Laide Adebayo is a beautiful, intelligent and focused lady. She loves her job as the HR Manager at Gbenga & Sons Limited, but she got a better offer at MacPhersons & Lloyd Limited, and she wasn’t willing to trade it for anything in the world. She spoke to her fiancé, Akin Peterson about it and he was in support of her decision 100 percent.
She was to resume in May, so she gave a 3 months’ notice of resignation to her company (now previous). The company tried to persuade her to stay but she had made up her mind already. 8 years was sufficient enough to have made her mark in the organisation. It was time to move on.
When she resumed at her new place of work, she observed certain coldness among the employees, but she felt it was because she just came and trusted that with time they would blend. It mattered to her that they were cold towards her but central on her mind was what she was employed to do, not sentiments.
One day, she got to her office and observed that a letter was on the floor. She saw it immediately she opened her door. It was an anonymous letter. In it, the writer expressed how he felt (he claimed to be David Ojo but there is actually no David Ojo in the entire organisation so she knew the person wanted to be anonymous) about her position, how there was someone he and some other staff felt was better qualified for the position she was just given, how he strongly suggests that she resigns and be ‘fair-minded with a fellow woman like her’, how God will bless her if she considers rethinking the appointment…he went on and on and on. Laide smiled and said to herself “that explains their attitude”. After reading it, she shredded the letter and continued with her work for the day.
Two weeks later, as she was walking to her office, she saw Biodun Adebayo, the IT Supervisor perusing the area to be sure he wasn’t seen before he carried out his act. Immediately Laide saw him, because she was at his rear side, she stepped back and carefully peeped to confirm her suspicions.
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When Biodun saw that the coast was clear, he pushed the letter under her door and walked away briskly. He had switched off the camera on the passage at that time, so he walked away quickly back to the server room and put it on. After he left, Laide walked to her office, opened the door and picked up the letter. This time, he was issuing threats. Laide had seen enough, so she swung into action.
She sent out a memo to all staff excluding the very senior members.
The meeting was to hold in their mini conference room during lunch break. At exactly 1:30pm, they were all seated. Laide appreciated their punctuality and welcomed them all. She further asked for someone to define the word bully. They wondered why she asked the question.
Different people got up to give their definitions, but she walked up to where Biodun was, looked straight and sternly into his eyes and said, “Biodun, would you like to share your more precise definition with us?” “Me?” he asked as if he was in doubt of Laide’s choice. He intended it to be sarcasm but she also ‘played along’ and sardonically responded “No sir, the person behind you”.
Biodun realised his joke wasn’t funny, so he responded. After he was done, Laide said “I will prefer Biodun’s explanation; he surely has the succinct response”. She went ahead to explain that bullying in whatever form isn’t allowed in the organisation and enjoined anyone going through such to report immediately.
As she was about wrapping up, she said “…and oh…Biodun, I hope the cameras aren’t switched off while we are here, we always need to be sure we are safe especially when people act strangely watching the camera to be sure no one is looking at them before they carry out their felonious acts” she said looking at him firmly.
He was confused. He began to question himself in his mind “Did she see me? Did someone else see me? Does she know?” The thoughts came in back-to-back, and he knew he must respond ASAP, so he said “Yyyyes Ma’am the cameras are on.” Laide smiled, said “Good to know!” and walked away from him.
The meeting ended and everyone went to their offices. Guilty conscience would not let Biodun rest. He was already going nuts thinking “Does she know? Does she not know?” so he made up his mind to go and see Laide.
It felt like a confession time. He opened up to Laide and apologised for his behaviour. He also realised that Laide didn’t let the executives know about it and also appreciated her for that. “Life is going to play us various games. We choose to play it as we like however, we must never assume our way is always right because our way can lead us to the highway. I forgive you Biodun” she said, and Biodun was soon on his way. His respect for her has gone a notch higher and he certainly is behaving himself wisely. He better…at least, now he knows better.
