One night, while on duty, George, a night watchman at a railway station, had an amazing dream. In his dream, he saw a train crossing a bridge at noon; and at that very moment there was an earthquake. Suddenly the entire bridge collapsed and the train fell into the ravine below, thus killing everyone on board.
First thing the next morning, George rushed to the administration office to report about his dream. The desk clerk brushed aside his report, but George was determined to stop the morning train no matter what it took. He went straight to the Station Director and insisted that the morning train be stopped. He somehow managed to convince the Station Director to reschedule the train's departure by several hours.
Then at around noon that day, there was indeed an earthquake; and indeed the bridge over the ravine collapsed just as George had said it would. Everyone was amazed. So many lives were spared that day.
Over the next couple of days most of the major papers took turns interviewing George, who had by then become a big hero. He became famous instantly.
Then the following week, George received a letter from his boss. Of course he had expected a big bonus or some sort of ex-gratia payment. Instead, imagine his surprise when he opened the letter and realised that he has been fired from his job...
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The letter says:
Dear George,
We regret to note that you have repeatedly failed to heed the management's warnings not to sleep at your job. It is imperative that one should not sleep at this kind of job.
Therefore, the management has reluctantly come to the decision to terminate your services with immediate effect.
Your salary will be paid up to date and to be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Yours faithfully,
Station Director
For some jobs, there is just no room for sleeping at all. No matter what, sleep is the last thing that this kind of employee can do!
except, if you are the top dog of our beloved nation!
I know of one advertising agency here that allows the staff to have "power nap" during work. Serious!
No kidding, delurk!
So what is this "power nap" thing? I suppose it's basically some sort of short sleep—which I hate so much.
If I want to sleep at all, I'd rather have a good long one. Otherwise, if I have a short alang-alang one, I will wake up with a headache. And that will make me even more frustrated!
I'm sure when George goes reporting what he dreamt about to the management he knows his job will be at stake. If he don't fall asleep how is he going to get the message to save all those people's lives. Never mind he can get sacked, get another job and who knows he might even stopped a bank from being robbed in one of his dreams.
So, what is the moral of the story ? Live and let die ?
sweet dreams,
The point is, George shouldn't have fallen asleep in the first place. The nature of his job is to stay awake during his shift to watch out for possible intruders.
And although I just made up this character George, I think if he ended up being a night watchman at the railway station, it is not likely that he will have the luxury of choosing many other jobs. So it is not simply "Never mind he get sacked, get another job..." He will probably end up with another similar job elsewhere, and again he shouldn't fall asleep while on duty!
anonymous contributor,
Yes, I guess you can look at it that way. Sometimes, if you want to live, others must die!... and vice versa. It's just one of those cruel realities in life.
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