I decided that even if my manager cannot put her personal differences about me aside, at least we should have a cordial professional relationship. So even though every day she walks past me without even a mumble of a good morning, I went to her desk and said good morning, how are you. She replied but if looks could kill I would be dead on the ground. In fact in one look she just drained all the life out of me, so I won’t be making that mistake again, I will just take my bashings when she feels fit to dish them out. I don’t think I have ever read an email of “well done” to like anyone, but I have seen many a long email stating what (I especially) was done wrong. Well nothing lasts forever, one of us will have to go at some point, I just hope I have somewhere to jump to if ever she decides to push me. In our last collision she said something along the lines of people smiling at you but putting a dagger in your back and she knows what to do, so I have been warned to wear my armour.
Any time I speak to her, or have my energy sucked out by her it makes me miss my best friends. Over the years they have been my friends, my mentors, my cheerleaders and my sisters. They have helped me complete application forms, prepare for interviews and I know that if they were in this line management position, they would be encouraging and nurturing as opposed to whatever display of ungodliness this one is displaying. They don’t go to church every Sunday or boast how Christian like they are, they accept that we are all human and well they display more humanity and Christianity than any of the Sunday goers here.

However, I cannot say her manner is untypical of the society as a whole. Few have a PhD, but most have a PyD, pull you down. They hate to see others rise, improve or do well and find some way of bursting your bubble. Many a day I have sat with a friend of mine, yeah ok, I complain a lot, but I also bring ideas to make my life better but every time all I get is “this is Ghana”, “it won’t happen”, well of course it won’t work with that attitude.
I have been here long enough to know that I can’t change the world, I can’t even change my corner of the world, but I can make the circumstances for myself better. However, the world around me is proving to me time and time again that I am just wasting my time. It is not just me, it is everybody’s mentality, good things are only good for them and theirs but how dare you think you can come from nowhere and sit where I sit.

I am not even going to use myself as an example, I am going to take a cousin of mine. He was a Supply Chain Manager in a company in the Ashanti region, but his family were living in Accra so he had to quit and come and look for a job here. He got a job which was way beneath his capabilities, and was given the old speech about working his way up. As if some young man straight out of school and someone is doing him a favour. Well my cousin, it is something in the blood I guess, he didn’t even wait for probation when he found a Supply Chain Manager Job somewhere else.

There was a procurement team leader, he had been in the job for a number of years, and was very competent, yet he had to sit in the same seat while other people (mainly expats) came in did the job, and moved on, and then one day he moved on himself.

Lastly, an Assistant Brand Manager, she practically took a struggling category and made it into the most successful one in the company, yet they would not even promote her to the job she was doing i.e. a Brand manager. It would have only been a few pence more to bump her up, yet she sat there until one day she had enough and moved on, to be the head of marketing.

You see, nobody looks at your capabilities, they think that if they put you where you are supposed to be, it will show their incompetency’s, so they keep you down until you can’t take it anymore. Either you end up resigned to the fact that you can’t go anywhere, or those that can’t be brainwashed move on outside your environment.
It is not just in the working environment, the amount of times people can’t remember where they bought some piece of furniture or new shoes as if you are not worthy to even shop where they do. Even when the whole thing with my ex went down they said, they wouldn’t even mind if he was a labourer as long as he loved me. I am thinking yeah right, coming from two women whose daughters are married to doctors. What would you say if they were labourers and didn’t have the status they had.

When a friend of mine started his own business, a simple business, bread and pizza, he was told that it wouldn’t work, that he should find himself a proper job that he should even go back to “abroad”. The last time he had checked he was doing ok, and most importantly he was happy that he wasn’t stuck in an 8 – 5 for a miniature wage.
Even our president, some are saying that he is purposely not investing in education so that the ignorant can be bought off come election times because they are only thinking of today.
However, throughout all this, there is a lesson to be learnt. That is, if you want something, go get it yourself, and don’t discuss it with anyone in Ghana, because nobody is going to encourage you especially those with a PyD.