Bundy Robots

Youngblood: Bundy robots
By N.L. Pardo
Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 01:33:00 06/26/2008

Upon arriving at the workplace, before they eat lunch, and before they leave for home, employees line up in front of a mechanical timepiece that tracks the hours they have worked. This is an everyday scene in every office anywhere in the world, and the government agency where I work is not an exemption. At the end of every working day, we prepare to leave early and hastily line up in front of the biometric machine. We are excited to go home, enjoy a good dinner, and get some sleep. My officemates, mostly parents, long for the hugs and kisses of their children at the end of a tiring day. But before we can enjoy the pleasures of coming home, we have to put some extra time lining up before the stupid machine. Those who want to get home early, line up early.
This stupid machine is known as a bundy clock. It is said to be named after a jeweler in New York, who invented it. A few years later after it was invented, the clock began to be mass produced. Then it started to move away from the mechanical version to a computer-based, time-tracking system.
Today, relatives of that machine proliferate. One is the magnetic card that needs to be swiped in a machine. Another is a biometric clock that scans fingerprints. The machine may now come in many forms, but what has not changed is that it is an instrument for control of employees. I am sure that if the machine were a living thing, it would swell with pride for having god-like powers. It enslaves and debases employees who are compelled to start and end their day by pressing their fingers to a scanner that logs the precise time of their arrival or departure.
They say that the machine streamlines payroll operations by providing the timekeeper with official records of the hours worked for easier computation. I say that the system of clocking in and out is demeaning because it is based in mistrust. It is a bureaucratic intrusion on professionals who should have the freedom to put in extra time on work assignments they love doing and enjoy a little flexibility regarding their work hours.
Recently, I came across a newspaper ad inviting company managers to a symposium on how to spot creative employees. I think picking creative individuals among job applicants is quite easy. What is difficult is maintaining the creativity of the hired employees. And in this regard, scrapping the system of clocking in and out would help greatly.
Why? Because a creative workforce is not one that punches in and punches out. The system transforms creative employees into robots. Slowly, they become mechanical devices that operate automatically and perform boring jobs. They execute tasks by following a set of instructions that specifies exactly what they must do to complete the job. Little by little, their minds become used to routine and eventually they will lose their imagination.
I do not intend to be trapped in this system. I want to have a business of my own and work at my own pace. I want the little creativity that I have to develop. More importantly, I want to spend ample time with the family I will soon have. I don’t want to leave my children under the care of a nanny, and I don’t want to miss any single detail in their life as they grow up. I guess everyone wants the same thing, because nobody wants to be a robot.

N.L. Pardo, 21, plans to put up a business someday with M, her partner.