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This question was migrated away from GD over to Workplace:

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40561/what-is-a-nice-way-to-say-im-busy-without-saying-im-busy-how-do-i-manage-wor

I get that it likely applies to Workplace, but I feel that it's also somewhat specific go GD and I'd really love to see more GD-industry questions here rather than it be a constant stream of help-me-find-this-font questions.

So, I'd like to suggest that we try and keep business-related questions--provided they fit into the business of GD--remain here on the GD site.

Though I didn't personally ask that question, I would argue if I had, I really would have wanted responses specifically from Graphic Designers, which is a lot less likely over on Workplace.

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I think they should be migrated only if these are all true:

  1. An accountant, developer, business consultant etc could have the same problem
  2. Answers that solve the problem for a designer would equally solve the problem for an accountant, developer, business consultant etc

Or to put it another way:

  1. If you had the problem, and you could choose between asking a designer with 4 years' experience or a business consultant with 5 years' experience, you'd ask the business consultant, not the designer

And we should be careful about migrating them. The good ones are some of the most interesting questions we have.

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    I like #1...even more simplified: "Would an accountant have the same problem?" :)
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:20
  • aren't these called "boat programming questions"? meta.stackexchange.com/questions/14470/…
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:57
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    @LaurenIpsum I think that's the question. I would argue no in this case, as this question "for designers" is unique vs. "for general office workers." In other words, the answer is heavily dependent on the particular type of work.
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 16:57
  • @DA01 That's sorta what I started with - but then I thought people might argue that an accountant could have the same problem as in the question you linked to. Whereas I think you've shown that there are answers that would work for a designer with that problem but not an accountant with that problem. Therefore, reasons why in real life you'd ask a designer, not a more experienced accountant
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 18:06
  • This question can easily be an example for a developer writing code.
    – user9447 Mod
    Commented Jan 22, 2015 at 2:12
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I have the tag as one of my favorites. I'm all in favor of them. Some are questionable. I think the one you linked to could go either way but if it can go either way and was posted to us I'd say leave it. I'm more likely to suggest moving it to Workplace if its a question related to HR/Legal/Benefits type of stuff.

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I migrated it because when I looked at the question I asked myself..

  • Is this a design problem or a work problem?
  • Could there be other people experiencing the same problem outside of a designer?
  • Would there be better answers for her on Workplace compared to GD.
  • would it help the questioner if we left it on GD or migrated it.

I don't mind keeping them, but if we are going to keep them then they should be edited to stay in scope with design. I feel for the issue, but the question wasn't really about "designing" it was about dealing with co-workers and how to get the work done.

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  • I think those are good questions. Personally, though, the answer I have in my head for each of those would have led me to leave it here on GD. I agree it wasn't about designing, but it was about working as a designer, IMHO.
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:04
  • I forgot to add that the question title said: "How do I manage workplace distractions" =P
    – user9447 Mod
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:06
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    * but I also want to be clear that I appreciate admins and all the work you all do and at the end of the day, I'm glad you are all making these decisions even if I don't agree with them all. :)
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:06
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    its something admins have to deal with.. We cant make perfect choices but I try to make sure the community is taken care-of even if some will never see it.
    – user9447 Mod
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 15:07
  • Also, note that "how do I manage workplace distractions" was actually my edit. I didn't mean to make it sound like a generic workplace issue, as I was taking into consideration the context that it was being asked on this site. On Workplace, I'd reword that to "as a designer who needs large blocks of time to focus, how do I manage co-workers that like to interrupt?"
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 16:55
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Just to play devils advocate, because I agree with the existing answers; I believe we should remain wary of these questions.

There's a very fine line between what's on-topic and what's not in a lot of our tags, because whilst we can accept some questions about those topics, others that are not acceptable, may slip by and set a precedent for questions that we don't want.

As an example, if we hadn't all been so vigilant, there was a point when the critique tag could've blown up and caused problems, back when we discussed the difference between feedback and critique.

In that case, it was much easier to define what we don't want, because we could specifically name the type of questions we don't want. We can't do the same for every tag.

I can think of a few potentially problematic topics we might want to moderate more intensively than others:

  • Specific pricing / accounting related topics such as costs (Some questions would be good, but most will not have a useful answer when the context is too specific).

  • How to promote oneself as a designer (interesting, but requires a lot of description from OP to make a good question - not one or two lines as I've come to expect from new users).

  • Anything related to starting a design business (it really needs to be specifically about design to stay here, and off the top of my head, I can't think of anything about starting a business that would be better off here than elsewhere).

  • Business decision making (These kinds of questions require extensive answers that should be backed by existing theories and formulas). In fact, I think there would be very few decision making questions that are on topic here.

These are just a few of the topics that could have controversial questions posted.

For that reason, I think it's hard to give a blanket "Yes, we should keep them". As with a lot of our content, this is very much a case-by-case consideration.

Bear in mind, that simply by having this discussion, we are all able to share our thoughts and move towards a generally consistent approach. So my point is, even if it does require case-by-case consideration, the fact that we've had this discussion has already improved our approach to this.

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    Well put. I agree with all of this.
    – DA01
    Commented Jan 21, 2015 at 17:21

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