Courtesy 101

"Hello my name is Mr. so and so, I am calling you from such an organization following an application letter you'd sent us. I would like to engage you in a conversation for some time, I hope it's fine with you, Miss. so and so."

Now, wouldn't you even get out of the scorching sun and listen to who could be a possible employer?

Forgive me for this post, but I feel nothing but rage seething through my veins because what I have come to know as the core training for HR practitioners was just dispelled within one minute of a conversation with some man who calls himself Frank and works with the Kenya Revenue Authority.

I receive a call from this connection that I'm sure is a landline, and the man asks me "Dora, to idhi nade? Iwita! Iwita kabisa!" I kindly request him to identify himself because ever since I replaced my SIM card, I am at a loss with the various contacts that I had.

He does not.

Instead he goes on to ask me why I refuse to answer him in mother-tongue yet he is clearly talking to me and he knows me. I ask him to identify himself so I can choose to continue or cease the conversation.

He says he's Frank, and he works with KRA where I had sent in my Graduate Management Trainee Application and he was calling me to tell me all about it.

He's under the Human Resources team working on recruitment, and the man lacks phone etiquette!
He appreciates that I speak fluently and adds that I do have a good voice and looks.

So, he asks for me to send him a scanned copy of my certificate- and I tell him that doing so would destroy the seal that authenticates it and if he wants to see my grades and attest that I graduated with honors then my transcripts would be able to do so, and I can send him a copy of the certificate later on via courier- but he says he knows what he wants and I should just tell him whether he will get it or not.

I tell him he will not and to save him time, I thank him for calling and hang up.

Okay...now let's take a breather.

What was that?

An opportunity.

What kind of opportunity?

One that would not improve me, especially NOT in the way I seek- because I know I have good looks and a good voice, but if you are my employer or seeking to have me join your team- you do not make passes at me, expecting an easy game.

I play tough because I can handle the heat- and besides what's a career or work without challenges to improve me for the better?

I was disgusted.

I believe I still am because professionalism does not ask for much, but rather the simplicity of respecting what you are doing, and how you are doing it.

Human dignity goes beyond what we say and how we say it all through to whom we address.​

I believe that Human Resource Practitioners are trained on etiquette and are expected to adhere to professional standards because there conduct and department is the backbone of the organization. How Frank could have disregarded this beats me, but it also does not make me appreciate or value or choose to liaise with the organization he represents.

Saddest bit is, they are still going to tax me at the end of this month!​

--

Dora.