the whole of the interruption. The side effects can lose you quarter of a day.

@Coffeetree

And not incidentally my male colleague sitting next door never gets interrupted because He's Busy.

Make yourself as uniterruptable as he has.

@Anonymous48

I'm doing much better. The worst culprit tried it today and I pleasantly cut them off with, "I'll be free at 11:30," then went back to typing. They stood there sputtering for a while as I typed, but the went away!!!

And a client started arguing with me about the evidence needed for his appeal, so I said, "That's fine, leave it out. It's your case. I can't grant legal aid in a case which I know will fail so I'll come off record with the court and courier your file to you. Best wishes."

@Coffeetree

And a client started arguing with me about the evidence needed for his appeal, so I said, "That's fine, leave it out. It's your case. I can't grant legal aid in a case which I know will fail so I'll come off record with the court and courier your file to you. Best wishes."

What did they say to that?

They reconsidered.

@Coffeetree

I'm doing much better. The worst culprit tried it today and I pleasantly cut them off with, "I'll be free at 11:30," then went back to typing. They stood there sputtering for a while as I typed, but the went away!!!

I told you it works

@MolyHolyGuacamole you're doing the Lord's work

I'm on one or two forums on Facebook which relate to my area of work expertise. Time and again I post a response to a query, e.g "You should use ABC paintbrush because (reasons) then move on to XYZ paintbrush because (reasons)" only to get the response "Oh, so I should use ABC paintbrush and then the XYZ one, is that right?" and I think - what the hell do they expect me to answer? "No actually, I just took the trouble to post all that information and explanation for you for shits and giggles, you should ignore the whole thing"?

How do you pronounce zomg?

@RacistAngst She would also have lost half an hour of her time. bollocks. It sounds like 5 mins absolute max she just finds their interaction an intrusion and an affront and sees it as a lack of “respect”.

The half-hour hyperbole may not be far wrong. I had a software engineering textbook 40 years ago that said after an interruption such as taking a one minute phone call, it could take a computer programmer 20 minutes to fully recover their mental state.

I suppose people who don't do work that requires deep concentration and being deeply engrossed in an abstract conceptual reality don't understand this.

I don't agree with those saying zomg it's a well-known thing.

I've read Mumsnet every day for at least ten years, and I've never seen the acronym here before. Nor have I ever seen it on countless other forums I've been on.

Maybe it's a gaming or chat thing. I don't game or chat. (Assuming forum posting doesn't count as chat.)

I don’t want to see Zomg again

Don't engage in the first place.

@RandomLondoner

I don't agree with those saying zomg it's a well-known thing.

I've read Mumsnet every day for at least ten years, and I've never seen the acronym here before. Nor have I ever seen it on countless other forums I've been on.

Maybe it's a gaming or chat thing. I don't game or chat. (Assuming forum posting doesn't count as chat.)

I think maybe it's a twelve-year-old thing?

Have you got a protocol library?
Then when they say "are you sure it's not ABC paintbrush?" you can tell them to go and double check?

@LuckyAmy1986

I don’t want to see Zomg again

Me neither and particularly not continually punctuating a first post.

@Coffeetree

I'm doing much better. The worst culprit tried it today and I pleasantly cut them off with, "I'll be free at 11:30," then went back to typing. They stood there sputtering for a while as I typed, but the went away!!!

Good work, OP, keep it up!

Excellent work on the client.