Is That You At Work?

July 26, 2012

It is a bright morning & Tom is getting ready for work.

“Work! There is hardly anything to do in office”, Tom speaks to himself. But, knowing there is no choice he gets ready to reach office in time. To be on time to a place where he would be spending around 9 hrs of a day, trying hard to do something worthwhile.

Tom reaches office & no sooner he is seated, a question – “What to do now?”, starts haunting him. As usual the first thing he does is to check his office mailbox, hoping that there must be some mails which would require his attention; & for few hours he could keep himself busy replying to them. But, to his dismal, there are hardly any mails directly marked to him. Poor chap! He finds himself only in cc of most of the emails. Refreshes his mail box a couple of times in disgust - “That’s it!”

He is in a big problem now. What next! The mailbox has nothing in store for him. Another option for spending time could be his talkative boss, the boss who usually calls him to discuss on office politics and to boast about himself. Though sitting with boss is never productive but it definitely gives satisfaction of recording a meeting with the boss. He checks with the secretary of boss just to know that he will not be in office today. Phew! The time seems to be stand still for Tom and nothing appears to be moving on his desk. Poor Tom looks around to find his colleagues apparently busy over phone calls or emails. This sight startles him and he calls them lucky. Lucky, that they have got work. He tries to stay positive and feels likes doing something out of the box, to do something which is not mundane; something which may contribute to the growth of company.

But, this thought is very short-lived. The zeal to be a contributor takes the backseat subdued by the strong craving for getting online on social networking sites. He makes a promise to himself that he will just login to check his messages & then immediately log out to start with his work. Knowingly or unknowingly he fools himself by making such an incredible promise. He completely ignores the fact that in the absence of his boss (disturbance) chatting with friends would be a great fun.

Tom logs in, the mere sight of his good friends online brings smile on his face. His mind starts wandering and his nimble fingers start sending “Hi...” to his friends. He is overwhelmed to see that there are others too, who are free to be online. In a jiffy he gets busy chatting with his online pals. Unbelievable! The time which appeared to have had stopped for him, now seems to be running like a leopard. The chat continues, one friend goes offline & the other friend comes online...

It continues until Tom realizes its noon. “Oh gosh! How the time flew away? It’s time for lunch.” This realization of time works as an appetizer for him. He starts telling lies to his friends, “Gtg… there is some urgent work. bye C ya later.” But, in reality the yummy, tasty sandwich available around the corner is inviting him.

As soon as he logs out, his innate sincerity becomes active and he checks office inbox before leaving for lunch. No sooner he refreshes his official mailbox his eyes widen at the sight of some new mails seeking his attention. The feeling that some work has got lined up boosts his morale and he smiles. With this adorning smile, he goes out to have a good lunch thinking that post lunch he will straight away get down to work…

Will he?