Multi-tasking at a glance

By Cyrus A. Natividad

The best time to evaluate a person on his job is when you catch him doing his best beyond your expectation.

We saw a guy with a paint roller on hand to make yellow demarcation lines on the car park in front of CPU Engineering Building on a sunny Tuesday morning. We learned that he was doing an extra job “on his own initiative” (under the heat of the sun).This guy, a regular university staff assigned to the Engineering Laboratory Maintenance is Jojie Calinao. He is always smiling and full of energy. He said that his “multi-tasking attitude” leads to good stewardship.

Our observation is that he is efficient in his work at the laboratory, and “wasting time” may not be in his vocabulary.

Is multi-tasking a need to become a good steward? People have considered multitasking in their minds to be some specific activities or assignments attached to the main task. Using the principle of Jojie, multi-tasking results from an awareness that God has endowed us with gifts that we can use. The activity may not be related to the process of accomplishing the main task. It comes as a need arises. At a break time, after cleaning up and painting part of the equipment in the laboratory, Jojie saw the excess paint. At that moment the faded demarcation lines on the concrete floor of the car park appeared in his mind. He acted on it, and fulfilled one of the core values of the university – stewardship.