Multi-tasking?

I just got an email today about a potential job position (not that I'm looking, but the Nanotech mailing list likes to send out nano-related jobs) and the first thing the position description lists is that the best candidate is able to multitask.

I can't multitask to save my life. Seriously.

I have found that if I'm doing lab work - that's all I can focus on. I tell myself that I can let my experiment run or the instrument do it's job while I work on writing/reading/homework/whatever else is on my list, but the reality is that I just can't. I also can't write a paper while in the vicinity of my lab, as I like lab work so much more than writing papers or reading literature and will always come up with more things to do in the lab.

There are some interesting articles about how multitasking is kind of a myth:
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/the-myth-of-multitasking
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627309004589

and from a prof from my undergrad university:


and this guy from the Economist



anyways, that's my mini-rant about people asking job applicants to be 'multitaskers.' I guess if they want less productive engineers, that's fine, I just won't be working for them.