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Busy Status Bar

(busy.bar)
1366 points aleksi | 5 comments | 14 Oct 24 15:19 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Aurornis ◴[14 Oct 24 23:58 UTC] No.41843535[source]▶
This is at least the 3rd version of this product idea that I’ve seen in the past decade. Certainly the nicest design!

The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leaving it marked as “busy”. Within a week or two their coworkers realized that the light was always on busy, so they started asking if they were really busy.

At that point, the entire busy light idea had been defeated.

This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting.

However, I predict the same fate: Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy, and then return to the old habit of interrupting to ask if they’re busy.

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stavros ◴[15 Oct 24 00:12 UTC] No.41843620[source]▶
That seems like an easy fix: Tell visitors to look at the light.
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1. Aurornis ◴[15 Oct 24 00:28 UTC] No.41843708[source]▶
That’s the problem: If the light is always on, or almost always on, then it quickly loses meaning.

Unless the user actually adds green available time at regular intervals throughout the day, people learn that they have to ignore the red busy light and ask.

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2. IncRnd ◴[15 Oct 24 01:15 UTC] No.41843964[source]▶
Or the person is always busy, and to contact them a person should use slack, email or some other method.
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3. wyclif ◴[15 Oct 24 07:56 UTC] No.41846018[source]▶
I dunno guys, I've become really, really used to the whole "wired in" protocol where if you have fully over-ear headphones on, it means you are either in heads-down coding or writing mode, or you are on a call. It works as long as everyone observes it. But maybe they don't and hence the demand for this product. It just adds another layer of complexity to office politics.
4. edc117 ◴[15 Oct 24 14:49 UTC] No.41849204[source]▶
And then they don't respond to email or slack. Are they missing it? Ignoring it? No one knows. Meanwhile, time sensitive deadlines come and go.

There's no clear, easy protocol that works for everyone, unfortunately. Some people are always going to operate on the 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' model. And I say this as someone who is often in the 'always busy' camp.

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5. MichaelZuo ◴[15 Oct 24 17:31 UTC] No.41850910{3}[source]▶
If it’s on the record then it would be simple to assign blame on them for the consequences… and then punish accordingly, so it seems like a self correcting issue?

Most employees probably have enough credibility to explain away one or two missed deadlines, but not 5 or 6 in a row without providing actual proof.