JOb Chronicles IV

admin Oct 8, 2020 1391 0

Toyeens’ Job Chronicles – Part IV

After I resumed at DJL, one of the guys
with whom I was assigned to work on
my first project told me he heard my
interview presentation was impressive
and he had high expectations from me.
Little did he know that that wasn’t
the real me.
I assumed my information security
analyst role at DJL would be technical
and involve the cryptography and
hacking I read about in the book
Digital Fortress and when I was
taken round the office and introduced
to the staff, I said the server room
was going to be where I would
spend most of my time.
I couldn’t be more wrong.
I came to understand that consulting
meant advisory and involved no
implementation.
In simple terms, it means you acquire
the knowledge to carry out projects and
advise your clients on this but you are
not the one who does the operational
aspect of the work.
I was tasked with writing proposals for
new projects, attending several meetings
with clients, and serving as subject matter
expert, preparing tons and tons of
documentation – reports, frameworks,
templates, etc and interacting with clients.
I hated every single aspect of this role.
I had a completely different personality
and skill-set than I do now. I hated
creating, writing (imagine), interacting
with clients professionally, speaking in
meetings – all of which I now love to do.
My boss told me on different occasions
that he expected me to be speaking a
lot in meetings given the way I spoke
during the presentation for my interview.
In my mind, I just said haq haq haq you
dinnot even know warris going on.
That wasn’t my real personality oh - me
that I am quiet in public.
I just deployed it to get a job.
Anyway, the part of my job I loved the
most was being given food daily on the
client’s site and during meetings.
I also loved my colleagues – most of
whom I am still friends with to date.
We were all young – in our 20s and
30s save for a few people and I got
along well with most of them.
There was no forming and pretentiousness
and just being around them was the best
part of going to work every day.
I was on a project with my boss to
develop a business continuity plan for
the client and it involved meeting with
key stakeholders from every department
to determine their key businesses so a
continuity plan or back up plan could
be created for each business to ensure
they recovered in case of an incident.
My boss usually did most of the talking
while I collected the data and chipped
in only when he deliberately asked me to.
I really did not like to speak in public
amongst people I was unfamiliar with.
At the end of each meeting, I would
leave with my pack of food and whole
croaker fish from TFC.
And then one fateful morning when
we had to meet with the clients, as usual,
my boss came into the office and said
he would not be going with me and I
would be going alone!
I told him I wasn’t capable of handling
the meeting on my own and he said
I ought to be able to do it having sat
in several meetings with him.
I thought he was joking, but he was
dead serious and left for his office.
I almost wanted to cry.
If I knew that was going to be the
result of my eating croaker fish, I
would have rejected it.
Anyway, I packed up my laptop and
left for the client’s site with the
company driver.
All through the ride, I was just praying
to God to help me not to disgrace myself
and undermine my capabilities in the
midst of all those people.
Anyway, I arrived at the meeting and
set up my laptop to project on the screen.
I started the meeting and just started
saying every single thing my boss used
to say when he anchored the meetings.
I wasn’t even aware that I had soaked
up all he used to said and could
convincingly pull off anchoring the meeting.
After the meeting, I got a few praises
from the audience, and this time around
when I picked up my food and whole
croaker fish, I believed I had earned it.
When I returned to the office, my boss
asked me how it went and I told him it
went well.
The project was over scoped and was
taking a lot of time to complete.
At some point, our management asked
us to wrap it up and present a final report.
Of course, I refused to create the report
because #can’tdospirit.
It was eventually passed on to a new
hire who did a good job I must say and
to date, I call him baba BCP.
I honestly didn’t have a good attitude
to my job based on the reason I
mentioned in the previous post but
obviously, I know better by now.
Doing good work is for your good and
the knowledge and skills you develop
doing it can never be taken away from
you.
Doing shoddy work as a means of
paying back your employer for poor
pay or poor treatment hurts you far
more than it hurts your employer.
However, I did not have this insight
at the time and just did whatever I could
– my motto was I can’t come and kill
myself.
There was a time I was asked to do
a proposal for a new field we wanted
to get into.
First of all, I was convinced we weren’t
even qualified to bid for it and me doing
the proposal was a waste of my precious
time.
And so, I just strung together some
information I got on the internet and created
something which I sent to my boss.
My thinking was I was only an Analyst
and someone higher up would fix it up
and make it decent.
But I’ll never do that again.
If some work is going to have my name
on it, then it has to be done well because
I don’t know where it would end up.
If I believe I am unable to do a decent
job that I would be proud to have my
name associated with, I would decline
the job with compelling reasons.

I wasn’t a fan of my MD as said earlier
but again I lost out because I closed my
eyes to all the other things I could have
learned from her just because I felt she
did me dirty – I guess it’s my loss though
because one of my friends still talks to
me about all she learned from her in all
the time she worked with her.
We had a first name only policy at work
and we called everyone by name including
the MD.
Every Friday, one member of staff would
give a presentation on the topic of their
choice to the rest of the team members
as a means of improving our presentation
skills.
On one such presentation, the MD gave
feed-back I disagreed with and I expressed
my contrary opinions there and there in
the presence of the other staff.
We went back and forth and I refused to
back down to the surprise of my colleagues.
On another occasion, the HR told me I
would be presenting the following Friday
when I was originally scheduled to
present in two weeks.
I was so upset, I told him it was unfair,
walked out after the meeting, and slammed
the door behind me!
The MD was in that meeting oh.
Anyway, I was ill-prepared for the
presentation on Friday and did a very
mediocre job – I wasn’t proud of myself
at all especially because some people
had heard about my interview
presentation and now I was falling
hand badly.
I ended up scoring 65% on it which
was quite poor.
(The Friday presentations were scored
by the attendees.
We used to have Fellowships on Mondays
at 5 pm at the office but again I never
attended because I did not care for it.
There was a day my friend and I were
gisting in the office during the fellowship
and the MD walked in on us and started
shouting at us about how we did not respect
God and other things I can’t remember.
My friend apologized and joined the
fellowship that day and every other Monday
she was still in the office after 5 pm.
But even after all that shout Toyeen never
attended the fellowship.

Everybody in the office knew that I was
stingy because I used to track my expenses
on my laptop, bring food to the office
when I wasn’t on the client’s site, and
ensure I collected every money owed
me even money as small as N1500.
I think it was kinda weird because I had
a car and lived in VI with my uncle before
moving back home but still, I do play with
my money.
Anyway, I am sure no one was surprised
when my final Friday presentation to the
staff was on personal Financial
management.
helped with my slides and I think I did
a great job cuz I scored 86%.
It’s kinda weird I still remember what
I scored.
The most important thing I got from DJL
was my relationship with my colleagues.
I realized how a fun work environment
where you enjoy being around the people
you work with really impacts the work
you do and how a toxic work environment
can be very detrimental to your work and
mental health.
I resigned after watching Steve Jobs’
Stanford Commencement address.
I was at home for over 2 months after I
resigned where I was just sleeping and
eating and doing nothing productive.
I assumed it would be easy for me to
get the Telco job I desired but I was wrong.
On a few occasions, I longed for my job
at DJL but thankfully, I had written down
all the reasons that led me to resign
and would go back to read them whenever
I felt like I had made the wrong decision
and they would remind me resigning w
as the right thing to do.
One morning, I woke up suddenly with
the alarming thought that I was wasting
my life.
To be Continued…