A mistake that almost cost me everything.
By: Adebola Olomo
Tags: Teamwork, Success, Be You, Humanity, Mistakes

Rag-n-Bone Man — Photo Credit, Simon Bussy on LinkedIn

It was my first job and I felt like the luckiest human, getting a chance to work with the biggest telecommunications company in Africa, I mean, wow!

My role was an interesting one — I was the first person to grace the seat and I was simply to get everyone within embracing technology — Sharepoint, for internal communications. It sounded so easy at first, till I had worked for weeks and could not understand why an application was so hard to sell. I could not even convince myself to use it.

In getting creative, we found a way, it was awesome, technology was still the solution, just not the same application, and boy, we were rolling!

Everything seems to be going well but my boss just did not get the craze around the whole vibe. She had hired me to do something simple but seems it’s gotten really complicated and felt like a party. Worse still, everyone wanted to attend the party and her name was not on the invitation RSVP. What was going on here?

I was too young, too fresh in my career to understand what she was feeling, after all, there is no ‘I’ in team, this was for every one of us. She was cold, every opportunity she got, she made my work-life unbearable, so much I was ready in 1 year to pack my things and leave.

Then ONE DAY, I had received an email from her that I thought will be flattering, given that she had just been informed about how amazing I was, and how she was doing a fab job managing me. She replied so cold and pointing out the fact that I work in her team and not for some other department (good point).

I was pissed. I was fired up. I clicked to forward the email to my dear husband whom I had just married that year and was my biggest fan. He was my sounding board, everything that had been done to me, I reported to him and this was not going to be different.

“Ope

You will not believe what this woman has done again.

Can you see the email she sent back?

How can one’s boss be so bitter?

I need to get out of this company, I am tired”

<send>

Sigh! I was waiting for the email to come back quickly with Ope’s response asking me to take it easy or to look at the bright sides. I just needed that outlet and now that I have written the mail, I felt better.

But wait a minute, wait, wait, wait… I looked again if this was a joke but it was not — I had replied to the mail not forwarded it.

The email had gone to the person whom I was berating. I immediately tried to recall it but it was not coming back. I looked up, opposite me where my boss sat, hoping she was not there and I could try something, anything, to get her not to read that email.

Instead, I saw her, in her full glory, rising from her seat, a glance at me and a purposeful walk to the right, as she made it straight to her boss’s office. It only took two minutes, and I heard…

Adebola…!!!! Get in here.

Well, everything that happened after was a blur.. and after all, they said, I had only one line of defence — “I was simply trying to confide in my husband”.

Who could really argue with that…? I went on to do well with that company, won awards for performance, and even worked with the company in another country.

Sometimes, it’s okay to be human!

Dedicating this to my boss, who came to terms with the overzealous, young talent she had hired. She either gave me a platform to shine or she had to deal with me every day.

She chose the former. And she did so great at it, managing me, guiding me, and providing a path for me to excel. After all, my story will be a nice ice breaker for her at many of her family and friend events. I was okay with that.

My boss passed away a few years after that. After she had moved to another company and I had moved on too. May her soul continue to rest in perfect peace. Thanks, boss, for showing me humanity!

cue music… “I’m only human after all” by Rag n Bone Man