TODAY AT WORK

5 months ago

I've had a really long day today, and a really troublesome one too. I started my day really tired as though I didn't have much sleep even though I slept early… waking up to a day filled with a whole lot of activities and somehow knew I would have to face unforeseen circumstances. I wasn't exactly ready for the unforeseen, but like they say, when the going gets tough, you just gotta be tough and keep going. That was my experience today after which I surprisingly became energetic and was able to use that energy for the remaining part of the day… weird right, I think a little misunderstanding was what I needed to get my energy back.

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So as the ICT personnel in my company, my boss requested I deliver a quote for a specific kind of printer. I didn't know why he wanted to get a new printer, and knowing who my boss decided not to ask. So I went on to get the price which was about 195,000 naira. I asked the procurement officer also the price of a new printer so we can have different prices but he did not see that exact specification and went for something similar which summed up to 185,000 naira. The Accountant also made her own inquiries and got a price of 188,000 and 200,000 respectively. So I went to report all the prices to my boss and he disregarded the alternatives we got and decided to take matters into his own hands.

This morning he asked me to pick up the printer he bought from his car, and when I checked it was an alternative to the exact specification he asked for, and he got it for 395,000 naira. It was my duty to install the printer but first I needed to wait for the procurement officer to sign the paper works with the Accountant and add the printer to inventory. While he was doing that he was complaining to me about the expenses on the printer saying his own alternative had all the functionalities of this new printer and was cheaper because it was an old stock. So I simply replied that he should be speaking to my boss about it and not me. I said it jokingly not knowing he took it seriously.

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We were still talking when my boss worked in to see what we were doing and that was when he mentioned that his alternative was cheaper and my boss didn't even look at it. My boss, realizing his mistake, immediately did what anyone would do, and that is blame the next available person. Since the job of getting a new printer was given to me, my boss immediately looked at me and asked me why he never knew about the alternative. The truth was I didn't know much about that particular alternative, nor did I know what my boss needed a new printer for, but saying it will be passing the blame game, so I said I only worked with the exact specification he told me. He asked the procurement officer why he didn't talk about his own alternative and he said he gave me the full details which was a lie. The Accountant also took some parts of the blame for signing the 395,000 requisition but at the end of the day it was just me regretting why the hell I advised that guy to tell my boss… I don't play the blame game and I hate when people play it on me.