Team Meeting

As this morning’s meeting wore on, I wished that I was videoing it to show people at home, or maybe to show to future volunteers as a – well, not a warning exactly, but to manage their expectations.

The team meeting was arranged for 10am. This in itself, I was excited about:  team meetings don’t happen very often. Just before ten, I went into the Director’s office, where he told me that he had to rush into another meeting with the Chairman first so we would be starting a little late. It’s fruitless to try to persuade anyone here to keep a work diary and to prioritise and schedule their workload – hierarchy rules everything and nothing is planned in advance, so it’s constantly a case of deciding in the moment which demand is from the more senior person and doing that one.

I walked over to the room where the meeting was to be held. A majority of staff were around, which was encouraging, and at about 10.20 they started to get themselves ready for the meeting. My heart sank: the chairs were arranged (presumably as they are always arranged for these meetings) in a tight semi-circle, all facing a desk, behind which was a large wheely chair for the Director. So much for working with staff at their level, to everyone working together as part of the team: Nigerian hierarchy will not go away without a fight.

We managed to get started by about 10.45, and following an opening prayer, the Director began with some opening remarks: a monologue lasting around 15 minutes. Some of these remarks were encouraging: “Everybody needs to divide their work and personal lives”; “Everyone needs to hold a mirror up to themselves sometimes”; “If you don’t understand, ask”; “Be creative – take initiative”. But others harshly reminded me that there is a long way to go.

It’s unfortunate that the senior management did not attend a workshop I ran recently on delegation. The result is that we have staff who are raring to go, ready to take responsibility and initiative, and managers who aren’t so much on board with that. It’s also unfortunate that there are contradictions in what staff are being told. On the one hand, they are being told the take the initiative and be creative, and on the other they’re being told “Just do what I tell you and ask questions later”. With one breath they’re hearing “Just simply follow my instructions”, and with the next they’re being berated for not taking the initiative to go beyond the instructions they were given. They are told off for not asking questions to clarify things, but when they ask something, they’re equally told off for not knowing the answer already.

The staff are really trying (as Nigerians would say). It’s like watching children trying to please their parents, but being confused by the conflicting messages they’re receiving. They have taken on board what we worked on in the delegation workshop and are trying to see it through, which makes me really proud. But then as soon as, today, I asked a member of staff to support me with something, the Director’s straight in there, telling me that he is going to do it himself to ensure it’s done effectively, totally undermining the spirit of delegation and that member of staff’s self-esteem.

I think the most demoralising thing for me this morning, was the discussion about annual leave. As part of the workshop, the staff had drawn up a Charter which laid out the team’s purpose, its values and – most importantly – a number of pledges which staff had made. Very basic stuff – like turning up to work on time, not spending time on personal errands during work hours etc. – but it really felt like the first step to making this department functional. I was really pleased that one member of the team had requested that we add a pledge about enjoying annual leave and break times, so that we can stay focused when we are at work.

So in today’s meeting, a member of staff raised her hand and asked the Director to clarify for her when their official break times were and what the procedure for annual leave was. Firstly, the Director laughed and said he never took any breaks (implication: so neither should you). Secondly, he stated that there was no official annual leave process: that it’s not an employee’s right under Nigerian law and that the HR department still hadn’t worked out a procedure. There then followed a lengthy and passionate speech from the Director about how, if someone was sick, or had a relative who had died, or another legitimate excuse like that, then of course he would grant them time to attend to the matter (implication: but not in any other circumstances). That if someone booked leave, but then the Director decided when it came around that he needed them in the office, of course they would have to stay, and they should feel grateful that he values them so highly. That he had only taken leave three times in the 17 years he’s been working for this organisation – twice for Hajj and once when he had to lie to the Chairman about somebody having died, just so he could rest for a few days.

My heart sank. Frankly, if that was the set-up I was facing, I too would be coming to work late, running personal errands during work hours, taking time off whenever anyone I knew was sick or had died. I can’t blame them. And it seems not only futile but cruel to push them to be focused only on work, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, when there is no end in sight for any of them.

I’m not blaming the Director. He’s actually one of the better Directors in the organisation and I’m enjoying working with him. There are many things – culturally, politically, organisationally – which are out of his control and which he has to battle against. I’m merely trying to provide a snapshot of the painfully slow “progress” a VSO volunteer can hope to make – the highs and the lows.

The meeting closed, finally, at 1.45pm. Everybody was exhausted, hungry and thirsty. I had laughed at someone’s earlier suggestion that the Director should have provided tea for them (it’s just a staff meeting!), but by the end I was wishing I’d supported the request.