Role-play on talking with an employee about saving energy: transcript

Key points

• The interviewer opens by asking what energy-saving methods the employee already uses.
• The employee uses a power strip to avoid standby, but forgets when in a hurry and says it works only if colleagues do it too.
• At home the employee switches off lights and closes windows because it costs money, but feels the employer's costs are not their concern.
• The employee says work priorities and complex processes leave little time to turn off lights or equipment.
• Separate laboratory freezers could be replaced by one large one, but the employee says that would cost too much time walking.
• The employee is unwilling to take extra steps for energy savings because priorities lie elsewhere.

Chapters

1. 0:06Opening the energy-saving discussion
2. 0:36Existing habits and the power strip
3. 1:43Saving energy at home versus at work
4. 2:14Work priorities and complex workflows
5. 3:16The laboratory freezer example

Full transcript

0:06Today, I would like to talk with you about possibilities to save energy. Okay. You work in a laboratory. There are some options that will certainly allow you to save energy. I not only work in a laboratory, but I also work in an office. There are certainly some options to save energy. However, these so-called options are always connected to great expenditures. Don't be so rash. First off, we should speak about the methods you already use to save energy.

0:36Can you think of some? Well, for example, I have set up my PC with a coupler strip, so that it is not running on standby the entire time. But if I'm in a hurry in the evenings, I do not always remember to do this. So it's not so important to you to save energy in this way. I mean, it's a hand movement, then the switch is turned off. Well, it is often important, but when there is no time to do so, then there just isn't time. And when I am the only one doing this, it often doesn't get done.

1:06All of my colleagues must do it in order for it to be effective. Well, because your colleagues don't do it, you don't do it either. But even when you are the only one doing it, it has an effect. You should really do this every night. Sure, then I end up crawling under my desk at closing time, while all the others get to leave. You could keep an eye on the clock in 5 minutes before it's time to quit. You would have time to turn off the switch, shut the windows, turn off the heating, turn the lights off, etc. That sounds more like it would take half an hour, and I cannot do it. I do not have time for that.

1:43And how do you do it in the morning at home, when you're leaving your house or apartment? Of course, I make sure to close all the windows, I flip the lights off and so on. And why? Obviously, it costs a lot of money. And when I'm not at home the entire day, I do not need the lights on. You know that it costs money. Have you no conscience about how much money your employer must spend, because you do not close your window in the evenings, you do not turn off the heating or turn off the switch? He has enough money. He shouldn't be concerned.

2:14But nevertheless, it would save energy and do good for the environment. Yes, this is true. I already know this, but there are other priorities with work. Naturally, I can close the windows, switch off the PCs, etc. I thought you do not have time. This has already been said. I can do these things, but in my eyes there just isn't a large effect. And... Where do your priorities lie in your work? The work must be done. The results have to be right and it must go relatively quickly.

2:45I cannot just say, oh, the sun is going down. Now I must drop everything and go turn off the lights and switch off everything. Work processes are much too complex and I would have to interrupt them to do this. But you could, for example, ask another person to turn off the lights. Someone who is perhaps closer to the switch and whose workflow wouldn't be broken. Yes, sure, I could do this, but two minutes later, when the sun has gone down, I must ask them again. Okay, perhaps this is too hard, because it's so variable as to when the sun goes down.

3:16But what, for example, about the lights in the office when you leave for the laboratory? I switch them off. I try to remember to do this. Sometimes I forget to do this, but this is only the exception. This is still good. Much of this is not feasible organizationally. For example, we have a separate freezer in each laboratory where often there are only three test tubes inside. It would be more reasonable perhaps to have one large freezer to use where all the test tubes are stored, but that would just be a huge hassle because you would have to constantly walk from laboratory to laboratory.

3:51It would be worth it in terms of energy sparing, but in terms of our work it would be a step backwards because it is much more complicated and it would take more time. So, you think that there are capacities to save energy, but these are not implemented, because in terms of other aspects, there are too many drawbacks. Exactly. Who wants to go to the room 30 times a day to retrieve a test tube? This is true. But maybe you could place the freezer in the hallway, so that it is easily accessible to everyone. Then everyone would have to walk to it. The way it is now is just simpler.

4:26We did not buy all of these freezers for nothing. There is a purpose for it. So you're not willing to do a few more steps to save energy, even though you know it would do this? Yes, exactly. I have said already that priorities are just elsewhere.

Source and licence

Recording: File:Talking-with-consumers-about-energy-reductions-recommendations-from-a-motivational-interviewing-Video1.ogv by Klonek F, Kauffeld S (2015-03-13), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.