Imagine teachers were microwaves!!
A witty take on how we treat machines better than human beings, with a humorous twist
Stuck. That’s what happened to the microwave that day. It got stuck. It didn’t process. It didn’t move. And what did we do? We cancelled dinner. We called an emergency service centre. We put our heads together to figure out what went wrong. And through it all, the microwave just sat there.
Would you scold a machine or punish it by making it do more when it breaks down? Possibly not. We’d probably say ‘Let’s go easy on it…don’t want it to break again!’ ‘Let’s work hard to maintain it everyday’.
Now imagine the microwave was me, or any other teacher in the world or for that matter, any human being who is employed. Would the people around me cancel all my commitments? Would they call an emergency meeting? Would they debate for hours about what was wrong with me (or the teacher)? Would I be allowed to stand there in the corner? Not move? Not say a word?
Or would I be pushed to complete more ‘coz being stuck meant that work piled up and I wouldn’t be able to complete things on time. I would probably be told to keep my emotions out of my job and to (wo)MAN UP. Do we treat human beings worse than inanimate objects?
And heres a similar thought.
Why is it that all my friends, who work in multinational companies, take leave to go to each other’s weddings and sangeets and anniversaries, get away and ‘seem’ on outward appearance, to do just fine. But as a teacher, when we take even a day off, it’s as if the world has crumbled. There is so much to deal with on your return that you curse falling ill in the first place. Not because you feel bad, but because of the dirty stares you might have to encounter from your colleagues for having to deal with your students as well as their own. There is a pile of paperwork to get through; a tonne of corrections; a heap of ‘war stories’ from your students because ‘nobody listened to them’ in your absence. And, of course, an aching head caused by the fever and fatigue.
Somewhere such humaneness towards teachers in particular and employees in general is lacking. Why do most organization managements, including schools, feel the need to send out memos about employees falling sick and how they can’t ‘choose’ to do so on a Friday or a Monday? Or that too many employees are taking leave because of mild illnesses.
The pandemic has shown working from home has been just as productive if not more for most people. It is time we changed our perception of leave and absence from the workplace and treat it as a natural part of a human being’s life. In moderation of course!
Here is another lesson learned — We value the inanimate. It stems from our greed and ego. We devalue life. This also stems from our greed and ego.
We make people work like machines, to produce machines and goods that are intended to make life easier for people.
On days when getting out of bed becomes difficult, I wish I was a machine.
