Today I saw a post featuring a lady who complained bitterly about the uncouth behavior of a taxi service driver who messaged her to say she was "stupid" after she supposedly changed her mind about the trip. She reported the incident with screenshots to the company who replied promising to deal with the driver in accordance with their standard practice. However, many readers resorted to blaming the driver for unethical conduct in the line of duty, some blamed the lady for infuriating the driver who probably was already depressed by the nature of his job, others blamed the taxi company and a few blamed their competitors. Well who is right? We'll find out after this analogy.

Now while we are busy throwing stones (casting aspersions) at the parties involved, none of those physically involved might have actually been hurt by the incident: The lady might feel satisfied that the unruly driver has been sacked; Meanwhile, the company might have simply issued the driver a warning and let him continue with his work, because they get such complaints daily and can't sack more than 80% of their workforce or they wouldn't have a business to run; The driver on the other hand, may have experienced such warning before and continued in his behaviour knowing no one would fire him. Whether he continues to be unprofessional or not, blaming everyone for his life situation, is up to him. But the big question then is: Was all of this preventable?

While many might speculate a likely provocation from the customer (if indeed there was even any?) that led to the driver's unruly behaviour, there is certainly no justification for the driver to send such text to a customer no matter how provoked he was. It seems quite obvious the driver doesn't take the job seriously and probably does it for the heck of it. Also, this sort of behaviour might have been previously condoned without major sanctions from the company for such a driver to feel confident enough to even dare sending such a message. It may also seem probable, that the lady goes about infuriating working people cos she gets a kick out of getting people fired (make no mistakes about it, there are people like this: They've even coined a name for it: Schadenfreude).

But this is not the time to apportion blames. In your career or business, you are bound to face all sorts of people, clients, partners, even bosses. If you love your job or really need to keep it, you have to maintain professionalism. QUESTION: How do you remain professional under such conditions? There is just one answer!

Work Smartly

Many people are not smart, if they were, alot of terrible situations could have been avoided. How can you go to a 40,000 hectare farm with a kitchen knife and expect to cultivate the land in 5 mins? This is usually the mindset of many Nigerians, they expect to make money but aren't willing to invest themselves enough in what they do. They would rather expect miracles to happen. It is only in Nigeria, a man who never learnt how to multiply and divide would get a job as an accountant and celebrate in a big way, hoping for some magical fairy to help him do his job. The same thing happens in our politics, but that is way beyond the scope of this piece. The westerners seem to be light-years ahead of us because they don't expect miracles for things they already have the God-given miraculous capacity to handle (instead of looking outwards for another). It makes them more appreciative of the real and true miracles.

In our example, if this man had simply installed cameras(with audio capture) in his vehicle, he wouldn't bother what a customer had to say or how they behaved. He would act professionally and be able to defend himself with his company. Possibly even get the lady banned from the platform. He clearly isn't smart. The law doesn't protect everyone, it only protects those who have proof. And that is why the lady emerged victorious in the circumstances, because from what we know, she is the only one who was prepared, taking smart precautions to document the incidence in order to protect herself. Similarly, if this man had installed and was aware of his own documentary devices, or that of the lady, he would have controlled himself and behaved professionally at all times to avoid being spooked by his own control mechanisms. The company was not present at the scene, however, they could discourage such ill-mannered behaviour among their drivers by making CCTV equipment a requirement for participating drivers, as well as clearly pre-disclaiming (by association), any drivers who do not have such devices installed to record their activities during trips, and by informing customers likewise, not to patronise any of their drivers who do not meet these requirements. This would not only help build trust in your customer base, but would help against abuse of the system by either drivers or customers or even competitors as the case may be.

What does this mean for career men and women?

1. Love what you do and only do what you love: Why sell tomatoes because everyone else is doing it? if it shames you, stop and do something else, you have a brain, use it to do what makes you happy.

2. Be Prepared to face challenges: Nothing good comes without an obstacle, if it didnt, everyone would be rich. Always bear in mind that you are not alone in the search for a better life, thieves would try to nick it off you, unreasonable colleagues would try to suppress you to get past you, a demanding boss would try to use you to better his own lot. You have to acknowledge these issues and instead of hiding from them, focus on why you are there, what benefits does your current job or biz give you? If these are things you can handle, you can work on point 3.

3. Invest in control mechanisms to defend your priorities: Be prepared to protect your self and find out about ways to make your job easier, if a better chair keeps you relaxed at work when speaking to clients, buy it. If as a boss, a camera would prevent Big joe(your secretary) from stealing all the snacks and drinks meant for visitor's refreshment in the fridge, install it. If an ID card reader would prevent 80% of your staff from turning up late, have it set up. If adequate lightning and a sumptous meal/refreshment awaiting the builders that work overtime at night, would keep your staff interested in working longer hours without errors, commission it.

Work without working smart could easily lead to problems for everyone. So do it right. Work Smart.

cc: lalasticlala, mynd44, seun, ishilove

You have a good head on your shoulders bro.

Sadly, the same cannot be said about most humanbots here.