A tale of woes at the workplace

A Tanzanian travelling through the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) in Dar es Salaam narrated what happened in a social media post. Read on for the details...

Writing in Kiswahili, she said “our attitude towards work is really disgusting, as many of us (Tanzanians) have no inner drive to deliver on the expectations of our job responsibilities.

“We are happy doing very little – and receiving good pay for whatever little we do without attaching any seriousness to our responsibilities...”

Let me share with my readers what happened the other day at the JNIA.

After checking-in, I was received with a broad smile by a young lady for procedural immigration clearance at the Sky Priority Desk – and I thought: what great customer care!

Shortly thereafter, she – the Desk Officer – took out her mobile ’phone and made a call to someone somewhere – something that I found professionally inappropriate.

The conversation she was having went along these lines:

Desk Officer: “Hello... Talk to me… What have we eaten today?”

The officer then turns to me... “Can I have your passport, please?”

I give her my passport.

Desk Officer on her ’phone: “I am asking you: what have we eaten today?”

She again turns to me... “Can I have your boarding pass?”

I give her my boarding pass – and she continues with her phone conversation.

Up to that point, I could not hear what the party at the other end of the lone was saying. But, I believe that the Desk Officer was also struggling to hear her respondent, so she put him on loud speaker mode – and I could now also hear both the Desk Officer and the person she had ’phoned.

I surmised that the Desk Officer was speaking to a male who was busy in a kitchen somewhere – judging by the sound of kitchen utensil clashing with his own voice over the ’phone.

Desk Officer: “Rice and beef... So, you people must eat beef daily... Are you Maasais?” she said in ridicule.

Meanwhile, she was going through my passport, and then asked me: “Auntie, where are you travelling to?”

Before I could answer her, she says into the ’phone: “You are now as full (of rice and beef) as can be...”

The called party responded that “It’s important to eat beef...”

The Desk Officer then asked me whether I had a green card.

Thinking the Desk Officer was speaking to him, the respondent at the other end of the line shouted back: “Yes; I do have a green card...”

Desk Officer (speaking into the phone): “Why are you responding on Auntie’s behalf as if you know her...?”

Meanwhile, I had given her my boarding pass and my green card...

Desk Officer: ”Do you know her?’ she asks on the ’phone.”

I can hear laughter at his end.

“Yes, I know her, he vaguely replies.

The Desk Officer then loudly reads my name from my passport – to which her respondent quickly jumps in to say: “Yes, I know her.”

By this time, I am lost for words as to why on earth a government official of a highly sensitive facility – Immigration Directorate – is sharing my personal information with someone who is obviously not entitled to that information.

To cut a long story short: our travelling ‘Auntie’ wondered publicly on social media why a desk officer working in a sensitive government facility was using official working time while on duty attending to a passenger would rightly use that official time to make a personal telephone call!

This reminds me of a another incident which transpired at the same airport last year, and which involved someone we know who was not just asked what he was doing but – as soon as it was realized that he was a Country Director of an international NGO – he was given a CV and told to “get my sister’s graduate daughter a job in your organisation”.

For sticklers to professionalism and practitioners of excellence in customer service, such incidents are common in this country of the impeccable Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

We have not yet accepted that we have a problem with our attitude towards work. When we do realise this, we shall squarely deal with it – and that is when our journey to prosperity would have started in earnest.