By BOSEDE OLUSOLA-OBASA
This is the first of three notes I am penning down on ‘distinguishing between work and service.’ The focus will include Nigeria’s workforce, private business leaders and the public service. The objective is simple: re-orientate you, my readers, on why you should choose service readiness and mindedness for a greater society. Happy reading…
Dear fellow Nigerian worker, let me ask you a simple question: When you go to work, do you see yourself as merely going to work or going to offer service? They both sound like the same thing, but they are not.
Work is what you do to earn a living, build a career or fulfil a responsibility. Service is the value another person receives from how you do that work. And this distinction becomes particularly interesting when we compare our everyday service experiences with those in some other parts of the world. You travel and notice that people queue more patiently, appointments are more predictable, enquiries are answered more promptly, processes are clearer and the person attending to you seems to understand that your time matters too. Then you return home and encounter the familiar: “Come back tomorrow.” “That is not my department.” “I am closing.” “You should have come earlier.”
Of course, other countries have poor service too. No society has perfected it. But some cultures have deliberately built stronger expectations around punctuality, responsiveness, accountability and respect for the customer or citizen.
And perhaps that is the lesson for us.
Our problem is not always that Nigerians don’t know how to work. Nigerians work incredibly hard, just look around you. The question is whether we have developed the same commitment to the person at the receiving end of our work.
Think about your own workplace. When you are late, who waits? When you don’t return that call, who is inconvenienced? When you say “I’ll do it tomorrow” and don’t, who bears the consequence? When you do a task carelessly because “nobody will notice,” who eventually pays for the mistake?
Service begins when another person’s experience becomes part of your responsibility. So, I am not asking you to become somebody else. I am asking you to bring something better to what you already do: professional pride. Do your work; certainly, but don’t stop there. Serve through your work.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
In all you do, Mind Your Character.
I’m Bosede Olusola-Obasa, Character Development Trainer, Corporate Culture Strategist and Best Service Attitude Advisor
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