Ephrem Endale Contributer
A little over a month or so ago a friend was sizzling with rage for being badly treated at a certain supposedly ‘modern’ organization. (Of course, these days expensive furniture seems to be the one most important feature for an organization to be dubbed ‘modern!’) He was there right on appointment time. In fact, he arrived almost half hour earlier and whiled away the time seesawing from one end of the corridor to the other; a corridor deadly silent one moment and bustling with humanity the next as workers began filing in.
However, the fellow he had come to see, a guy managing the records department wasn’t a particularly punctual person. Our guy’s files had to be pulled out of this department (modern!) for his case to be considered. After waiting for over an hour the records’ fellow was still nowhere around. Our guy tries to talk to a couple of employees and one just brushed his concern aside with, “Don’t worry he’ll come.” He asked the other one if it was possible for her to phone the records man and inquire if he indeed will turn up.
According to our guy this middle-aged lady smiles the most unfriendly smile and continues pounding her laptop’s keyboard. It was as if she even didn’t want to acknowledge the guy’s presence. Finally, by the time the records man arrived it was too late to rush through offices and have all those papers signed and our guy was told to come “after a few days.” A very familiar scenario, isn’t it?
A few days back I had to accompany a friend to a certain organization. He, too, had an appointment with a lady who was a department head or something like that. Again he, too, had important documents to be signed and needed her signature before they hit the general manager’s table. We had to wait for about an hour and half before the lady arrived. She was dressed to kill and one would wonder if she stayed so late making herself up. It is unfair to be blamed for suspecting as such; some could make it appear some kind of a massive project which takes precedence over any and everything.
Having come early I thought my friend would be shown into her office before the latecomers. No, if fiction is indeed stranger than fact this is one scenario which gives flesh and bone to the claim. For some reason about three people who came just a few minutes before the lady’s arrival and more than an hour and a half after us were allowed to go in one after the other. You could see in that smile of the secretary that there must have been something more about them than being simple clients.
Now, over the years this friend of mine had developed what you’d call ‘crocodile’s skin.’ So he wasn’t as agitated as you’d expect any normal person to be at the mistreatment. Finally, the secretary tells him he’d go in once the last person leaves. Then the last person comes out but, not alone. The boss comes out with him. There were my friend and three others waiting for her audience.
She didn’t acknowledge our presence. She turns to her secretary and says, “I’ll be out for the rest of the day.” That was it. She left! She just left without the slightest hint of an apology or something like that to those who came to see her. The secretary tells all four of them to come on the day after the next. One thing I noticed is that many people seem to be content with taking things lying down; you know, like throwing in the towel before even stepping into the ring!
It seems that these days in many places reporting for work an hour or even more late fails to raise an eyebrow. Not only the staff, but even the clients and customers seem not to be agitated enough to try to make one’s case heard. “I’m asking for my rights to be respected. I have been coming for more than a month and no one is treating me as I deserve!”
I remember a few months ago a woman I know who works at some state enterprise saying that these days one doesn’t even have to present any excuse for reporting for work late. According to her even many of their immediate bosses don’t seem to be concerned about punctuality. The talk is that even if some innocent soul had legitimate reason for being late no one would believe them. I mean there are the usual excuses of the busses and cabs arriving late, the overcrowding, the taxi cabs engines dying out midway and for the passengers forced to walk long distances. “I had to walk for almost an hour!”
Now such excuses becoming so common, almost every one of us know much of the times they are outright blatant lies. But calling them lies, and ‘blatant’ for that matter, shows lack of knowledge about the ‘rules of the game.’ There are no lies! There are only ‘reasons’ for being late.
It is like requesting for a couple of days because an aunt or an uncle has passed away. By the way doesn’t it make you wonder it is always the aunts and uncles that pass away! I mean there is this joke that some have done away with their aunts and borrowed from others! Hilarious; “If they examine the files they would find that he had sent away five aunts and four uncles!” And the person, maybe unluckily, might have any uncles or aunts!
Look, maybe we have been doing things to ourselves and not noticed it. We seem to have given ourselves this s not-so-nice reputation of failing to respect appointments’ days and times. There’s this tag which says “Yehabesha ketero.” Though it is hard to attach any conclusive researches about the issue we seem to have taken that word for word and not respecting or even forgetting creates that much noise. “Oh, after all its hebesha ketero!” So when we make appointments it is with the implicit ‘understanding’ that the other person would be late or even sometimes forgets the whole thing. Maybe, just maybe it might be time to do something about this “Yehabesh ketero” tag we attached to ourselves.
The Ethiopian Herald March 26/2023