Dealing with Staff

Ok. So, I have never had "staff" before. Either at my house or in business. Well, maybe you can count when I was a manager at an ice cream store, but they weren't really "my" employees.

Having staff is hard enough I think. Having staff in a foreign country is VERY challenging. At the house it tends to be easier. Although at times it is just as tiring. With staff I am free to do other things, we can buy produce for the Ugandan cost not the mzungu (white person) cost, etc. I can come home after doing things and have a clean house, clean laundry (although sometimes it turns pink). Having staff can be a blessing.

At the Keep.... well, let's just say it is more than challenging at times. This past Saturday was payday. After paying all the staff, it was brought to my attention that I needed to pay a trainee. My frustration with this was that I had sat down this trainee on Tuesday and said that her check list needed to be complete. Whether or not she passed or failed the items she had been trained on. I was specific in saying that SHE was responsible for this. So, Saturday comes and she had not gone to her manager to get tested... on anything. Yet she was saying that she should be paid. (Training here is either at a school, where the trainee pays or at an establishment where they get training for free but don't get paid.)

So, that is not the bad part. The bad part came when my manager told her that he had given me the checklist, and yet I still wasn't going to pay her. Needless to say when I heard this, I had a few words. When confronted, the manager then said that he "attempted" to give it to me but I refused it, and that he had it all ready. I was livid. He lied to the whole kitchen staff, he had never given me the checklist. He never attempted to give it to me, and he didn't even have the sheet ready. When I went and told Jon what was going on, he walked straight over to the manager and told him that he needed to leave.. that no one lies about me and that he, the manager, was lying about the paper.

Fast forward to Monday morning. The same manager comes to me with a paper that had the trainee passing everything on Friday. (mind you that it was written on a paper I had in my hand on Saturday that was blank). He had passed her on all things, checked off on Friday, and filled out on Saturday. Which was another blatant lie.

So what's the point of this? This is a cultural difference. In the managers eyes he was helping provide for the trainee, the village mentality of looking out for others. He did not see any of this as lying, he still doesn't.

Everyday is something new. Everyday a learning experience.