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8-5 The Diary of a Lagos worker

Or should we say 7- whenever?
Lagos is evidently one of the toughest places to work and live.
Life is tough and having to commute daily to work and back is even tougher.
Of course the limited career paths and rigid work hours also contribute to the complexities of
the situation of a Lagos worker. Most young people would only want to work in a Bank, an Oil
company, a manufacturing company etc as those are the only organizations which offer the
semblance of a reasonable salary. Of course with these industries work hours are cast in stone,
8am-6pm daily with some extra hours thrown in at no additional cost to the company and even
some or most weekends!

A day in the life of a typical Lagos worker would go something like this:

4am- 4.30- (Alarm goes off)Rise and shine take a quick bath and say my prayers while brushing
my teeth, it’s still quite dark but I can already see lights on in the different houses that surround
my street. Get dressed; no tie yet, will do that when I get to the office, socks and shoes too.
4.45am- Check the car and jump in I must beat the morning rush of cars trying to get on the
third mainland bridge- so many cars, everyone owns a car now, that’s what contributes mainly
to the traffic.
5.20am- On the third mainland bridge, its moving systematically but not too slow, oh lord! The
cause of the traffic is a two car accident, must have happened in the middle of the night- there’s
LASTMA, FRSC and ambulances already, thank God I left in time- really feel sorry for the people
who will decide to just be leaving their homes at this time.
6.10am- Yeah! Made it to the office, there are a few early birds like me in the car park, ladies
doing their makeup, guys knotting their ties and shining their shoes- should do mine too. That’ll
take me a few minutes and I’ve still got some time to catch a nap till 7.45- I set my alarm and
recline my chair and fall asleep till my alarm sounds.

We could go on and on, however, our guy starts work at 8, closes at 8 and heads back home in
the daily rush hour traffic back home. It takes about 3 hours to get home so he sleeps for some
time and the cycle begins again when his alarm rings.

It really is a vicious cycle, of course we have not dwelt on the complexities at the work place
which our subject must handle and get through every single day! Commuting is singularly the
biggest challenge of the Lagos worker, after all, if we could get to work and back in 30 minutes,
we would be better able to handle the ‘intellectual’ challenges of work and also have room for
the concept of ‘ work- life balance’.