On Your Kneels
There is a story making the rounds in the financial services community that is too good not to share:
Apparently a branch manager at one of the V/I bank branches made all of her marketing staff kneel down for not meeting their deposit targets. After word of this got out, the manager was sanctioned by head honcho at headquarters. In some versions she was reprimanded and in others she was sacked. I like to think that she was patted on the back and told to keep up the good work :D
I know it's bloody absurd, but it's hilarious right. Imagine coming into work one day and being told to kneel down as punishment. I mean the maturity of the lady that she thought kneeling down was sufficient enough punishment for failing to meet a business target. I mean, I can clearly imagine that marketing woman being driven to extremes of offering sex to a client just to avoid kneeling down. I mean I'm not a woman, but I know that I would seriously consider it. After all being made to kneel down is a fate worse than death.
Now let us leave aside the idiot woman who thought kneeling down was the height of punishment, and address those special people that actually knelt down instead of rolling their eyes. As you would expect the male senior managers were the first to go on their kneels. I guess they felt that they had the most to lose. Think about it, if they lose the job, their no-qualified arse would not be able to cop that N15m salary with 100% bonus, rock those two cars, romance the beautiful professional wife, and organise the unilag going model girlfriend. Who wouldn't drop to their kneels at the thought of losing the good life.
My heart actually goes out to the junior people on the marketing team who supposedly were some of the last to drop to their kneels. They do not deserve the gutless wonders that they have as superiors. Telling these young ones that the only thing that matters is job security sets a very bad precedent for them for the rest of their careers. People who would do anything to keep the "job" would literally do anything. It is a short step from kneeling down to not get fired, to coming back to the bank without your skirt to not get fired (true story - it was a long jacket)
I like to think I'm the kind of person that would have rolled my eyes and walked out, but I suppose I cannot judge the people until I am in that kind of situation. Still I just can't see it. What about you? What would you have done?
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14 comments:
i woulda run to the bathroom until she sent a search party after me,
following which i would inform her that i have a very important meeting with a potential customer and cannot waste time and/or money on my 'kneels', also potentally ruining the bottom half of my 50k someone-or-other suit.
then i'da taken the official car and myself to lunch and laughed at my less-smart colleagues who actually agreed to serve the punishment!
it's a good enuf compromise, no?
what the F? seriously?i would roll my eyes and walk out!i know i will!what rubbish!
I would have hidden somewhere, or walked out. Of course I say this from here. I don't know what I would do if say, I had spent the last four or five years looking for a job and finally landing one.
I would say no...and then I would slap the woman afterall saying no would mean I would have lost my job. So, to garnish the matter well-well, I would include a sound hot slap.
Yup!
I don't believe this story jo. There are always such useless things circulation the Naija gossip rounds. Please, as Rihanna would say
LOL!LOL!LOL! Snazzy..did u make this up? I cant believe they actually knelt down, esp the men..But the walking out part wud require group action, you know no1 whats to be the left wheel, BUT they still shudnt have indulged her, shez really special..sec sch complex still doing her!
Chee
@ geisha; run to the bathroom abi? look at her leaving all ur peeps behind. tsk tsl
@ pink satin; u go on with ya bad self
@ archwiz; so u are part of geisha's abandonment squad abi? i suppose people in that situation may feel that they have too much to lose but still...
@ funmi; i like it, you might as well "be hanged for a lion as for a lamb" abi
@ smarty pants; it's a true story, one of my colleagues knows someone who worked in the branch that it happened in. and why the Rhianna quote now?
@ chee, yes oh! and no i didn't make it up. 'sides it is the men that always feel they have to much to lose. I guess she misses those SSCE days :D
na wah for naija!
in naija anything can happen,
soon dat madam, will be bring her underwear to the office and ask them to wash it, or they are fired.
I sooo support Funmi, but until you are in that situation, you truly might not know ur reaction, because men, if you gat bills to pay and you know where to get the next kobo, you go kneel o! take am with shame, plan on how u can exit go another bank, but wetin be the gurantee sey where u dey go is not worse! but sometimes you are just tired of it all and really don't care if you see sleep on cold rails of falomo bridge and just quit.
sorry for the long comment.
Do you say knees or kneels
Hmmm
Nothin is impossible in the Nigerian workplace so I shall believe this with a pinch of salt.
I really dont know if its our culture of 'respect your elders' that shifts excessively to the workplace but I really cannot believe that those people actually knelt down!
I can just imagine someone telling me that...I cant even guess my reaction but 'obeying' and getting on my knees is impossible.
Who said slavery was dead?
This story is fantastic and fabulous i would say...
wow i've not such a story for a long., did they actually go their knees or did u say kneels...
My Job cant be put on the line for something not worth..
Everyone must take his or her Job serious ...
i think that the punishment was a good one. But since the lady is also responsible she should have been made to crawl for ten minutes while all the others knelt
LMAO!!! Did this happen for real?!?!?!? Only in Naija I tell you! That won’t slide here. I don’t even know what I would do if faced with such a ludicrous situation! What the hell does she think this is? High school? I personally don’t think I would have done it. Coming from where I’m coming from, where everyone respects other peoples rights and privacy and there’s no hierarchical bull-ish…I would have ROLLED MY EYES and walked out on her, believing that even if I lost my job after that, I did so gracefully without succumbing to such foolery! Nonsense! I can’t even remember the last time I knelt down in secondary school, and then it’s in “corporate Nigeria”? NEVER THAT!
LMAO @ the "male senior managers" anaylsis. After that swift replay of what they had to lose, they became one with the ground. Surprised they didn't even LIE DOWN self. I can just picture them dropping to their knees with absolutely NO hesistation. PITIFUL.
I'm WAY to proud for such degradation. I couldn't have succumbed to it. My pride, my pride.
LOVE THIS BLOG btw. Are you on facebook?
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