…the Struggle Continues!

On May 1, as Nigerian workers joined the rest of the world to mark the labour day, a good number of speeches-especially those from the Labour divide- re-echoed the unofficial Labour motto: The Struggle Continues.
Indeed the struggle for better work conditions, better remuneration and respect should continue (in the hope that this struggle will end someday though). But there’s even a greater struggle that need not continue; the struggle that many workers have been sold into against their wish.

It’s the struggle to find MMM — Monday Morning Motivation — every week; the struggle to be diligent not negligent; the struggle to banish the fear of messy emails from bossy bosses (and endure the sting when it eventually comes); the struggle for true enjoyment from what you do every day and where you work every day.

Some struggle to enjoy what they do, some struggle to enjoy where they work, some struggle for both. The struggle is global, but as at the time of writing I live and work in Nigeria so I can only tell the Nigerian story.

Career stereotypes often birth the first Struggle: when parents and pressures prevail in career choice.
It’s so funny that we live in a society where good cooking is upheld as a virtue; capable of making you worth 1000 yards of marriage material, yet we stop our ears if our children declare their ambition to study and practice cooking.
It’s so annoying when parents want their daughters to study mathematics-intensive courses, yet the only mathematics they encouraged was the counting of the braids they made on the doll babies bought for them.
And even within the class of acceptable career options, there’s still a struggle. They will let you study a Science course, but not Botany. Perhaps Botany is a cousin to science.
Well, you can study Engineering, but not Textile Engineering.
So Professional Chefs end up studying Mass Communication. They end up talking a lot about food when communicating, but that’s mild compared to the every week search for MMM.

The second struggle is actually a major component of our bragging points during employee discourse that sounds like: “My Boss is an expert at sending Nasty Emails. He once asked me to meet the cleaner to explain a technical task, if I couldn’t understand the ‘simple’ task he had assigned.” “Haba, that’s mild. My Boss comes to the office, greets everyone with a smile, goes to his office, no nasty emails, then dishes emails with salary deductions. Reason? This is where your Boss’ counsel becomes useful: You just don’t get it so you really need the Office Sanitation Manager’s help else you’ll go Insane.” And everyone laughs.
So Happy Administrators go to work and return Sad Arbitrators, never able to settle the dispute between the head that desires to work and the heart that desires respect.

For those whose struggle is hybrid, I lack the words to describe the situation.

Thankfully, there are ways out of these struggles. As one of my respected friends taught me,

the concept of a “career field” is no more. The lines are blurred, and the ecosystem is becoming flat. When you see a need or opportunity (and I add: that you are interested in), get the required skill(s), (re)brand, and go for it.

The internet is a trove of resources: If you had/have to study something against your wish, you really have no excuse not to acquire the knowledge and/or skills that align with your passion.
Don’t get enslaved by your job. If your job or workspace is defying the possibility of ‘falling in love with it through use and interaction’ or sucking the life out, then get a better one-not just another job.

We’ve been told that there are no jobs, rather that there are not enough jobs. So we’re so scared and slaved. Well, the facts are real and even true, but I believe there are still jobs (real ones not ‘political positions’), just not enough right people. And sometimes, the right people don’t look in the right places. And sometimes, too many right people look in a few same right places.

It’s pay week, and that’s a major consolation. But don’t get distracted, because the pay-induced happiness lasts just this week. In the end, you must be part of a struggle. Either you join the struggle for freedom and fulfilment or remain in the struggle that is searching for MMM. And we know MMM won’t come back. Oh sorry, I meant to say it’s hard to find. smiles

[Originally published Jul 4, 2018 on chinenyenwaneri.wordpress.com]