RULES, REGULATIONS & GUIDELINES FOR INTERNS & VOLUNTEERS
“Rules are indispensable for the orderly management of work; for without order and
arrangement nothing can be properly done, all becomes clash, confusion and disorder.”
—Sri Aurobindo
Welcome! We are very happy to have you working with us, and we hope and wish this to be a beautiful
and enriching experience, both for you and the organization. The enclosed booklet, Towards Tomorrow,
will give you an idea of the organization’s vision and aspiration, and also the attitude with which work is
done. In addition, it provides a brief introduction to the range of work undertaken.
General
1. On your arrival, a Coordinator will be assigned to help you in making your experience here a fruitful
one. Please do hand over a copy of your résumé to your Coordinator. The Coordinator will introduce
and orient you on the daily routine and essential activities before you can start your work.
2. If your work requires you to come to the SAFIC office daily, the office timings are 8:30 am to 5:30
pm. The lunch break is from 12 noon to 1:30 pm. Please adhere to these office timings; however, if
you would like to work outside of the office hours, especially after 5:30 pm, your Coordinator’s
consent is essential.
3. Please submit a monthly report of your work, or as suggested by your Coordinator.
4. If you plan on receiving parcels/posts at the office address, ask the sender/s to use your name,
followed by “C/o” in the name of your Coordinator. Otherwise, the person at the office who receives
parcels wouldn’t know whom to deliver.
5. A responsible approach towards the workplace and the environment is a part of your taking up this
Work. Here are a few essential do’s and don’ts:
(a) When you leave your workplace for a meeting, at lunchtime or the end of the day:
(i) Please turn off the fan, tube lights, A/C and any other electrical devices that you may
have used.
(ii) If you are the last person to leave the section, please ensure that all the windows and
doors of the section are closed. The office has not appointed anybody to do this.
(b) We are not into the practice/culture of eating and working at the same time, except for the
occasional sweets distributed on special occasions; so please follow this strictly and avoid
eating at the work stations. However, feel free to eat at designated areas in the building.
(c) Though keeping some snacks in your workspace is permissible, understand its implications
as this may invite a host of ants to invade all the computers & the keyboards.
(d) Eating non-vegetarian food/snacks is not permitted within the office premises.
(e) Please do not waste paper and other resources. You are most welcome to find innovative
ways of recycling such wastes.
(f) Kindly do not litter around in the office premises; trash cans are available at strategic places
for your use. Also please ensure that you leave the toilets flushed clean after use.
6. Since many people visit the office premises during the course of a day, it is a part of your
responsibility to take care of your valuables and not leave them carelessly around.
7. What we have here is not just a work environment, but an environment for collective living and
growth where, besides one's own work, each one tries to help by taking up certain collective
responsibilities as well, in a selfless way. If you would like to take up any collective responsibility,
please contact your Coordinator.
8. You are working in a spiritual organization. Please do remember that during your tenure what you do
publicly, even outside the office premises, will have a direct bearing on the credibility and impression
of the organization.
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Lodging & Boarding
1. If you are staying within the premises of any of the Society or the Ashram guesthouses, please follow
the guidelines set up by them.
2. In case you are travelling out of Puducherry, please inform your Coordinator, the guesthouse in-
charge and Prosperity (the department that serves juice and tea every day).
3. Please consult your Coordinator for the food arrangement during your stay.
4. If you would like to visit the Ashram at early morning or late evening, you will need an identity card
which is issued by the guesthouse on request. If you are not staying in an Ashram or Society-run
guesthouse, please approach the Coordinator for this pass.
Materials/Resources Issued to You
1. Please take good care of all the resources issued to you for your use. If any of the equipment (such as
bicycles, laptops, mobile phones, library books, etc.) need periodic maintenance, please get it done
with the concerned department, in consultation with your Coordinator.
2. In case you happen to lose or damage anything issued to you, please bring it to the attention of the
Coordinator immediately, so that the Coordinator can take preventive measures to stop its possible
misuse by finders of these things. The Coordinator also will see if the lost/damaged goods can be
replaced.
Computer & Internet Usage
1. Before using any of the office computers, please ask for guidelines from the person in-charge.
2. Unauthorized use of storage devices (such as pen/disc drives) on office computers is strictly
prohibited.
3. You are allowed to use the allotted computer only during the office hours. If you are carrying
your own laptop, you may use the office Internet facility only during office hours. If you wish to
use the Internet after the office hours or on holidays, please inform your Coordinator about this
and he/she will tell you if and how it can be done. If you have to work beyond 8 pm frequently or
regularly, you need to discuss this with Vijaybhai and get it sanctioned.
4. The entire office shares the Internet connection, so please be judicious about online
streaming/downloading of audios & videos (especially browsing YouTube, video-conferencing or
playing online music). If you need to download/upload any big file (~100 MB or more in size),
please inform your Coordinator about it, and he/she will tell you how to go about it.
5. Please restrict your use of Internet to work-related purposes only; avoid indulging in the use of
office computers for mere personal entertainment or for work un-related social media exchanges,
as it lowers the work atmosphere of the entire office.
6. Please do not use the office Wi-Fi for your mobile/smart phones without taking prior permission.
This is to ensure that maximum bandwidth is available to the computers at the office.
Library Usage
1. If you would like to borrow books from the Library, kindly request your Coordinator. While
borrowing books from the Library, strictly follow their rules.
2. The Library books should not be taken outside Puducherry without the librarian’s permission.
At the end of your Tenure
1. A checklist of the returnable things issued to you will be with the Coordinator. Please return these
things in person and get it cleared by the Coordinator. Do not hand over your things to others and ask
them to submit on your behalf. In order to ensure this, please return the materials one or two days
before your departure.
2. Please leave a copy of all your work-related material with the Coordinator. If necessary, the
Coordinator might ask you to present the work done by you during your tenure here, or hand it over to
the other members of the team so that the work could be carried forward in a smooth way.
3. Get the clearance certificate issued to you by your co-ordinator and submit it to Gitaben, as a sign of
completion of your internship/volunteering.
