artificially busy

a state of activity usually rerserved for use in the presence of a manager or boss. the activity mimics productiveness without actually serving a purpose. usually inst-tuted by lazy co-workers who want to avoid being singled out for new -ssignments.
dept. manager: bob, could you summarize this file for thursday’s meeting?
bob: (carrying a worthless stack of doc-ments) oh, i wish i could but i’m still working on this right now. maybe you could ask mary to do it?
dept manager: ok , i wonder where she is.

2. (mary rushes by artificially busy. she is headed for the break room)
dept. manager: mary, i was just…
mary: um, dave i’ll be right with you, i just need to take care of one thing… (walks away in a haze of false productiveness)
dept. manager: wow, these guys are so busy…what a great team! i guess i could do this summary myself…
1. feeling like you have been extremely busy and you have no time for anything fun any more but never accomplishing anything.

2. a person who says that they cant do anything with you because they are busy but they dont actually have anything to do.
person 1: “man i have been so busy but i have just watched tv all day”

person 2: “oh thats just an artificially busy day”

or
person 1: “hey do you want to go to the movies later?”
person 2: “no thanks man ive got stuff to do”
person 3: “no you dont, youre just artificially busy”
person 1: “dude, thats lame!”
when one puts on the illusion of having legitimate activities to do when in reality they’re just trying to avoid you for some unexplicable reason. uses such excuses as, “i can’t talk now, i gotta study for my 5000954543098534 tests” or “sorry but i can’t chill with you anymore today because i have 4343290^7 appointments to go to.” extremely annoying, not very clever and the only person that these people fool are themselves.
me: -dials number- hey baby!
boyfriend: hey i gotta run because i have to go clean the house all day! -click-
me: d-mn it, hes artificially busy again, must be with that b-tch shaneese
1) being too busy to do anything else for a long time, but not actually accomplishing anything.

2) being “busy” when somebody wants to hang out with you or sign you up for something, but really you’re going to stay at home and count the ceiling tiles.

3) being “busy” whenever somebody walks up to talk to you or to hide the fact that you are eavesdropping.
1) being artificially busy is like being hamster in a cage, man!

2)
person 1: hey, wanna come over tonight and see my stamp collection? it’s the biggest stamp collection outside of the european union…
person 2: uh, sorry… gotta put cover sheets on all my tps reports.
person 1: tps reports? sounds like someone’s artificially busy…

3) dilbert, whenever pointy hair bossy comes around.
the state of modern life, when you are always doing but accomplishing little of importance
1)i’m artificially busy when i can’t listen to the kids, talk to a friend, sit down for a coffee.
2)i’m artificially busy when my onlife status is always ‘appear busy’!