REAL WORK AND ACTIVITY TRAPS -- CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL

THE MEANING OF REAL WORK

the owner of the favourite restaurant of a big city went for a surprise visit.

for the past 6 months the hotel had CHANGED FROM A HUGE PROFIT MAKING

MACHINE TO A LOSS MAKING UNIT--he wanted to check out why- personally.

the staff and cooks were the same--- the only change was the new sprightly

manager of the restaurant--who joined 6 months back.

the owner asked the manager --how is my hotel doing?--

manager says ,we have been accredited iso 49000 since i joined-- we have

4.99 marks in HMSA ( that is something like our own TMSA ) -- i have

streamlined the paperwork-- here are the pie charts--here are the trends

in colour-- here are the consumptions and the averages-- we have

centralised our accounts and purchases and economised on vegetables and

meats --here are the figures --this is the last inspection report of the municipality

--we scored 100%-- blah blah --he was on his own trip--

the owner got upset ,walked off and called the stewards--in private.

what do you think is the problem? why have all our regular customers

deserted us? why are the chairs empty?.

the stewards said--lot of them sat for half an hour and before cooks

could get the soup ready --they got up in a huff and cursed us and went

away. we are also resigning--we too don't like to stand here the whole

day picking our noses , waiting for the cows to come home --we are losing

out on tips--

then the owner went into the kitchen-- and found the cooks caught in THE

CHAKRAVYUH OF ACTIVITY TRAPS doing tabulations on A4 size papers ,

averages, inventories , cleaning, pressure testing pipes, stencilling ,

polishing pans and buttons of their tunics, testing fuel -- the whole

kitchen smelled of strong metal cleaner/ detergent instead of food--

he asked the chief cook who was walking past him in a tearing hurry--

----are you coming or going?

--the man says -WHAAA?

EXTREME EXAMPLE OF ACTIVITY TRAP-- A CHIEF ENGINEER OF A SHIP WHO HAS BRAINWASHED HIMSELF THAT-- THE PURPOSE OF HIS SHIP IS TO TAKE HIS MAIN ENGINES FROM POINT A TO POINT B.

how many of you have lost the plot and are caught in the chakravyuh of daily activity traps?

CAPT AJIT VADAKAYIL
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