Automation

I work in a fairly new building and we have all the latest in automatic everything. You know toilets that flush for you and sinks that turn on when your hand goes under. I love it. In fact I have to remind myself to flush when I go other places because I'm so used to it. We also have key card entry to all the doors so no keys, just your ID card that you have to wear at all times.

But the greatest thing is the automatic lights. I love being able to walk into my office in the morning with my hands full of bags and not have to turn on the lights. I love being able to leave at night and not wonder if I turned off the lights. They sense when there isn't movement after about 20 minutes and shut off.

Unfortunately there are a couple of problems. Right now my main receptionist area has people on vacation. So the lights out there go out in 20 minutes if no one comes in. This is a huge problem in the morning because there are only two of us and we have no reason to go out there unless we need something at the printer. So I keep have to get up and go wave my arms to get the lights to turn on. Otherwise our security guards think no one is there and they lock the door. Our other problem is the custodial staff keeps turning off the automatic part of the lights when they clean in the morning. I have no idea why they turn the lights off when we all know that they go off automatically. We have gone to placing post it notes on the switches so they won't turn them off. The university also got a grand idea to put stickers on every light switch on the whole campus reminding people to turn off their lights to save energy. Why they had to put them on ours when they go off I don't know. Another waste of money from them.