Truthfully, there is quite much competition in the corporate world that when you lose your job, a long queue of job seekers is eager to take it on. This scares most employees that they report to work to do their best so that they aren’t fired.

Employees worry about how to cater for their bills especially if that one stream of income closes. It is for this reason that many of them decide to do as told or commanded by their bosses.

The danger in this is that, when the working standards are not healthy, workers would prefer not to complain, for fear of losing their jobs.

A corporate or job slave is someone who is trapped doing a job just for the money. Such people are known to work in bondage or work tirelessly yet the pay is so low.

Prevent the ‘corporate slave’ mindset by creating a positive working atmosphere. Net photo.

Diane Iribagiza regrets being a slave at her former workplace, acquiring a job came at a point she needed it most, however, as an IT expert, her efforts and skills were needed sometimes beyond working hours, a thing she didn’t sign for in the contract.

In order to please her boss, she didn’t complain, was always a call away, even when she was in the middle of a serious event, she never said no to her boss, or give any excuse.

First, she notes she aimed to impress her boss for a promotion, which she waited for but in vain, there was even no sign for a salary increment regardless of the time she spent on the extra load of work.

"With time, my social life was affected as I gave work much of my time, stress kicked in and my life turned out to be boring, and unhappy.

"Friends stopped inviting me for parties, I lost my purpose that when I talked to a friend about it, she advised me to quit the job. This wasn’t an easy decision to make because I loved the money,” she states.   

Iribagiza explains that her friend advised her to start her own business and offered to give her a loan for capital that she would pay back slowly.  She is now a businesswoman and doesn’t work under pressure.

Being her own boss, she has learned to work smart and not for long hours, she says.

When to tell you’re a slave to your job

An article on ‘Protect Yourself from Being a Corporate Slave,’ shows that a ‘corporate slave’ is usually referring to some people who are thinking they are being ‘forced/exploited’ to work beyond their capability and job description for the company. Hence they feel their contribution is far more than it should be and seems like treated as a slave.

It shows that in order to avoid this trap for a better career life, one needs to clarify rules since beginning.

Even if you are just an entry level employee, it doesn’t mean that you are not permitted to speak up your aspiration or thought. This will also help you and the entire team to avoid the wrong mind-set of being trapped into ‘slave working’ situation, it shows.

According to Ritah Imbabazi, a businesswoman in Kigali, as long as you don’t feel happy to go to work to share your knowledge and ideas for the betterment of the company, there is a possibility that you don’t enjoy what you do, thus not delivering to the best of your ability.

She stresses that if managers don’t get time to engage their employees on their views about work, many employees end up broken and carry the pain on their shoulders, and this hinders growth, because they just appear to work for the sake. ‘This usually happens when employees don’t feel heard or valued.’

Imbabazi adds that some managers or employers are bossy, as they don’t allow workers to express their views, and believe their ideas and suggestions are the best.

She carries on that those kinds of bosses are good at commanding and watching employees do as they say. That way, work seems like a punishment, lacks creativity, and freedom for employees to exercise their wisdom, and ideas, and worst all, not assisted to fulfil their goals.

Imbabazi carries on that if your workplace drains you physically, emotionally, and mentally, you’re a slave to it.

She also notes that managers or immediate supervisors who pile employees with tasks that they aren’t hired for, is a sign of unprofessionalism, yet that’s the state some employees work often, and are not paid extra fees or even appreciated or recognised for it.

The businesswoman says that job slaves may be promised better positions or salary increments, but regardless of how many times they remind their bosses, nothing is done, and they still report to work and perform their tasks anyway.

"If your boss usually blames you even when you aren’t the cause of the problem, or gets a reason to pick on you and never values your efforts even when they benefit the company, work isn’t a happy place, seek a solution,” she adds.

The article also shows that one can also prevent the "corporate slave” mindset by creating a positive working atmosphere, especially if they are a leader in a division/company. 

"This can be started from your action, such as implementing a work and life balance kind of culture (e.g. everybody should avoid overtime working culture) or regular appreciation token for team members that achieve targets (gift vouchers or anything else). A positive working atmosphere will certainly create a positive mind-set that eventually frees yourself and all colleagues from ‘corporate slaves’ situation.