The Culture of Work in Nigeria
Do you love your job or are you just afraid of being unemployed?
Big question right?.
Over the last couple of years, some have had the opportunity to work with few startups companies and business corporations here in Nigeria and consult for a couple of other organizations and they have observed that there is a terrible work culture.
Some people also had conversations with their friends who work in different fields, hold various roles and the story is largely the same. Working in a typical Nigerian company is a daily battle with sanity.
There are two main sides to the problem, the Nigerian employees and the Nigerian business owner / manager.
Writing this now and it seems the underlying factor is Nigeria.
Many Nigerian businesses are focused on achieving results quickly rather than adopting a long-term stratagem. In short, people love to see results timely and know that their monetary investment is being fruitful.
If you give a typical Nigerian employee an inch, he will run 4th mainland bridge on your head. For example; a company decides to train employees on certain skills to improve their overall performance, the next week, an employee is applying for a job, a higher role than his current employment and definitely more pay (due to the new skill).
This leaves the employer with a sour taste and hesitation to offer such training going forward.
There is also the case of a gross sense of entitlement. The number of employees who want to be told what to do outnumber those that think for themselves and are proactive. People want to do the barest minimum and get paid, with an apartment and a personal driver.
Nigerian business owners / managers believe that due to the high rate of unemployment, you have no choice but to do their bidding, and that entails giving profit margins a priority, while the welfare of staffs are not, which is so ironic that it’s actually stupid.
Another issue is the management style where it is believed that the more time you spend at the office the more committed you are about your work. Like Nigeria, most companies work based on assumptions rather than data. There is no correlation between length of time at the office and productivity. Hence working overtime is an everyday thing and no one gets paid extra to do their ‘job’.
[Until you learn to escape,] you will work weekends too. “But it says Monday to Friday in my contract!” Haha, suck it up or quit.
Your weekend is only yours if you turn your phone off, stay offline and damn the consequences. Or hightail it to a neighboring town on Friday night. Yes, you’re a fugitive now, on the run from the job.
All your work is online, but the office Internet has been disconnected for days because some idiot refused to do their job. Everyone knows this and nothing has been done, but you must “deliver results” because of KPIs, “KPIs are from hell, by the way the devil sent his love.”
Some Nigeria employers will impose multiple tasks on a single employee and expect them to wrap up in a short period of time, while still anticipating optimum result. When this is not achieved, shouting and threatening becomes the order of the day.
“Shouting is an accepted way to reprimand staff and your boss can call you names your parents did not give you".
It is pertinent to note that, People have different work patterns, some are more productive very early in the morning, while some are off to a slow start, pickup momentum later in the day. It’s even tougher when you live in Lagos, and have to leave your house early, face traffic for an average of 2 hours to and fro work.
So what are the way forward
Nigerian employees need to improve their work ethics, this will do you more good than even your employer. Learn the skills you need to progress in your career and give every task your best shot.
Nigerian businesses need to deliberately focus on building a healthy work culture, i.e a system where 360 degree feedback is encouraged and everyone is enabled to thrive.
A workplace should serve as a platform for employees to thrive and not a desk for endless pressure.
In addition, Age is not equal to subject matter knowledge or expertise. Take time to listen, be open minded. Let people do the job you hired them for or improve your hiring process if you keep hiring the wrong people.
The responsibility is on the business owners / managers to find more creative ways of ensuring productivity, these will include result based work as opposed to time based work. If an employee is clear on what the expected outcome is, allow them to do the work (except if you hired the wrong person).
Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.
