Why we need to do away with respect in the workplace

yinka ogunlami

January 17, 2017 3:48 PM

I had a first time experience with carers during my second year clinicals.

Respect.

I had a first time experience with carers during my second year clinicals. Carers are the Nigerian version of nursing assistants.

They are supposed to help nurses out with tasks like feeding a patient, serving bed pans amongst others.

Like nurses, they are paid for doing this work. But here's the problem: a whole lot of them are really old and expect one to help them do their work. I found it amusing because they were paid for the work and should do it and not bring respect into the equation.

But the opposite happens. An easy sight to see is the carer sitting while the student nurse does what she's supposed to do. I remember some staff nurses complaining about some carers who do not do their work and would label whoever calls them out disrespectful.

Report writing is a task most nurses I've worked with arbour not because some find writing tasking but because their older colleagues make it so.

Hospital reports are meant to be submitted to the nurse in charge before 2 p.m. daily. This is so she can collate it and be able to close by 4 p.m. like others. But this is rarely the case especially when a junior nurse is writing the report. People, especially older colleagues, literally drag their feet and bring their reports by 3 or even later with no good reason.

And the junior nurse has little or no choice than to take because well...she has to be respectful. I kept wondering why they just couldn't do what they're paid to do at the right time and leave age out of it.

There are some things I won't ever get. I get that you're old and weak. I get that you're older than me. But how do you expect substantial change to occur if you don't what you should do and leave age out of the equation?

Why don't we meet our roles instead of using seniority as an avenue to promote laziness and unproductivity in the work place?

Imagine how much work we will get done if we all did the job we are allocated without waiting for the younger ones to help us out. Imagine how better our arts will be if we stop using seniority to foster unproductivity in the workplace.

Imagine how much we will get done if we all put our hands together and do the work we are paid to do. Imagine how much we will get done if we put respect in its place and work like we ought to do.

The older generation may not have known better but we should. Let's carve a new path and become new ancestors. Let's work like we ought to. Let's stop doing things we shouldn't do because we are older. Let's stop perpetuating a cycle that does no good.

Let's work with respect; respect for ourselves, our work and our colleagues. That is the respect the workplace needs and the one we should foster. Any other respect is not needed.

Maryjane Okobi loves questioning the statutes of the gods and sharing her thoughts.

On days when she isn’t looking for grammatical and punctuation errors through her coke-bottled lenses, she remembers why she’s a student of Nursing Sciences and Big Books.

She is a Grey’s Anatomy addict, an unrepentant supporter of FC Barcelona and a lover of good books.

Follow on Instagram and Twitter @maryjaneokobi.

yinka ogunlami