Business Perspective: Why a multi-tasking person is important to a business

A few years ago I was employed as an office administrator, but as the days went by I realized that for me to be able to deliver my work more efficiently, I needed to master the art of multi tasking. For example there were days when our internet server was down making the entire office come to a standstill. This made me think twice about my use in the company. So one day when the internt server was down I made sure I went to the server with a phone on one hand to our head office with the IT manager, following instructions to get our server back up and running. From that day I decided to become an IT guru solving most of the internet problems we were experiencing. Also my printer was getting old and hence giving me problems when I had a need to print, with the access of the internet I managed to repair my office printer one night after having jammed on me while I was printing my reports yet it was past midnight, and I had a 4.00am flight to catch to Nairobi, so I had no option but to repair the printer by all means necessary, then printed my reports and put them on my bosses’ table and rushed out just in time to catch my flight. As much as I was the office administrator, I served as a receptionist and also attended to the walk in clients thereby acting as a marketer, I also acted as a customer care person, as an IT administrator; and also as a technician when any machine would fail I would try my best and fix the problem. I even cleaned our office one day when our CEO was around because the cleaner lady was late, yet we had an office meeting. Immediately I jumped on the mopper and mopped the office, cleaned everything and even prepared coffee for my five bosses just in time for the meeting. This is called multi-tasking which is the ability to perform more than one task at any given time. My working experience I can say was very good considering the fact that I left the company a better person than I was when I first got employed. I got to hear a conversation of some ladies working in a certain bank who were complaining that their new boss is making them learn new skills so that they can be able to multitask, for those who were not able to they were shown the door out. According to these ladies they were being punished, but I told them to think on the flip side because this man is preparing them for greater responsibilities in the near future, and this was their lives we are talking about. What is wrong with some people; here comes a man trying to make you a better person, then you go on gossiping and making noise that you are being over worked. Today I repair printers at a fee at the confines of my home, yet this is a skill I learnt diligently trying to repair my office printer a few years ago while working on my monthly reports. So what did I loose from me learning to repair printers? In fact I can very well say that I can never go hungry because of the many skills I attained at work while multi tasking. It is a well known secret that women have an innate ability to multi-task and are extremely capable of juggling multiple tasks at any given time, but these sisters of mine disappointed me. In the developed world people have been multitasking for years and that is why they can afford to lead the lifestyle of their choice. It is only an ignorant person who can say very loudly for people to hear that multitasking is tiresome. In today’s world survival is for the fittest, only for those who can prove that they can multi-task without any issues are the ones that stay onto their jobs, because they have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that they have an edge over their colleagues. Business today is cutthroat; you cannot afford to have employees who cannot be able to double up and multi task when need be. Ends