A Small Step
An update on the Choices blog is that I couldn't go to the temple last week, and I didn't find any wrong parking yesterday. Sounds as if I'm just finding a reason? May be the incident below might change that perception.
Yesterday there were too many lights switched on in our office reception area. My estimate is that there were about 20 lights of many sorts - tube lights, focus lights et al. May be I would have marvelled at their beauty and brightness on an evening. But on a typical Chennai noon? The reception was well illuminated with sunlight, and it was so bright that the other lights looked like plain orange balls and white rods (The mere fact of having both orange and white lights in the same place by itself disturbs me). The power that these lights were consuming was enormous. On a rough estimate, assuming that the focus lights are 5 times powerful than a normal 60W bulb itself makes the power wastage substantial enough to cause concern.
When I sat at my desk thinking about this, I received a forward from a friend on saving power. I couldn’t control cribbing to him about the power wastage our office. His enthusiasm made us meet the security person at the reception.
Me: Why are there so many lights on?
Security Person: There is a client visit
Me: So, why do we have so many lights on?
Security: glares
Me: We are wasting too much power
Security: Client visit
Me: The client would think that we are idiots to have this many lights on when it is already so bright here
Security: Sheepish smile
No use talking to him. My colleague and I went for a tea break and discussed on what could be done. We once again went to the security person and got to know that someone from the admin team had asked for the lights to be switched on. We called the admin help-desk.
Colleague : Why are there so many lights on in the reception?
Admin person : What is the problem?
Colleague : We are wasting lot of power
Admin person : Silence
Colleague : We should switch of some of the lights
Admin person : Are the lights causing inconvenience to you?
Me: No, but we are concerned that we are wasting so much of power without any use
Admin person : ok. Please give me your name. I'll follow it up.
The lights were still on when I saw them in the evening. I understand that there was no use of my actions, but at least I'm happy that I took the right step
May be, with someone else at the admin phone, there might have been a change.
Yesterday there were too many lights switched on in our office reception area. My estimate is that there were about 20 lights of many sorts - tube lights, focus lights et al. May be I would have marvelled at their beauty and brightness on an evening. But on a typical Chennai noon? The reception was well illuminated with sunlight, and it was so bright that the other lights looked like plain orange balls and white rods (The mere fact of having both orange and white lights in the same place by itself disturbs me). The power that these lights were consuming was enormous. On a rough estimate, assuming that the focus lights are 5 times powerful than a normal 60W bulb itself makes the power wastage substantial enough to cause concern.
When I sat at my desk thinking about this, I received a forward from a friend on saving power. I couldn’t control cribbing to him about the power wastage our office. His enthusiasm made us meet the security person at the reception.
Me: Why are there so many lights on?
Security Person: There is a client visit
Me: So, why do we have so many lights on?
Security: glares
Me: We are wasting too much power
Security: Client visit
Me: The client would think that we are idiots to have this many lights on when it is already so bright here
Security: Sheepish smile
No use talking to him. My colleague and I went for a tea break and discussed on what could be done. We once again went to the security person and got to know that someone from the admin team had asked for the lights to be switched on. We called the admin help-desk.
Colleague : Why are there so many lights on in the reception?
Admin person : What is the problem?
Colleague : We are wasting lot of power
Admin person : Silence
Colleague : We should switch of some of the lights
Admin person : Are the lights causing inconvenience to you?
Me: No, but we are concerned that we are wasting so much of power without any use
Admin person : ok. Please give me your name. I'll follow it up.
The lights were still on when I saw them in the evening. I understand that there was no use of my actions, but at least I'm happy that I took the right step
posted by Jammy at 2:32 PM
11 Comments:
LOL! Ram... I feel exactly the same in a LOT of situations when most others feel nothing. Like noises and misbehavior in classrooms. Like overshooting the traffic. Now welcome to the party!
Jammy- that's great. Dont give up. Try again if this is repeated. Urge more people to do so. Remember the pile of sticks story? :) - am sure the admin will respond if he hears the same thing from a lot of people. If u have his email id, forward that "do u have 10 seconds" mail to him! or give his email id to me, i'll do it ;)
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hey Ram ,
I know we did the right thing , but I dont think that was enough, may be we could have taken a step further.
Without results , there is no point in effort
@Govar
I was always in the party dude. Just started writing about them now :)
@raz
Thanks
@M.E.
The lights aren't always on man. But I'll keep calling them whenever I see it happen.
@Ajith
What else could we have done?
Ends don't always define the means.
May be we had an effect on the admin guy and he would think again b4 asking for all lights to be on.
JAMMY,PAT ON UR BACK,BUDDY..guess al of us r glad u tokk a step rather than just commenting upon it..keep doing it,as ram says..the person at the admin desk does have a conscience,for sure..:)
@ajith,persisted efforts ring results..:)..it is definitely a start..
Hey Ram,
I completely agree with you when you say that the ends don't always define the means. I'm all for pestering the admin people until they decide to switch off the unnecessary lights.
Cheers.........Jam
Ram, u can choose to post ur comment on any conf board in ur ofis or spread awareness..
or like a true Mgmt grad.. work on how much money will ur company save on switching off one light for one hr.. and multiply with the no. of lights on.. and take it to ur manager.. may be savings on companys fund might make them give a thought about this..
@MJ
Thanks
@Jam
Agree
@Heidi
These savings would be too small for the company guys to take notice. My USP is avoiding wastage and is not saving money.
Nice idea on the message board. I'll see what could be done.
ajith- dont worry about the results already man. nothing comes easily and the secret lies in fighting to get the desired results without getting disappointed. repeat the same the next time it happens. if it'll take 10 attempts to convince the manager, feel glad that u r one down already instead of thinking that u have to make 9 more attempts!
kudos fellas...
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