I was sitting in my office on Monday afternoon when the lights which I keep dimmed suddenly became brighter. I looked around and two men had entered - seemingly without knocking (I certainly hadn't heard them) - and had turned up the dimmer (again, without so much as a by your leave). When I asked what they were doing they told me that they were going around the building counting and numbering the lights. They then proceeded to put stickers on each of the light fittings. Whatismore, they were external contractors who had been brought in to perform the task presumably at some expense to the institution.
Either because I was busy doing something else or because of the bazaar nature of their task, or perhaps both, I failed to ask why the lights needed to be counted and numbered. Now I am left wondering. This tend is something of a cathartic blog.
What possible reason can there be to do such a thing? This is in a building where they have just painted the firedoors (giving this an air of importance) and there is a sign extolling the building's energy efficiency; yet the main doors have been jammed wide open for over a year causing an updraft (extremely dangerous I would have thought when a 6-7 storey building catches fire) and an icy blast chilling the place in winter and causing us to turn up the heating. One wonders what is the point of such a seemingly trivial exercise. (I say 'seemingly trivial' because somebody is sure to be able to give some 'rational' explanation as to why it was, in fact, important if not vital.)
