When I work late, as tragically sometimes happens even at Ye Olde Do-Gooder Law Firm, I notice that almost everybody in my office leaves their office lights on when they leave. Seeing An Inconvenient Truth and Children of Men within a short period of time made me feel slightly environmental, so this strikes me as a waste of electricity (and a sign of humanity’s impending doom).
I think I know the reason: people want to create the illusion that they might still be at work, even after they have left. But all this does it push Leaving Work farther and farther into the closet. Going Home For the Night becomes the Love the Dare Not Speak its Name.
So this is a call to arms. Stop covering the fact that you have a life outside of work! Bonus: while you're at it, you might also delay humanity's inevitable self-destruction! Turn out the lights!*
*The quasi-anonymity of my blog means that nobody at work reads it, which may somewhat dampen the effectiveness of this particular call to arms. Ah, the conundrums.
2 comments:
We have an almost-perfect technological solution to this at not-bad-doing-law-firm. All the office lights are on motion detectors and timers. When you leave your office for a cup of coffee, your lights are liable to go out. When you go to a conference room for a half-hour meeting, your lights are sure to be out. Thus, it's very hard to time departures at all precisely based on lights being out. (Plus, I have a Homer Simpson drinking-bird toy that may or may not keep the motion sensor entertained in a pinch.)
I turn on additional lamps, space heaters, and a scale model coal fired power plant when i leave my office.
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