Why
we've gone the distance'
No one
seems to stay still for long these days, but there are those who
have stuck it out in one job for their whole career. ELLY WAMARI
meets the 'lifers'
Do you know anyone who
has worked with the same employer for more than 20 years? Asking
this around, we found out, is like a test of patience. Be ready for
negative responses before you get a single nod.
Employer loyalty is
nowadays rare in the job market. There is a joke that "loyalty"
was itself laid off when many companies introduced "restructuring".
There are now more
of "measured contractual engagements" than permanent employment.
A major goal is to cut down on payment of pension and other terminal
benefits. In the process, people are working in one place for shorter
periods.
Continuous search for
better pay packages, as the cost of living rises, and growing intensity
of employee poaching between competing companies, also limit the
stay with one employer. Some people call this "worker promiscuity".
There’s this friend
who has changed jobs three times within the last two-and-a-half
years. His job statistics, so far, works to less than a year per
employer.
However, we also came
across a few people who have not changed jobs for more than 20 years.
The reasons they give for such consistent loyalty include job satisfaction
and good work environment. Money, incidentally, is not such a big
factor to them.
Consolata Muthoni Muriithi:
She is 50, and a secretary by profession. She has worked for St
John Ambulance for the past 28 years and is still very passionate
about her work.
She joined the organisation
in 1979, as soon as she finished college education. That was her
first job, and she has stuck with it ever since, seeing more than
eight chief executives come and go.
Her responsibilities
have increased over the years, and she now handles more than just
secretarial work. She also co-ordinates training in First Aid and
manages emergency services.
The reason for her
loyalty? "Job satisfaction, which brings about commitment. I know
that what I am doing here is a service to community. I liked this
place the moment I started working here."
To Muthoni, a good
relation with colleagues has been a positive factor. "We really
depend on each other here. We are like a family." That is the reason
she has turned down opportunities to move elsewhere and for better
pay.
"I would feel uncomfortable
moving to a new environment. My husband has got me some good opportunities,
but I have turned them all down. I guess I have simply been satisfied
with what I have."
She will work here
to her retirement. "At my age, you don’t expect me to go and look
for another job. From here, I will go home and rest ... concentrating
mainly on farming."
Edith Nganda, 51, is
also a secretary. We get the impression that women tend to stay
longer with one employer than men. We hear of more of them.
Nganda has all along
worked for the same motor company she joined straight from college
30 years ago. She took secretarial studies on the advice of an aunt,
and she has never regretted it. "In our days, somebody often chose
a career for you," she recalls.
Having worked in various
departments in the company, she feels that the training function
in her present posting to human resource department is the most
fulfilling. The implication? She is enjoying her work even more,
so don’t even think about trying to poach her.
"I feel extremely satisfied
when I see trainees come and go, some rising to become managers.
I am happy where I am. The work environment is good."
To Nganda, one shouldn't
switch jobs for the sake of it. "If you are contented with whatever
you are doing, and you are growing on the job, I don’t see why you
should change."
Nganda may be retiring
in another four years, but her passion for the job makes her wish
to continue working beyond 55. "I have no problem with my health.
And there's nothing really pressing to settle back to, at home"
That is passion.
Richard Kimenyi is
equally passionate about his career. Hi face lights up as he shows
us around his workplace at Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi.
The experienced hotelier
has been with Norfolk in Nairobi since 1981, when he joined as food
and beverages manager. He had worked elsewhere before.
He is currently the
general manager of the hotel, and he has held that post for the
past 22 years.
Kimenyi loves food
and people. That is why he chose a career in hotel management. "I
was a student at Nairobi School. Food was good there, and I love
food," he says when asked how he selected his line of work.
Then he talks about
his love of the job: "The hotel industry is like fashion. You have
to keep up. You have to always have new innovations. Because of
that, you don’t get bored.
"I like meeting people,
and I like good food and quality life. I think if I go to a company
where standards are low, I will just be bored."
Kimenyi has met and
hosted the who’s who in the world. That’s a source of further contentment.
You will see pictures of him and people like UN-Secretary General
Kofi Annan, Hollywood stars such as James Earl Jones, world renown
clergy like Desmond Tutu, and a host of royalties.
Kimenyi’s first employer
at Norfolk was the Block Hotels. "I got on very well with the Block
brothers. They are very good hoteliers. I learnt a lot from them."
He also worked under
the management of Lonrho Hotels. Now his new bosses, Fairmont Hotels
and Resorts, have come up with ideas that are exciting him even
more.
"I am very inspired
by their coming. By the end of next year, you will see many changes
once we position ourselves," he says.
Kimenyi may be doing
some marketing here, but it does illustrate his passion to stay
on and be part of that repositioning.
"All in all, I have
always had very good employers. Why then would I change jobs?" he
asks.
Then there’s Isaac
Ng’aru, who for 37 years has dedicated his work to insurance. He
prefers to call it risk management. At 58, he still believes there
is a lot he is yet to accomplish.
Ng’aru became a managing
partner of Ng’aru and Associates at 29. That was in 1977. By then,
he had meteorically risen to the position of regional (African)
director of an American risk management company, when he decided
to concentrate more on technical consultancy in insurance.
Insurance work has
never bored him. "My life was cut out for it. I went into the profession
at a very early age, when there were few qualified people in the
field. I felt there was a great future there for me."
Ng’aru still feels
that way – that there is a lot to do. That means he does not plan
to retire any time soon.
"I haven’t even thought
about it (retirement). In African societies, one does not really
retire. There’s always something to do at every age. The role of
old people in society is to advise. What I am doing is simply to
transfer that traditional way to a modern setting.
"I will not go back
to the village if I can do one thing or another here. I still haven’t
started writing text books, and so on," he says.
E-mail: ewamari@nation.co.ke
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