Friday is workers’ favourite day. People come to work on a Monday morning looking forward to the week’s Friday night. The day is so loved because it is the first day of the weekend – it ushers in the ‘rest’ days of the week. Everybody cherishes Fridays; government employees, private sector employees, lawyers, bankers, business executives, traders and artisans. The religious see the weekend as a time out from work to attend faith based activities in a bid to get closer to the Creator. Others see it as an opportunity to unwind, catch up with friends, attend social functions, party, get drunk in the process and oversleep comfortably bearing in mind that no official business will come calling the next day.

The weekend offers workers the opportunity to take a closer look at their homes and give them the much needed cleaning. Some people only get to see the colours of their rooms and bedspreads on Saturdays and Sundays as they leave home as early as 5:00 am only to get home as late as 11:00 pm on week days. This group of people uses reserve energy to step out of the car, UnCloth, take a shower and then fall flat in the bed knowing that there is a constant 4:00 am alarm to shriek them out of bed for another leg in the marathon race for survival. To them, cooking, sweeping, laundry and other cleaning are done once in a week. The food thus cooked is rammed into the freezer and must last for the whole week – whenever it pleases almighty Power Holding Company Nigeria. Life is so regimented!

The weekend, beginning with Friday, thus offers the Nigerian worker a welcome opportunity to change that bedspread, prepare that new meal, clean a few things, club and drink, watch football and other games and most importantly, get the much needed sleep. This is more pronounced with bankers. It has been argued that bankers strive to earn money they rarely get time to spend or even know how it is spent. Banking has been described as modern day slavery....

Contnues..

@donmeca, how would you classify your write-up?

I would advise that you break it up to two or three post so it would appear less lengthy and easy for the eyes. Thanks!

Bankers; young men and women are very well paid to commensurate for the high risk, trust and humiliations they are exposed to but the time demands is quite high. A break from the routine irritations from angry and desperate customers and tricks of the ever dynamic fraudsters is too valuable to overlook. Fridays call for celebrations with official mails usually signed off with “TGIF! – Thank God It’s Friday!” but today is different for the employees of Globalised Bank Plc. So different! This Friday bodes evil heralded by uncertainty.

At the ever busy Wuse branch of the bank, there is an ominous silence in the banking hall. Palpable fear envelopes the heavy air. The walls, window blinds, ceiling, wall clocks, and furniture in the hall are silently screaming their protests and goodbyes. The hitherto lively staff now look downcast as they await the appointed time. A look at their faces betrays fear, expectations and anxiety. They have all heard and are waiting for the inevitable – yes, it must come to pass! Some will survive while others will have to bow out. Tears will be shed – for some it will be tears of joy and thanksgiving while for the others it will be those of sorrow, regret, desperation and uncertainty; where will they go from here?

Today, exactly one week to Christmas, the Management of Globalised Bank has concluded plans for massive disengagement of staff-mostly those in the junior cadre. The disengagement letters have been signed and dispatched from the corporate head office in Lagos to the four hundred and twenty eight branches of the bank. It is rumoured that at least two thousand three hundred and forty six staff members will be affected nationwide and the Abuja Region alone will produce about five hundred and twenty five of this number. The worst thing here is that nobody seems to know the criteria for the pruning process, thus anybody, from anywhere can be shown the way out. Even members of the senior management staff are not spared in this impending tsunami. For over a week now, informal debates have been rife about the formula for the unavoidable downsizing....

Continues...pls tag along.

Honest criticisms are welcome.

Donmeca
www.twitter.com/donmeca

Cuddlemii: @donmeca, how would you classify your write-up?

I would advise that you break it up to two or three post so it would appear less lengthy and easy for the eyes. Thanks!

Thanks. Working on it now. Tnx again.

@OP. Sincerely, I was enjoying that yarn on Fridays!! Y r u dragging this bank thing in na! E don spoil d mood o! Lol!!! I wish u could just stick to dat weekend jollification! !! Anyway, do ur thing! altogether, its a nice one.