02.02.05 All Work and No Play Makes You Dull – Balance Your Work with the Rest of Life

3. Of ‘The Brand New Toyota Hilux and An Executive’s Addiction’

Lugendo took a quick glance at his wrist watch as his cousin Muwonge loaded the last plastic bag into the new Toyota Hilux pick up.  The two had just finished shopping for Lugendo’s elderly mother who he planned to visit that weekend.  

This trip had been long coming, as culturally, ‘a man’ needed heavy pockets to ‘go to the village’.  But Lugendo was well-endowed for such a journey.  For not only did he own a posh vehicle, but had enough shillings to afford ritual groceries and cash gifts for mother, relatives and old buddies.  

Muwonge, had offered to accompany Lugendo for the trip, since not only were they best friends, but Lugendo had not learnt how to drive yet.

As they made it through the dusty road, Lugendo muttered, “Mama is going to be pleasantly surprised”.  Indeed, considering the desperate circumstances that had preceded his decision to leave home for the city, ‘surprise’ was an understatement.   

Apparently, Lugendo’s education aspirations had not been very successful, as the boy had failed his Primary Leaving Examinations.  But being the eldest, Lugendo had resorted to selling sugarcane by the roadside, so as to put food on the table for his mother and siblings.  However, the earnings were very scanty.  So, when his city-borne cousin Muwonge suggested that Lugendo seeks work in the city, the mother blessed the move.

Lugendo’s first ‘city-job’ had been to sell cashew nuts at a bus-stand.  However, since money was ‘slow in coming’, the boy had switched from cashew nuts to parading electrical appliances on the streets.  In fact, his hard work had yielded fruit speedily, as evidenced when he acquired a mobile phone just a few months after changing his trade.  Little did he know that this hard-earned achievement in the form of a red and silver gadget was about to change his life for ever.

One rainy afternoon, as he waited under a dripping tree for the weather to clear, Lugendo received a strange call from a beverage company, informing him that he had won a Toyota Hilux, as the top prize for a promotion drive.  An excited Lugendo could hardly believe his ears.  “Muwonge,” he screamed “I am a proud owner of a brand new Hilux, my friend…”.  Congratulations from the cousin had followed, after which Muwonge escorted Lugendo to collect the amazing prize.  

The following week, Muwonge found a contractor, Mazima, who was willing to hire the Hilux, with money being brought in every weekend.  Since that day, Lugendo’s poverty became history.  For rather than parade city streets begging snobbish buyers to buy stuff, Lugendo had secured a stall in the city market, where he was selling the latest CDs and DVDs.  All in all, life was good... and now, he was just about surprise his aging mother. 

Thankfully, Muwonge was a fast driver; which made the two boys arrive in the village in record time.  As Lugendo had predicted, his mother was very impressed with her son’s developments, showing off the car to neighbours, friends and relatives; and inviting several for tea with sugar and bitings that her son had brought from afar.  The visit was short.  For when his mother proposed that they could spend the night, Lugendo explained that his shop really ‘needed’ him, and that they had no choice but to return to the city that day.  “May God continue to bless you my son…” she uttered, as the young men said their farewells.  

The months that followed were indeed in accordance with Mama’s prayers, as Mazima the contractor continued to bring ‘the Hilux money’ each week.  Lugendo invested the funds in expanding his collection of CDs and DVDs.  

However, one morning, Muwonge called Lugendo to break the news that Mazima had returned the car, claiming that it needed urgent repairs.  “I have actually taken it to the garage, so please show up here just now”, Muwonge insisted.

On arriving at the garage, Lugendo was shocked to hear that the Hilux was in severely bad shape.  Apparently, the car’s springs and shock absorbers had been damaged.  The mechanic looked at Lugendo with piercing eyes, “I hear that you have been using this car to carry loads of sand ‘day in day out’…; don’t you know that this vehicle cannot sustain such weights…?, no wonder it is almost written off!”  Lugendo could not help but give lame excuses.

When the boy inquired how much the repairs would cost, the amount was astronomical.  To add salt to injury, he had no savings to foot bills in case of such eventualities.

“Muwonge, why doesn’t the contractor advance us some money to buy the spare parts? After all, he is the one that misused my Hilux!” Lugendo said desperately, on the way from the garage.  “Eh?”, Muwonge exclaimed, “Mazima has already hired another new car”.  

Pregnant silence followed, as the two walked to the bus stand.

It has been some years since all this happened.  However, even as I speak, the ramshackle Hilux is still parked in the garage; and Lugendo is back on the streets, selling nuts.

I narrated this story to some executives who had invited me to talk about stress and its impact on work performance, hence service delivery.

Discussions revealed that these bosses had a form of work addiction that pushed them to habitually work for long hours, including weekends and public holidays.  Some had not taken their annual leaves; while others refrained from delegating work to supervisees with detrimental effects on the quality of internal and external service delivery.  

I cautioned them that ‘workaholism’ was a notorious killer; having been linked to serious physical and mental problems.  I added that their bodies were expected to take a certain amount of work each day…; and that like the Hilux, persistent overload could ‘damage them beyond repair’.

“Make rest and relaxation a part of your vocabulary” I advised; “otherwise, should you ‘break down’, your organisation will render you useless, thence replacing you without a wince”, I warned.  After all, as one esteemed son of Africa said…, ‘the beautiful ones are not yet born!’