"You can't pause an online game" — how childhood gaming formed my work preferences

I’ve been playing video games ever since I knew how to grip a controller. We got a computer when I was 2 and a Super Nintendo when I was 6 and I’ve been playing ever since.

In the early 2000s, I bought an original Xbox and when in 2002 Microsoft launched the LIVE online gaming functionality, I started playing online multiplayer games.

Gaming as a kid was not without tension. One of the key ways me and my parents struggled to find common ground was with online gaming and the ability to pause a game when I had to do something like join for the dinner.

I didn’t have a problem to stop playing and do whatever was needed but I was adamant about finishing the current session as I was playing with other people and I found it rude to just drop out, especially if it was one of our team matches (we used to play Ghost Recon 2 and Halo 2 as a team — or clan as they were called in the scene) or a tournament match rather than a casual session.

I brushed most of the tension off as a generational divide and due to the lack of understanding on my parents’ behalf of how online gaming worked as it was something they had never experienced themselves.

Lately, I realised how much those moments had shaped my personality as I participated in a training at my new job where we talked about personal preferences for communication.

In the context of work life, the “you can’t pause an online game” for me means that I don’t like to be interrupted and dragged into something on a moment’s notice. It annoys me very much.

Instead, I prefer the type of communication and collaboration where needs and meetings are communicated and scheduled as much in advance as possible. That gives me the ability to control my schedule and to prepare better. (Yeah, I’m of the weird sort that likes to prepare for meetings.)

If you want my best work, the best way to achieve that is to communicate what is needed and by when, preferably well in advance so I can fit it into my own schedule and avoid unnecessary context switches. Not only will this lead to me doing my best work: prepared and in schedule, it also makes me happy and less disgruntled.