I stayed last night in New York at a well known hotel chain. As I entered the elevator to go to my room, a room service waiter came in after me. All the way to the ninth floor he held the tray of drinks and food steady and texted on his personal phone. At first I was amazed that he was talented enough to do this. I asked to take his picture and he was proud that he could do both things at once.

But this stuck me. We are so conditioned to multitask that we can never focus on one thing at a time. This hurts the job at hand. Secondly, the private cell phone so permeates our work environment that productivity and excellent customer service have to suffer! As we constantly switch our attention or try to work and keep up with our personal lives simultaneously, business suffers.