“How’s the new role? Are you just drinking from the firehose?” asked my colleague yesterday.
It seemed a new and peculiarly American phrase to me but I knew exactly what she meant and the answer was an exhausted “yes”.
What does that mean?
Wiktionary gives a very simple definition
- (idiomatic) To be overwhelmed (with work, information, etc.); to be inundated with an uncapped, unfiltered amount
And it seems the term has been around for more than a decade, as it was picked up in a nicely nuanced way in this 2006 blog post.
Why am I drinking from the firehose?
I took on a new role in February, it’s more global, more strategic, and more fun. I’m now part of a US-based team, none of whom have met me. However I still have some projects to complete from my former EU-based role as I haven’t been replaced. So in the mornings I focus on the EU projects, and the afternoon I switch to the US projects, my agenda is getting crowded and my day is a bit stretched.
It’s cutting into my writing time – but it is temporary. I will be writing more regularly from June onwards as one of my projects finishes sometime in May. In the meantime, back to that firehose.
Change Meme 