Do Your Staff Have The Right Work Ethics?

Wikipedia, describes work ethics as: “a belief that hard work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or value to strengthen character and individual abilities. It is a set of values centered on importance of work and manifested by determination or desire to work hard.”

To be honest, that narrative is all complex. Mine would read something like this: “Doing the job with all due diligence.”

There is something about blue collar workers – house help, waitresses, drivers and so forth. Their work ethics especially when it comes to leaving the job, differ from that of a white collar worker. When house help asks for time off to go to the village, it’s usually the signal that they are not coming back. And for most of us, we learned the hard way because we didn’t see the signals. Like Dora says: “It’s imperative to check their rooms before they leave because it’s not in their work ethics to tell you that they are done. They have quit. They just go and never come back. If they have left say their radio, some Sunday best clothes, the nice suitcase and a neatly laid bed, then they are coming back. But, if on the other hand, they have left tattered clothes and worn out slippers, then they are gone for good.”

But sometimes, the blue collar work ethic does cross over to the white collar worker. A while back, I was invited to sit on an interview panel of a company seeking to hire a receptionist. When Interviewee walked in, she had receptionist attributes and the interview was going well until she got asked - “if she you were offered the job, when could you start?” Interviewee’s response simply astounded. “Right now” she said. “But wait up” I interjected. “You told us you were working at a company on Bukoto Street. Don’t you have to give them some notice?” Interviewee didn’t even bat her eyelids when she said: “I told them I have a problem. I just won’t go back.”

With that she failed the interview. If she was willing to ask her employer for a couple of hours off to go sort out a ‘problem’ (read: going for an interview) and not going back because she was offered the job on the spot, then, she is obviously going to do the same thing to us if we had offered her the job. And the saddest part of it all, is that she did not see where she went wrong.  

          

There are a number of offices that, overlook Kampala Road. And at least once or twice during any given week, there is a parade from City Square down towards Centenary Park. These marches that have been sanctioned by the police are usually led by a band and behind them anybody from school teachers, nurses, prisons, National Water and so forth. All are marching for a cause.

As we sat in the boardroom overlooking Kampala Road, we could hear tunes from the band get louder and louder. And the louder they became, I started to notice concentration beginning to wane in the boardroom with people trying to peer out of the huge windows to get a look. As a joke I said: “Perhaps we could adjourn the meeting for two minutes so people can get to see what is going on outside.”

To my utter surprise, literally the entire boardroom leapt out of their seats to go and gawp at Buganda Road Primary School – it think it was marching past!

Speaking to one of the managers after the meeting, he had this to say: “It don’t understand their work ethics. People march past every week and my staff will rush to the windows. An ambulance siren also attracts their attention as does that of a bullion van, police car……”  

Pictures: Internet