Half an hour into an ordinary Wednesday morning, something feels different. You look around and fellow slaves are typing away, scratching their heads, staring at their screens…the usual.
But it looks different. It is the lights, they are not on, not one. You inquire.
‘Don’t switch it on,’ beckons a colleague with the seriousness of a method artist.
‘Why?’
‘We are cutting costs. Haven’t you read the mail?’
‘You mean the notice?’
‘Yes’
‘I am sure there are better ways than…’
‘At this salary, I can’t think of any better ideas.’
And he goes back to his desk, dimly lit by his monitor. He does have a point. There is no way of unleashing Austerity without hitting morale. Try as you may, you go through the day with the most pedestrian of thoughts/ideas:
In the loo, you are surprised to find the soap dispenser still functional
At the pantry, you are surprised to find the same brand of biscuits still available.
And the coffee tastes just as bad as yesterday.
You check your self and keep the ‘penny-wise-pond-stupidness’ out of your scrooging brain. But from meeting room to canteen, there is an outpouring of the choicest ideas:
> Scribbling numbers on one’s palms instead of taking printouts
> ACs on only in alternate cubicles
> Washroom lights to be flicked on only when in use
> No tissues, handkerchiefs to be made compulsory
> Lower insurance for smokers
> Only Economy flight tickets, better yet, travel by trains
> No Stapling, U-pins to be re-used
> Coupons for tea/coffee…
…‘That might lead to hoarding and a black market for coupons,’ I offer. The brain stormers stare at me for a couple of seconds and go back to their ideating without even a chuckle.
What could have brought about such seriousness? You go back to your inbox to read the notice again. It seems there is a prize for the ‘Best suggestions on Belt-tightening’.
Ingenious. You remember something about HS flying to a ‘Belt-tightening’ conference just last week. Needless to say, he travelled business class. All you can do is smile at the miniscule-ness of your fiscal apprehensions.
By the time you round up your day’s labour, the would-be cost-cutters have left. Their systems are still on, blinking. You take the effort to bend down and switch off their workstations. By stepping on the backs of thousand poor men does one rich person emerge! But poor men don’t have to be against conservation.
– J.
I am sure there are numerous ingenious ways of cost-cutting and even more ways of spoofing the effort. Your post ends with a very relevant question. Each of us, slave or otherwise, have a role to play.
Hi Ankur
I think it has a lot to do with the kind of person you are, weather you think twice before hitting print Regardless of company policy or mandate
Good queston. But both are preferable to aware and accepting.
Aware and Accepting
I shall remember that
And don’t forget aware and anxiously awaiting the day when one reaches the level at which one is immune to cost cutting and ruthlessly politicking and back stabbing in order to reach that level.
That is a scary thought
‘Get busy living, or get busy dying’
Funny how cost cutting applies only to a certain level in most organizations. Same with wage freezes I think.
Hi Thomas
It seems the disparity has always been there. Only now with high decibel campaigns are Slaves waking upto it.
The question is: Are you better off enlightened and powerless or ignorant and blissful?