Is ADD really that bad?

Sometimes when I’m on a really boring conference call, I play Bejeweled on my computer. Is this rude?

This isn’t an etiquette column, but I can’t resist channeling Emily Post. The question is, is there any harm done?

It’s possible that you’re one of those ADD-fueled multitasking freaks who can simultaneously pay close attention to a numbing debate over your firm’s paperclip budget and rack up a high Bejeweled score. (Bill Clinton, for instance, was famous for completing crossword puzzles while talking on the phone with advisers.) “People have been doodling and playing tic-tac-toe and re-creating the Mona Lisa on scratch pads in meetings for 100 years. How is this any worse?” asks Garth Chouteau, spokesperson for PopCap Games, maker of Bejeweled. Heck, maybe your employer should be glad you play – without the game you’d have died of ennui in your cubicle long ago.

Now, such notions do not wash with old-school management thinkers, who regard videogames with deep suspicion. Peter Handal, CEO of Dale Carnegie Training, had never heard of Bejeweled – and he flipped out when he saw the game. “There’s no way you could concentrate while doing this,” he gasped. “It’s nothing like doodling. It absolutely would be rude.” Or worse: In May, a security guard at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant became so absorbed in a videogame that he failed to notice an inspector sneaking right by him. D’oh!

Ultimately, you should split the difference. Play the game only if the meeting is really sucky, if you’re not expected to speak or take notes, and if your boss is Bejeweled-out enough to go easy on you when you get busted.

Then again, you should know that I composed this column while totally engrossed in a killer round of Minesweeper, so mayb I missed might have little bit your qusetion?