By We are relieved, affected staff say
By John Eche
The MTN Nigeria Voluntary Severance Scheme which The Difference reported on three weeks ago will kick off this Friday as several workers who accepted the offer by the telecommunications giant to voluntarily retire and be paid some agreed sum are expected to hand in their retirements or resignations and other company properties including identity cards by Friday. Some of the affected staff who had either spent more than five years in the organization or are over forty years are leaving in droves.
Many who spoke to the Difference said that at the end of the day the offer was a blessing in disguise as working in MTN over the past few months was just a little better than going to serve a prison term with hard labour. One intending retiree from the Finance Department told The Difference that the work pace in his department for the past two years had been harrowing with the bosses driving everybody to the wall all in the bid to satisfy the South African paymasters adding that the Nigerian Senior Management staff were virtual stooges to the South African and look the other way while injustice is meted out to the Nigerian staff. He said that some Nigerian Managers in their attempts to please their masters now visit wickedness on the Nigerian junior staff.
A source in the company also told the Difference that the way in which the scheme was managed leaves much to be desired as if there were people who were targeted for slaughter adding that those who rejected the offer but who were targeted will work with impossible targets to make hypertension a near kin. while many were happy to take up the offer and move on some others lamented that their reason for not taking up the offer at this time was due to the heavy loan baggage they took with MTN standing as guarantor so if they go now they would be left high and dry and having moved on age wise getting a fresh job would be herculean.
The MTN Management is taking this bold and costly step to rid the company of old elements who they accuse of sabotaging new ideas from younger elements coming from Europe and America. MTN prides itself as an organization known for innovation but it appears that its green neighbours Etisalat have been more innovative, a situation that they blame on older elements who are unwilling to change.
Another source told the Difference that she hopes the organization was not making a huge mistake as some of the people being offloaded are like brain boxes of the organization adding that age should not be seen in a negative light as wine gets better with age as some of the older staff have the organizational history which should not be dispensed in such a cavalier attitude as MTN was doing saying that the signal being sent to the younger elements is that MTN is not a place where you can build a career so you better hurry and move on. Great organizations according to the lady are not born on the whims and caprices of some executives as is the case with this scheme., she insisted
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