 nigerians not africans nigerians in the us take your vacation take your vacation so far not the tire you you are the only employee who does not go for vacation even if you're not going on an actual vacation putting your time and stay at home don't go to work stay at home they're looking for who to come in on the weekends and you're showing up you hi you have a life you're showing them you don't have a work life balance actually showing them you don't have a life you think it's loyalty hard work you think by doing it you're going to make people like me feel bad i will take my vacation even if i don't go anywhere even if i stay indoors i'm not going to work there's a government declared holiday others are at home you're going to volunteer at work for double prong defender of the universe why do you think it's there in the first place tomorrow you say have been overworked take your weekly take your vacation if they ask you tell them you're traveling to nigeria you already know nigeria just tell them one story we've been to nigeria before it's not a lie tell them one story about what happened on time when you were in nigeria practically you're not lying want to go to work hard walker double pay that irs we take from your w2 form you don't you didn't know abby or you didn't know keep working double extra time your extra time is still taxed it's not free work life balance refers to the level of prioritization between personal and professional activities in an individual's life and the level to which activities related to their job are present in the home the ideal work life balance is open to discussion free thinker paul christner said that anthropologists often define happiness as having little or no differentiation between an individual's professional and personal life nigerians are very industrial people and naturally hard workers and nigerians in diaspora work even harder but working at the risk of your personal life is never the way to go so today we're asking the nigerians home and abroad have work life balance please let's hear what you have to say remember you can join the conversation centers sms or what's up to 08180384663 or twitter torts at we show africa one with the hashtag we show let me ask you this festival do you think the nigerians home and abroad i i believe that it's actually very a different ball game abroad right because i'm assuming that they have a lot of bills to pay when they walk over time they actually get paid for it so they might want to do that so that they can end some extra cash they can end some cool cash and that's why they will not want to take their vacation or take their sick leave and all of that but do you think that or let me ask it this way do you think it's necessary or what what what are your views actually on this work life balance matter in nigeria and in the diaspora as well ng i don't think there's anything like work life balance in terms of in nigeria i think that work life balance means what how important your life means to you and that's the balance in your life so it depends on how you see if you're constantly on a money role like you're constantly chasing money something in your life some part of your life will have to suffer and that's where you see people lose out on maybe birthdays births you know and gatherings and relationships and things like that um and i think it's very very important for us to have work like balance because um your job will never take you to the best restaurant your job will never be the one to take care of your kids your job is not going to be the one to love your spouse so your job is not going to be there to massage your back so i think it's very very important for you to always find the balance it's very very well said easy oh for me my perspective is kind of broad i'm looking at it from the perspective of black tax and i'm also looking at it from the perspective of location now where let me take black tax for first black tax is something that we all have in nigeria we we are used to it it is something that we go through daily our loved ones will ask us for money even those of us in nigeria not to talk of those that are abroad so they would always ask for these monies to be able to you know um find the cushion now when they do this they're putting the pressure on those who are abroad or who are working and those of us that are working would feel the pressure and the need to take care of those that do not have so yes when we see things like that and we can end an extra box yes we will definitely go for it we wouldn't think about the fact that they're going to take some sort of tax for it or not you know we are like that and another thing is um the way we are wired in nigeria we are wired in such a way that we are hard workers we do not understand where to draw the line where we should you know take a step back and take a chill pill we don't know how to do that so we always want to keep going and keep making money just like nj said you just have to keep pushing and keep looking for ways to make ends meet not to talk of the economic crunch we are all facing currently so everybody is on the move and trying to make ends meet nobody i can bet you nobody's thinking about um work life balance right now because of the state of the economy currently and secondly location is another thing i talked about earlier where we have location for example we are based in Lagos an urban city a town where everybody is you know on the move it's like a rat race we want a situation whereby we make money and if we don't want money we wouldn't be in Lagos we'll be at home or in our villages basically so we are in Lagos to make money we didn't come to there's a saying we didn't come to look at the bridges so because of this we tend to try to make ends meet in whatever capacity in whatever way we can do it so location in Lagos there is no way you can have a work life balance work life balance is practically nonexistent because you can go to 10 places or i'm saying 10 places no way you can go to two places at once in Lagos because of the of the environment is there's a lot of bars everywhere traffic and all that that goes with it so we have to take that pause and if we have to be intentional about this we have to take that pause but again if we have found ourselves in the rural areas where life is easy in quote in quote because in some rural areas like for example on each for example they do not have work life balance because they are all about money even if they go to a party needs to collect money so there is nothing about taking a chill pill there but if you go to a typical rural area where they have they go to the farm and stuff like that in the north for example i'm sure they do have that work life balance in place for them so again i will state it that it is about location and it is about black tax and it is about the individuals who are Nigerians thank you very well said isi thank you i like the angle that you but it's from and i'll i'll come back the but let's hear from mary do nigerians home and abroad have work life balance no i don't think so um i think we come from a mentality of um there's a fight of light like we're just always on the edge and i'll take myself for example i haven't gone on leave in the past we're in the eight month now and even to take the leave i still feel like oh if i'm not traveling is there really any need do you understand it's almost like i'm even scared to take the leave and then you know people around me i don't i i guess i've worked in maybe two organizations or so there's never any you know even prompt from the company say okay you've not taken your annual it doesn't concern them you have to actually be working you know 24 seven i have colleagues or friends that are abroad and we're all on the move for something yes there's a rise about mental health talk which has really helped us and like today is vlogging day so when you see someone vlog about a trip you're like oh okay you know what i can do this i haven't gone on a vacation by myself you know and because every time i bring you up to my mom it's like when you are married with your children that's when you do those things you know so you know so there's that that mentality of you know it's supposed to be you understand you just want to you just want to travel or you know if if you say i take him leave he's like well what are you going to go and sit at home and do you know after the second day you'll be tired you know we just don't as a community at Nigerians i don't think we have come to that place where we understand that there's something called burnout you do you understand you can actually be mentally and physically exhausted so oftentimes when you bring this up what you hear is you are lazy you're lazy you're lazy do you understand so everybody is always in in a hurry you know there's sometimes that i i get into the car and i'm driving and i'm wondering where exactly are you where are you rushing to you know it's different when you see somebody else in front of you trying to overtake you're like where are you rushing to until you're actually the person doing it and you're just wondering like you're just always you know hey will there be traffic let me let me go you're just always in survival mode survival mode always like um what kind of balance for Nigerians is it no is it no we're not there yet i'm hoping that we'll get there but i mean it's really very very sad and the older generation i think they're also getting to understand that okay you know people go on vacation you know they travel you know sometimes you can't just want to sit down at home but it's still very strange because i can tell you i've i've been saying i need to go and live i need to go and live two weeks has passed i need to go and live okay just write the email and i'm just thinking hmm is it necessary what if i go home and i'm not doing anything and then what if you go home i don't do anything that's fine too if you're mentally exhausted you're mentally exhausted like you can't even speak up for it because you don't want to seem like you know you're being lazy you're not um hardworking kind of thing catch you see the economy if you spend this morning now what are we going to start from people are slumping and dying of what use is it of what use is it actually so um for me we don't have it we don't have the culture it'll be nice to have me so i'm learning to have it but that's what she said so very well said me that's actually very true and again i would address what you said and what you see the angles but the three of you have actually come if you're just tuned in it's our ladies night out and we are discussing the topic do nine jureans home and abroad have work life balance please let's hear what you have to say remember you can join the conversation centers in sms or what tab two zero eight one eight zero three eight four six six three colossal twitter at weisho africa one with the hashtag weisho also our phone line is now open please call us on zero seven zero two five zero zero seven seven four nine the number is called again is zero seven zero two five zero zero seven seven four nine so i said i was going to come back to what you guys said right so um it came from the angle of oh black tax you know and that thing is very true the minute family knows what it is that you and what comes into pressure becomes worse and you can't afford to disappoint now do you want them to call it more and say we need to know how to do it and then you can't afford it they're not looking actually like you're just walking you're not even so that pressure like you rightly said that pressure to succeed it is in us the drive is a good thing but most times we don't even realize that we need to get to that point where we just have to understand that there's something called rest there's something like you said you've been wanting to go on this but guess what if you fall ill tomorrow what's going to happen you're going to sit at home you won't go anywhere so that leave is actually very very important but you know another thing i have realized it's the fact that even the the work system or would i say the work culture doesn't even support it you don't understand i'll say it to end it today that i decided a new joke today and our closing time is supposed to be 3 30 which is very weird for me and so i went to the i was actually shadowing someone right and then at about 3 25 i stood up to go to the bathroom and i took pictures and rather than in the bathroom i came back i think that's it everybody is doing business as usual which business as usual my office was empty oh wow i didn't see anybody i looked i'm like and then i saw my mommy and she's like you know why you're still here it's time to go it's time to go everybody gone he actually feels very weird right my goodness i experienced what culture shock i don't know this is not happening same thing happened to me first week my first week at work i was locked inside the office and it was 6 p.m i was coming from i used to work on the mainland and i used to walk like a 9 to 9 because my first day of work i closed at 8 30 p.m from the mainland and it continued like that for five years in five years i had five days leave so one for each year what the hell so and then i got here and first week i was trying to catch up you know do a lot of catch up i'm going to be you know managing the team wanted to know you know you wanted to know everything that needed to be known and i was just working and i just looked up oh it's dark outside oh let me get going i looked at the time about six o'clock my colleagues had let that think about 4 30 and i came out you know packed my things put up all the lights went downstairs the door was locked i was like wait wait wait i went to the kitchen everywhere i was locked inside the office i had to call my boss sir um did they lock the door because i think i've been locked inside the office he had to call the security who had come to his room he thought no everyone had left he was used to everyone of course so it was there after now he knows that okay i walk late so he tends to you know keep it but yeah i was locked in the office first week so there's a lot of cultural show honestly there's because i i would not like see like i in fact for the rest of today i haven't stopped talking about it because i have i'm coming from different places where we're supposed to go that's maybe five or four or five thirty whatever this case is but we literally have to wait for one person to stand up face before the rest of us so everyone is waiting to say okay who's the first person that is going to get up who's going to have the you know the courage to get out but this one everybody including my line man she had packed her food bag packed her hand bag closed shot her laptop she was ready to go at three thirty so it's not a case of oh we want to see stuff ahead who can walk with the most who nobody cares about that and that's how it should be because in your there is a time stipulated from this time to this time go home just do other things take care of your family you know you see you see we're going to say something yes i was going to say that when the advent of covid we actually decided to do a change there was some sort of change that happened just with work forces what am i trying to say when people work from home to a large extent they were able to have that work life balance so they were able to you know work from home and at the same time tend to be family and at the same time do other things that they needed to do instead of being stuck in traffic for quite some time before they get home and all that so yes i would say that um the the employers or most employers before covid they were not understanding at all to a large extent they didn't help the the workforce to you know have that balance or have that work life balance basically but right now i i sincerely apologize to my gen z you know with total respect to you in fact i duff my heart to you look what a friend of mine told me was that the gen z they don't take nonsense once they walk into the office and they are telling them nonsense they walk away and tell them i don't have time for this and they walk out you know i think that also helps i don't think i'm a gen z again no point i think i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm a delonium and helped the the the employers to understand that look you can't enslave people you have to be tolerant you have to listen to what the people are saying and help them have that work life balance in place thank you so also still speaking to employers as well i think and that thing is conscious let me talk about family now considering things like maternity paternity i've realized that most organizations don't even get the concept of paternity i was reading an article and even this so-called america i was talking about america has ranked as one of the unhappiest countries if you look at the nordics so we are talking about countries like kandinavia luxembourg and all those countries that are in like the countryside and all of that those ones by the time you see a mother is a father is entitled to what 52 weeks some 28 weeks that's what seven months that's a father paid need so imagine that kind of situation do you want to come and try to nigeria it's not possible so that's why when we now even go and start living in diaspora we're not even able to still follow up with that culture because it's very unusual to walk yeah it's too much time you just want to go for house they do it they carry the king it doesn't make sense why you after three months get your ass up and go and walk now you you know so i think i strongly believe that the the employers have a very very big role to play in helping to improve work-life balance yeah they were talking about doing things when we had to show on the wellness we're talking about things like break you know having allowing employees actually exercise their break times some people sit right there with their in front of their computer you are one of them i'm not i'm not i'm actually not even sitting in front of the computer i'm expected to make five physical visits to companies and they actually tried it is freaking exhausting and also make phone calls i said i went back home and i sat down i said i think something is actually wrong like this cannot be my life i live close to the office so that helps me to get home in like what 15 minutes imagine if i had to do an extra one hour on the route they're still sending you messages they're still sending you emails i said that i'm there firstly and i looked i said you know what if everyone wants to fall everyone should fall that's the jenzi that's jenzi because i refuse to be a millennia they both died out let it fall this report i'm not sending and let me see what's going to happen because it's actually absurd and it take let me tell you how it takes it's all on my mental health it's the fact that you begin to actually doubt yourself because you're thinking if somebody actually sets this thing it means that the person believes that a human being can do it so if if the employer believes that you can do it why am i not able to do it is it because i do not feel like doing it or is it because i'm lazy and lazy is a word the the title of my book i've concluded is going to be the lazy way out that's going to be the title of my book when i write a book because i think i've heard the word lazy so much and even being a jenzi it's just it's now a natural term or you guys your generation you guys are lazy you guys own you know you want to put in the work you need to put in the work and i'm just like she if i put in the work now and i died before i rip the the fruit of my label of what's once what have i achieved really what really have i achieved speaking to that that's a strong point yeah i you know speaking to that i i think that another thing is uh that's why i must really applaud the tech companies because those guys understand the concept of work like that game rooms that you can just think about i don't think it's all of them okay but but yes good group well yeah and shall is once owned by the young generation the younger generation right yes and i say this because yes they understand that times have changed it's no longer you're not working you work in the bank you live your house at five a.m because that's what their appearance where you are used to that's for them that for those of them that are still in service feeling that's at five o'clock they get to the office at what maybe six thirty or sometimes they leave they want to leave that early day they are able to get to work a lot earlier they get to the office maybe five forty five six they're about they probably try to nap one hour works that's at seven and they are at it at it at it at it till some of times they don't even leave the office till nine p.m because they're waiting out traffic so you know you are saying that you want to leave the office at four they are looking at you like in my days we used to leave the office at nine p.m like excuse me my manager told me she said when i was actively doing sales i used to make seventy calls in in in a day i say are you a machine seventy phone calls in in a day and when she means in a day i mean not at the whole twenty four hours maybe just like six hours of the day so it means that we're not energetic you know because we're all very young in my team just three people and we're all just looking like hey you know we're gonna die soon because this book is actually gonna kill okay but but then nobody is as agency yeah i'm around so many millennia of that even when i'm speaking among jays they are married yeah are you sure you are really a jay because you are talking like an old woman so and nobody wants to speak of jay as i'm here here i am the one saying uh i can't even apply for my leave because i'm like will you go out home and sit down and not do anything but then it's it's it's the mentality is bunker i think we should i was going to say something yes i was going to say something in in respect of us being intentional okay how do we bounce back from you know finding that leverage or finding that level playing ground where we can actually do the work and at the same time have some fun and at the same time have a personal lifestyle basically that we need to step away from the rat race basically and how do we do this we need to be intentional about it we need to be deliberate about it we know that the economy is not friendly currently but there are ways we can also go about it if we really want to and for me i think practically everything i do right now is online i teach online i i do my courses online i at the same time i have time for the family and i'm able to do a thing or two outside the family so yes we need to be intentional about it we need to find that level playing ground where we can we can breathe we should breathe we should be able to find that level playing ground where we can breathe and and be able to you know take the next step forward by um easing out the stress we are all going through if you are in sync with this school of course as well i i don't mind you i i definitely agree with what you have said isy but as well as being intentional i think you need an enabling environment you know so i'm i'm pretty much intentional which is going to the gym um me i will take out my own time if the company won't give me the time i would you know do it but then it'll be nice to have a supporting environment it'll be nice to have you know a a system where i should be able to say oh i am like my body is actually tired and i don't think i can come into work rather than you know looking for ways that i'm going to try and get a doctor's notes just to say i don't want to come into the office you know and there are times when there have been times when i want to close early from the office and i actually have tried to be honest do you understand where i say oh yeah i think i'm just really tired i would just really like to close early which is just maybe two hours away from my closing time and what was i told you don't have a substantial reason for this so therefore your request is not granted how how else can i go about that the only next intentional way would be to be lying around things and i just i don't see the reason why we should have to lie about it we shouldn't agree with you my final thoughts on this matter i've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time something has to give and you just have to decide what is going to give something has to pay for something so you have to be able to plan and create that balance for yourself very easy i totally agree with nj something has to give you can serve two masters at the same time so it's either you are for jesus or you are for the money so yes it's it's important but again one needs to be deliberate about it and be intentional to scale through and strike that balance that this so need it doesn't have to be equal but it has to be prioritized and it has to make sense i also strongly believe that there's a very strong opportunity i understand that there are some industries or some roles that might not be able to adopt the flexible shadow option right the hybrid work system or the remote work system you know but at the same time i would always still say i feel like we need to start from the employer because just imagine an employer says to their employee okay so starting this week everybody works three times a week or even four times a week do you think your staff will say they don't want to they don't want it that's why we left the group chat it's not impossible it's not impossible because for example look at what you do people would say i used to work in business development and they would say oh as a business development whom i remember one time i told i asked one of my bosses i'm like why is it that we can't operate the hybrid because i i i suggested you know how they will meet in the lights you and say any suggestions your suggestions are always welcome you can i then opened my mouth big mouth and i said maybe we should consider working you see the bombastic side that he gave me and he's like this is business development i can't even understand the other teams but business development what do you mean you want to work from home how would you manage the sales guys how do you manage the market i'm like have you heard of social media are you telling me that we can't do social media from our houses we can't we don't need to be why not wait for physical visits every day or what strategy do am i trying to build that i need to sit down on this desk and i can't lie down on my bed to think about you are the one that is just making this thing seem like it is i don't think that except it's like maybe those that are in active services like maybe um healthcare and things like that those ones i can't understand if but then there's even their shifts their rosters right you can actually operate systems like that just so that people are able to have time not just to rest to do other things with that there's more to life than working there's more to life than just waking up that's what some people every day is wake up go to work come back sleep wake up again rinse and repeat you know but right i think we need to start we need to start from the employers employers need to actively pay more attention and do better i understand that you are paying this people money and you are afraid that when they stay at home they will not work yeah so i was going to say that that is it the fear of um the fact that something can be taken for granted is would that be a good enough reason not to go for it because you know i know that my own generation when i've i've heard the ways some gentsies have showed some people you know shaggy and i'm like are you sure this is really the way forward you know so it's very nice let's take a call just before wrap up the show okay hello good evening hello okay i think we love that we love that but unfortunately i was happy that we're going to get a call okay anyway i hope that the employers have seen this and they see they did not see they did see some other time amen and we are like easy right we said ourselves that individuals will be intentional be intentional as well thank you mary thank you nj thank you is the really great conversation but before we go do and show you follow us on instagram as we show Africa you can interact with us further drop a comment and most importantly follow our social media engagements and remember to like share comments and invite your friends and family to watch us and follow us if you miss today's quotes here it says again never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life very important and this is by dolly see you tomorrow at 8 p.m as we bring another great conversation see you