Yes, Ugandans work hard indeed!
Apr 27, 2006
Cling cling! The alarm rings at 6:00am. Time to wake up and get ready for work. “But no, my sleep is more precious. Ten more minutes and I will be up!†I assure myself. By the time you jump out of bed, it is already 7:30am.
By Elvina Nawaguna
Cling cling! The alarm rings at 6:00am. Time to wake up and get ready for work. “But no, my sleep is more precious. Ten more minutes and I will be up!†I assure myself. By the time you jump out of bed, it is already 7:30am.
You must be at work by 8:00am according to company rules. But then, you have to boil bathing water and then there is no way you are going to leave the house without taking Chai. Chai is a big issue in Uganda, you know.
By the time you get to work, it is 9:30am. You saunter in, aware that you are late, but not necessarily sorry about it. You walk in saying “hi†to everybody, like nothing is wrong.
You get to your desk, log onto yahoo and spend the next hour checking and replying e-mails. Some of them are really funny so you laugh out loud and invite your neighbour to read along. She or he looks at it, laughs loud and asks you to forward it to them, so that they can forward it to other people. In the process, your neighbour starts narrating to you about “this really funny friend who will enjoy this e-mail joke.†she starts narrating various experiences and stories about her friend.
By this time, it is tea-break time –– 11:00am. The kaboozi is hot and your neighbour is enjoying the narrating, so you both spontaneously walk together for chai. After chai, you spend a few minutes joking with the tea girl, then drag your feet leisurely to your desk. Of course you have to drop by the toilets on your way to the desk.
Finally, you get down to some work. It is already coming to noon. Remember Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex? Yes, most Ugandan workers instinctively stop working and start feeling hungry at exactly 1:00pm, whether they look at the clock or not. At exactly 1:00pm you instinctively and very punctually stop to go for lunch.
We Ugandans being very social people, you drag your feet to the lunch place as you stop from one desk to another to gather fellows to go with for lunch. Of course, lunch is made up of a variety of foods, so you take your time making your pick, along with your entourage.
When you finally get to sit down to eat, there is a lot of conversation and you know when we Ugandans are talking, we abandon everything we are doing. So the guy who is holding the conversation forgets the plate of food in front of him. When the rest of you have finished your food, you have to wait for him to finish because it is unUgandan to leave him there.
Finally, you all manage to complete, and get dragging your feet back to your desk, not forgetting the toothpick at the edge of your mouth. On your way to your desk, you again drop by the loo, if only for a courtesy call.
Back at your desk, you first spend the next 30 minutes picking your teeth as your other arm rests on the back of your chair. You begin to feel sleepy because you have eaten too much. You open the work you were supposed to be doing on your computer and walk away to the conference or board room to take a nap.
If boss passes by your desk, he will assume that work is going on when he sees an open assignment on your desk.
In the conference room, you meet other fellow typical Ugandan employees who have the same agenda. You chat a bit about nothing really before putting your head on the desk or going under the round table for a nap. You set the alarm on your phone for 3:00pm. When it rings, you add five minutes for waking up.
You wake up, drop by the loo again to wash the sleep off your face. You finally get back to your desk. It is already 3:30pm. You finally get down to some real work. At 4:30pm, you notice your boss walking out. If it is a public office, your boss probably came in late too and is leaving early to do his or her own things.
His or her exit is your cue to relax and steal the office phone to make some quick phone calls, which last 30 minutes; after all, you are not the one paying the bills.
At exactly 5:00pm, Pavlov’s theory again applies. You arrive at work late, by instinct. And you leave work early by instinct.
If anyone dares ask you to do anything extra at 5:00pm, you “cut a wire†and remind him or her that it is your time to go home and no one pays you anything extra for all the extra time you put in. “Nfunira wa?,†you ask before leaving.
So you call it a day. Everyday, you leave work thinking that the company is ripping you off, somewhere, somehow. You feel that they are overworking you and underpaying you.
Sounds like your typical day, aaha? And that is how it goes on.
Office to office, day to day in the Ugandan workplaces and we live happily ever after.
Cling cling! The alarm rings at 6:00am. Time to wake up and get ready for work. “But no, my sleep is more precious. Ten more minutes and I will be up!†I assure myself. By the time you jump out of bed, it is already 7:30am.
You must be at work by 8:00am according to company rules. But then, you have to boil bathing water and then there is no way you are going to leave the house without taking Chai. Chai is a big issue in Uganda, you know.
By the time you get to work, it is 9:30am. You saunter in, aware that you are late, but not necessarily sorry about it. You walk in saying “hi†to everybody, like nothing is wrong.
You get to your desk, log onto yahoo and spend the next hour checking and replying e-mails. Some of them are really funny so you laugh out loud and invite your neighbour to read along. She or he looks at it, laughs loud and asks you to forward it to them, so that they can forward it to other people. In the process, your neighbour starts narrating to you about “this really funny friend who will enjoy this e-mail joke.†she starts narrating various experiences and stories about her friend.
By this time, it is tea-break time –– 11:00am. The kaboozi is hot and your neighbour is enjoying the narrating, so you both spontaneously walk together for chai. After chai, you spend a few minutes joking with the tea girl, then drag your feet leisurely to your desk. Of course you have to drop by the toilets on your way to the desk.
Finally, you get down to some work. It is already coming to noon. Remember Pavlov’s theory of conditioned reflex? Yes, most Ugandan workers instinctively stop working and start feeling hungry at exactly 1:00pm, whether they look at the clock or not. At exactly 1:00pm you instinctively and very punctually stop to go for lunch.
We Ugandans being very social people, you drag your feet to the lunch place as you stop from one desk to another to gather fellows to go with for lunch. Of course, lunch is made up of a variety of foods, so you take your time making your pick, along with your entourage.
When you finally get to sit down to eat, there is a lot of conversation and you know when we Ugandans are talking, we abandon everything we are doing. So the guy who is holding the conversation forgets the plate of food in front of him. When the rest of you have finished your food, you have to wait for him to finish because it is unUgandan to leave him there.
Finally, you all manage to complete, and get dragging your feet back to your desk, not forgetting the toothpick at the edge of your mouth. On your way to your desk, you again drop by the loo, if only for a courtesy call.
Back at your desk, you first spend the next 30 minutes picking your teeth as your other arm rests on the back of your chair. You begin to feel sleepy because you have eaten too much. You open the work you were supposed to be doing on your computer and walk away to the conference or board room to take a nap.
If boss passes by your desk, he will assume that work is going on when he sees an open assignment on your desk.
In the conference room, you meet other fellow typical Ugandan employees who have the same agenda. You chat a bit about nothing really before putting your head on the desk or going under the round table for a nap. You set the alarm on your phone for 3:00pm. When it rings, you add five minutes for waking up.
You wake up, drop by the loo again to wash the sleep off your face. You finally get back to your desk. It is already 3:30pm. You finally get down to some real work. At 4:30pm, you notice your boss walking out. If it is a public office, your boss probably came in late too and is leaving early to do his or her own things.
His or her exit is your cue to relax and steal the office phone to make some quick phone calls, which last 30 minutes; after all, you are not the one paying the bills.
At exactly 5:00pm, Pavlov’s theory again applies. You arrive at work late, by instinct. And you leave work early by instinct.
If anyone dares ask you to do anything extra at 5:00pm, you “cut a wire†and remind him or her that it is your time to go home and no one pays you anything extra for all the extra time you put in. “Nfunira wa?,†you ask before leaving.
So you call it a day. Everyday, you leave work thinking that the company is ripping you off, somewhere, somehow. You feel that they are overworking you and underpaying you.
Sounds like your typical day, aaha? And that is how it goes on.
Office to office, day to day in the Ugandan workplaces and we live happily ever after.