Dumping The Pigsty

I remember the day I left my job at a '
TV station. 
The station started in September 2013
 and recruited all the staff members in 
November of the same year.
We were given letters of employment 
with average packages
The MD/C.E.O of the company struts 
about like a chicken everyday 
We spent a month waiting!
At the end of the month, he didn’t pay
He said we ate free lunches during 
the training and since his equipment 
didn’t arrive, we have not worked yet 
and so he wouldn’t pay for the month 
of December 2013.
We bore it, remained with him till 
February when the equipment 
eventually arrived!
Three months without pay
Then he said he had to employ an 
accountant to handle the salaries and 
that took him a whole month
Eventually he got an accountant in 
March and invited a bank in to take 
our details
The bank came, details were taken 
and yet there was no salary!
He said he couldn’t work with that bank 
and we had to go through the motions 
with another bank entirely!
This was April
The month ended and we got paid
The first salary in five months!
Everybody thought we had finally 
settled down and the pay will now 
be Constant
We didn’t get any salary in May! 
He said the fund he was expecting 
didn’t come in
Those who complain or didn’t show 
up at work got suspension without 
pay at will
Then we heard that the MD went to 
the UK with three girlfriends because 
it was cheaper to fly babes to the UK 
Than pick up a call girl in the UK
When he returned from the UK, he 
started sleeping with our Human 
Resources Manager, a maried but 
promiscuous lady with three children, 
(one of them was a ten months old 
baby) who basically used every minute 
of any conversation with most of the 
male staff members dropping hints 
that she was available for sex
The management staff members 
went to Abuja to establish the Abuja 
end of the station and by the time 
they returned all the staff members 
knew they had started having sex
I started weighing my options at that 
time, I was trained to work in the media 
and I love the job but I never could 
understand or settle into the way 
many media practitioners treat their 
staff members
The lack of discipline was galling! 
The newsroom became very toxic, a 
lot of gossip, bad blood, theft and 
unwholesome communication glued 
to the ceiling like the smoke from a 
cheap cigarette!
I created the YouTube channel of 
the station and produced their breakfast 
belt.
I kept asking myself why I didn’t leave 
as soon as I started noticing the rot.
I finished my shift one evening by 6pm 
and ran home so that I can make it to 
midweek service on time
The MD called me and told me to
 return to the office immediately
I did.
When I got there he started rambling 
about loyalty, claiming he hated the 
fact that most of us acted as if we 
were working for money instead of 
building a dream!
What he said didn’t make any sense to me
The following day I closed at 6pm and 
went home
When I got home my phone rang!
It was him again
He asked me where I was
I said I just got home.
He said “Why do you always hurry home 
when you know the reproduction desk 
needs you?”
I laughed and said my shift was over
He said “Since your shift is over, don’t 
bother coming back”
I said “Yes sir”
And I didn’t bother going back
He expected me to come and beg for 
my job or something
He didn’t see me the next day and yes 
they needed me badly!
I got another call
He said I should return to work 
immediately because he has lifted 
my suspension
I said “I am sorry sir, I am now employed 
somewhere else”
He didn’t like that response!
He went to the office and sacked eight 
people out of anger
He said he spent money training ingrates 
who would leave for another organisation 
after he had trained them
I started getting calls from the other 
staff members
“Come back and talk to him! 
You know this place needs you”
I just laughed!
Nobody Is indispensable 
He slashed salaries by 60% the following 
week, he said that was the only way the 
office can run effectively
Some people stayed, some people left
As for me I have learnt my lesson, I 
never worked in such an unstable 
environment again.

-GSW-