Shooter, my boss has fired me!

Jean was the most immaculate woman that planet earth had ever seen with a smile that would melt any terrorist’s heart. She was not only holy in looks, but she was hard working and beat deadlines in her assignments at all times. With her positive and serious attitude towards work, Jean had gotten various jobs even before she completed campus while most of us languished in poverty. Everywhere she worked, the recommendation was all praises for the young lady. Soon after campus, she immediately got a well paying job in her field of study which was finance (she worked with one banking institution) until her world came crumbling on her feet. I have come to understand how vulnerable women can be under the uncharitable bosses as well as all men who lack a sense of humanity and humility. Mr. Kafuma was Jean’s immediate boss and everything from their working relationship to the social life was cordial until one fateful day as she narrated to me. “Shooter, things started changing with his attitude towards me,” she told me one evening as we shared a beer. I asked exactly what she meant by ‘things changing with his attitude.’ From her innocence, she had never seen a thing like this before. She told me that her boss started omitting some work responsibilities which fell in her job description without any explanation. “He started sending me love messages all the time. What made my work hell, he kept sending these messages even during working hours,” she went to tell me her troubles as I downed my third pint. “Look Shooter, this middle aged man is married and I have made it clear to him that I don’t like everything he is doing but he seems determined to continue. What should I do?” she sought my advice. I gazed in the distance as if I would fetch my answer from there. I sipped from my drink, gritted my teeth and said, “Would you let superiors know why you are not comfortable at work?” She rejected my advice saying it was too early for that and insisted ‘I will continue telling him off’. As I lit my cigar and took my last swallow, we got up to move home and as we said our goodbyes, we promised to meet again the following weekend to put the decisive nail in this womanizer’s coffin but it was never to be. On Tuesday, that very week, Jean called me panting and I would hear her voice breaking in between sobs. “What is the problem?” I asked her with much concern since she would not speak, she promised to meet that evening but again it was not to be. I received her letter while she was 200 Km from town which I read with much pity for her since the errant boss had taken her on a forceful mission in the south west of the country hoping that he would get his pinch with her. Part of the letter read, “Dear Shooter, I have been here for two hours now. I was tricked into coming and am just discovering that I will be here on a “mission” with him for two weeks. Imagine!” She continued telling me that from the look of things, it didn’t look like any mission because nothing was being done nor was there a plan of action. “Shooter, if he plays silly, I will pack my bags and head back to town irrespective of the consequences,” and true to her word before 12:00 noon, she was knocking at my door. “He was telling me that I have to pay a tithe for him because he is my boss, insisting that he had loved me ever since I joined the company and it was not a mission but a holiday for the two of us. I could not stand that nonsense.” Sadly, when Jean went back to office the following morning, she was welcomed by a letter firing her. She came home and we joked about it. She has since gotten another good job where she does not pay a tithe and she opened a club where she advocates for female employees. Hopefully, this club will help affected employees out there and stop predatory ‘bosses’. angarambe2@gmail.com