“I am so
tired”. If these are the only four words that come to your mind after a hard
day at work, then it’s really a precious day of your life, wasted, that you are
never having back. Yet that’s all that came to my mind the moment I stepped in
my apartment after work. Although, not to sound all negative, I must admit it
was just another regular day with nothing extra frustrating about it. Then
wonder why such weird feeling.
Wondering,
I just contemplated on the apparently uneventful day of the life of an engineer
like me.
The day
began pretty relaxed. An alarm woke me up after being snoozed for about six
times. Thereafter, regular freshening and dressing up, all motivated and all
determined to make most of the next 24 hours. I set off for work. My cozy
little sedan invited me alluringly with all warmth and boarding it, off I went
to work.
It took me
almost 10 to 12 mins to reach my plant’s main gate. However, I had to wait in
my car for another 10 mins to finally enter the plant because apparently a 100
more vehicles of my fellow officers were equally enthusiastic to enter the
premise in time so that penal action against unpunctuality may be avoided.
Sounds fair enough to me. Punctuality is a virtue which deserves to be rewarded
and lack of it should be punished. But I really wondered how it is the other
way round while returning from office. Then, staying back at office late is
always considered as a shining example of sincerity whereas leaving office
early after efficiently completing assigned tasks, is considered as sheer
neglect of duty. Subsequently, after 10 mins of waiting in the queue, I could
finally punch my way in punctually before the morning time schedule. This was
the beginning of my day at work.
Sitting on
my desk, I first need to make 2 phone calls to the control panels and shift
incharges of my assigned plants to check everything is ok. Having done so, it’s
time for our departmental morning meeting. Almost 20 odd officers, each talking
for 2 to 3 minutes, briefing the status of their respective plant units, it
should take hardly a quarter of an hour. Yet, these 45 minutes of the day
appear most tiresome to me. Firstly, everyday one cannot have new updates to
share in a meeting. Secondly, same update from everyone makes it even more
monotonous. Thirdly, the most energetic one hour of the morning time is lost,
by draining our energy in a conference room enclosure. But, the great Mark
Twain once said “to succeed in life, all you need is ignorance and confidence”.
This is exactly how most of the officers sail through this meeting; by
camouflaging our ignorance with confidence.
Meeting
once done with, we have our breakfast in haste and I then go to my plant for
site visit and data collection. This takes almost an hour and a half and
thereafter, daily data report is prepared for circulation to all concerned. By
then, its lunch time. After having lunch and an hour of chat with my fellow
officers, juniors as well as seniors, it’s time to start working for the second
half of the day (one half apparently wasted already).
Recently,
we are doing an innovative / strategic job of entering data from large drawings
and data files into excel sheets and softwares. This is apparently the new
revolutionizing system that’s going to change the whole working style of our
department. Rigorous follow up from all level takes place for this data entry
activity. As popularly believed, only an engineer or manager is capable enough
for this data entry activity, therefore targets are stringent and any slip is
strictly monitored and controlled. PG Wodehouse once said “fascination of
shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right end
or wrong end of the gun.” For this data entry activity, it is totally the wrong
end of the gun that I stand. The truth of this saying is totally verified by
the fact that I have seen seniors enjoy this shooting once they switch to the
right end of the gun. I hope to be there too some day and maybe then I can
appreciate this sport a lot more. But right now, this activity is indeed
tiresome and loathsome since engineers being used for transferring data to a
software is an utter wastage of manpower and considering this, I have been
deferring this activity for quite some time now. Yet, there is no escape after
all. Thereafter, report preparation, data updation, listing various activities,
etc. all these activities took up the complete second half of the day and a few
hours afterwards.
Coming back
to where I started. I sit on my couch in my apartment, take off my shoes and
reflect on those four word – “I am so tired”. But am I really? And if I am,
then why so? Is it because I had to wait for 10 minutes in a queue to punch in
punctually? Or is it because I had to attend a boring meeting? Or is it wholly
because of my perception of a data entry activity being out of my league, which
apparently few other officers enjoy nevertheless? The answer lies wholly on the
fact of how one perceives it.
As an
individual, I can’t expect my company to pay me for listening to music at home.
I am expected to work as per the requirement of my organization and get paid
for that. It’s a simple equation. Yet our expectations make things complex. My
company needs me to attend office in time and penalize me if I don’t; simple.
If I work less, I am frowned upon; if I overstay and work more, everyone’s
happy; simple again. Entering technical data in a software needs data analysis
before feeding. That they need from an engineer and so I have to do it; simple.
Then why the frustration. If everything is so simple then why is there, so much
discontent? Being part of a public sector plant, dedicated to the service of my
nation for so long, why is there so much disappointment? All answers lies in
our perception and our expectations ultimately.
So I decide
not to let those four words ruin the rest of my evening. Freshen up and live my
leisure my way. I just hope, tomorrow will be a better day and if not, may be
the day after and so forth. With this random thought, I end my monotonous
narrative.
Signing off
- a PSU officer working for the nation, hoping for a better tomorrow.
