The Boss is Wrong

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, from being on air (radio) to being in front of the camera, to behind the camera as producer. Just another day at the office. Photo Credit: Online pic.

We work for a variety of reasons. Money obviously, because the bank licks its fingers every month waiting for mortgage (bond) payments, interest on the mortgage, car payments and credit card payments.

We also work because we love what we do, what we studied in college or experience we acquired from working in SPARES, all the way up to assembling cars or computers. The problem is the boss. Sorry, team leader is the word, I believe. The boss sometimes forgets that work is not his house. It is a space governed by company rules and labor laws found in most countries. Unfortunately, they cannot control human nature. The boss likes some workers, hates others and it has nothing to do with productivity.

The boss violates workplace rules when he treats the workplace like his home. It ends up with workers doing nanny, maid, driver or gardener duties. Some don’t mind being his dust pan. Example. I left  radio because I thought the Station Manager was ‘quite a man.’ He brought his two year-old daughter to work, because kids were not allowed where his wife worked.

We were in a community radio station, so rules were not as rigid as in corporate media. I shared an office with him, and the little girl warmed up to me. The Station Manager would ask me to hold her while he answered the phone, or someone came to see him. His wife heard that the daughter liked me. I held the adorable little thing, then I held her, I held her some more, then I finally realized that I was no longer the Program Director, but the office nanny.

I would have stayed longer but he was such a ‘nice man’ he allowed radio hosts to piss on my feet. He said it was raining.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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