I can vividly remember one of my bad behaviors and the repercussions I got from it while I was working as an admin assistant in a private oil and gas firm here in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Sometimes we take decisions without thinking about the possible repercussions. Sadly, some bad behaviors are done intentionally for one reason or another, and sometimes, thinking through the action prior to doing it might save us unnecessary issues of life, but then, we are humans full of imperfections.
All through my working days with the firm, I tried to remain upright, hardworking, and committed to my roles until I was tempted to take this single decision that nearly ruined the good work relationship I already established with everyone in the firm. It happened that my boss and the only two engineers we had in the office traveled to another state for a project. Aside from the two engineers and me and the security man, there was no other staff at the moment.
As the admin assistant, I was the one who booked the flight tickets of the engineers, including my boss, for their to-and-fro movement to another state. So obviously, I know when they were to take off and return from Abuja. This made me take the decision to stay at home instead of reporting to the office daily as supposed. Coincidentally, our security had an urgent movement that took him to his hometown, which he requested for some days off work from my boss. I was the only one supposed to be in the office until everyone returned. My boss, on the other hand, told me that I should be ready to be working on some files and sending stuff to his email until their return.
I didn't consider security or anything before taking the decision of not reporting to the office since I can do whatever my boss wants me to do for him through my PC. He will always call me on the phone and ask if I am in the office, and I said yes. I intentionally turn off the camera so he wouldn't notice my absence—my bad, I must admit.
While my boss was sending me a series of files to work on, I was attending to them diligently, and he was satisfied with my job. What I didn't know was that something was going wrong in the office while I was at home. I wish I was the prophetest to sense when things went wrong, but it was only unfortunate. For the 5 days I didn't report to the office, robbers broke into our office and turned everywhere upside down, broke the internal doors and windows, took whatever they wanted, and locked up the main gate in a way that you will never notice their activities inside the office.
The very day my boss and other engineers returned, I knew that I must be in the office the next day. To my greatest chagrin, I opened the office and saw the terrible activities of the robbers. I was speechless and lacked the words to explain what happened. Since I haven't been in the office for days, I couldn't give an account of when the incident happened. If I was reporting to the office daily, perhaps I would have handled the issue even before the return of my boss.
It wasn't long and the boss arrived, seeing everything himself; he was quite disappointed. I didn't know what to say but tell him the truth of my absence so far since they traveled, and that made it difficult for me to report the scene since I have no accountability surrounding the situation.
I didn't have any bad intentions of not reporting to the office; I only thought of the convenience of working from home without seeing the need to discuss that with my boss considering that our security man was on short leave. My boss expressed his dissatisfaction over my bad behavior and made me work for a month without salary as a repercussion for my actions.
I expected something more than the repercussion I received, but the most important thing was that the experience taught me a lesson of my life. It doesn't cost much to stay transparent while dealing with people; it does save us from unnecessary issues in life.
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