Dealing with toxic bosses
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Loading... - Hiuhu Mboya
- 23 Mar 2023
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When Hosea Namachanja, a university student, got a job at a boutique he felt lucky. Not only would the pay boost the upkeep allowance he got from his guardian, but his boss seemed to care for him, providing breakfast and lunch.
To the 23-year-old, it was the best work environment, and to show his gratitude, he worked diligently, and soon customers started flocking to the shop in huge numbers.
Then someone cautioned his employer to be wary of university students, saying they always turn out to be ‘thieves and rude’.
The relationship started to sour.
“He started micromanaging me for fear that I was shortchanging him. Every time I would sell something and needed to look for change, he would send his two small boys to accompany me so that ‘I do not steal some of the change,” he recalls.
Lydia Wanjiru too has experienced a toxic boss.
She had applied for a receptionist job at a construction company and felt that her lucky stars were finally aligning when she go a call to report to work.
Upon arrival, she was told that the job she had applied for was not available, but they needed someone to clean the compound, offices, and washroom.
In hindsight, she says that was the first red flag that she was entering a toxic workplace, but she ignored it.
“I was desperate for a job and gladly took one. The company paid per hour, so my monthly salary equals the number of hours times the rate,” she explains.
That meant that to earn decent pay, she’d have to put in the hours. She would get to the workplace by 7:30 am clean the office before the staff reported. Then during the day, she’d make sure the washrooms and compound were clean.
But Lydia says her supervisor went out of her way to frustrate her. Sometimes she would keep the office locked, denying her a chance to do her work only to later lie to the management that Lydia was absconding from duty. Read More…
