SWITCH OFF WHEN NOT IN USE.
“Switch off when not in use”. Whenever I see this message I am not amused. Firstly, because the lights are glowing bright and fans are running at full blast in the vacant room. You come out of the office and are greeted by the bright yellow sodium vapor lamps in the bright yellow sunshine. Secondly, I really do not see the relevance of this sign in our great country where people in majority are as it is switched off to every thing around them. They still feel that the national property is some body else’s. There is no sense of ownership on one side and on the other Indians steal the government property, saying it belongs to them. If we need such messages even after 60 years of independence, we need a serious review of everything, which necessitates such messages.
The statement does not end at appliances but has a deeper connotation too. Coming back to office scene where a regular game of ‘on and off’ goes on; the place where one is supposed to work productively, meaning the switch has to be on. But how far do we witness it?
I adore Robert Frost for his forthright way of putting things in proper perspective, such as ‘the brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.’
Whether and when one ‘switches off when not in use’ is a matter of concern, but the real important concern on the other side of spectrum is how to switch on the people who are perennially off in their office time. Can they be called as switched on? They always have reasons for their state of being switched off. The higher the post, better are the reasons. The question is ‘are they right? The education (minus the learning in most cases) if at all they have, is used in providing better reasons for their failures.
The big question therefore is do we really know when we have to switch off and on. Does it really matter for whom we work in the office setting or do we take larger interest in mind? Man is the crown of creation only because he is skilled and capable to think and perform tasks.
How often we observe that most of us are switched off even in the first few hours in the working places? The process is very complicated, hence needs a serious treatment. Pretending to be busy will really not work. By merely saying that working for more than twelve hours is not the answer. Introspection is needed that in those twelve hours for how many hours we are on or off! Even if we are fifty percent “mentally on” the justice is done with the work.We must not forget that it is also linked with the happiness derived from the work, summed up by Russel Conwell in his book ‘Acres of Diamonds’ as “The human beings are constantly searching elsewhere for the very things they have at hand.”
Onehas to look for the triggers, which provide a proper stimulus for switching on a person, before it is too late.
Rajendra Chandorkar
“Aabha”, 53 Vasant Nagar
Nagpur: 440022
Cell: 09423102543
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