Responding to social calls and productivity — Balancing the act

By Doreen Allotey

It is a normal Monday morning and workers are busy meandering through traffic to get to their offices so they can justify their visit to the bank at the end of the month.
It has been a busy weekend for most of them — socially. For some, Friday night was a pal's bachelors night party and anybody who has ever attended one of those nights knows what happens there. Saturday morning, they had to dash to the burial service of a classmates' mother, returned on time for a wedding service and ended up at the night club later in the night. Some virtually crawled home at dawn and those who were sloshed, slumped into bed with their clothes and shoes on.
Then, Sunday morning started with church service, drifted into an omutuo session in the afternoon and some visits going way into the evening and probably some all-night-church services.
Strange thing is, no matter how long one practices this routine, one really never gets used to it and begins the Monday feeling like an armed robber who has just escaped the wrath of an angry mob who wanted to lynch him. But one does all these in conformity to societal demands and norms. As the saying goes, if you have several farms you must tend them all.
The scenario painted above depicts the weekend routine of many workers. It even becomes more exacting when one has to travel many kilometres outside one’s place of abode to attend to these social calls. I have had the misfortune of attending funerals and weddings as far as Tumu and Takoradi on different occasions. Apart from the physical exhaustion, the impact on the already over-stretched pocket is obvious, especially in these days of high fuel accommodation and feeding costs, against the background of a global recession which some choose to call financial crunch where workers who used to be paid at the middle of the month now have a long agonising wait into the next month.
But what are friends and colleagues for, if not to be around in our moments of joy or sorrow? Who really wants a fair weather friend? Yet, these things take a nagging toll on our collective productivity as a work force. Of what use is a worker when he or she reports to work at the beginning of the week feeling very weak? The productivity of such a person by Wednesday can be anybody's guess. No wonder there is a high incidence of workers reporting sick,( actually nursing hangovers), playing truancy, malingering and absenteeism. For some it has become a stock-in-trade.
How then do we balance the equation? Will you respond to these social calls and go to work tired or rest over the weekend, go to work rejuvenated but be in the bad books of friends and relatives? Especially those friends who have been or will be there to hold you up when you are falling?
I think the way to go is to balance the act. You cannot respond to all social calls. Make a list according to priority and the level of friendship and attend to social calls according to this priority. Save sometime for yourself and take a little rest. The body needs rest to remain productive . And productivity justifies the pay cheque at the end of the month.