DRAMA @ WORK

I started working at the radio station sometime last year. At first, I was in the news department, I later found myself on the morning show as co-host/side kick to this popular dude- lets call him David. David and I clicked from the very beginning, we became like the Regis & Kelly of naija. We talked about everything from serious world issues to the craziest stuff. We also played a lot of pranks on people on air.

We used to fall out once in a while and all of those times, I found myself apologizing, even when it was his fault, David has never opened his mouth to apologize to me or anyone he wronged in my presence. David is a foreigner and he brought with him a fresh, modern style. He basically gave Nigerian radio “mouth to mouth”. Other people @ work used to warn me that I would soon see the “real David”, they were right, I started to notice that he had this air of a “demi-god”,

Sometime ago, He was able to convince a successful fast food joint to sponsor one of our segments on the show that involved playing pranks on the phone. David struck a deal with me & some other employees of the radio station to assist him with this segment and he would make sure he we got “paid”. We later found out his definition of “paid” meant getting 5,000 naira each weekly. We were aight with it, after all 5K isn’t much but it isn’t money to be thrown away either. At least 5k is enuff for me to get my hair and nails done. A few days later, I got a call from the marketer that helped David close the deal with the company, he asked me how much David said he would be paying us, I told him 5K, the marketer couldn’t believe it.

He revealed to me that David had been paid some millions of naira, so he could afford to even pay us like 80grand each. I met with the other employees who were involved in this and we decided to talk to David about it and appeal to him to pay us some more.

When we approached him, before we could even finish, he lost his cool and said “All of y’all can kiss my dick!, give me my money back, I don’t need y’all, y’all are so greedy and so disrespectful! I try to put some money in ur pockets and u come to me with this?

The next day, I arrived @ work to find that the gist had spread throughout the station, even to other departments. Would u believe that David had the nerve to accuse me of spreading the gist. I was so pissed, cos I had nothing to do with the gist spreading, he also called me greedy and desperate for money. He even added, “ Who the hell are you anyway? When did u start radio?” I was so hurt, surprised and disappointed at the turn of events that I didn’t speak to him for some days. He later tried to joke about the whole incident and saw nothing wrong with what he did or said. I told him I felt hurt and he said something like “too bad!” A few days later…we were on the air again…entertaining people like nothing happened.

Ish like this happened last year, this year, same old stuff happened. He continued to disrespect people, talking down to them and so on. I just decided to ignore his antics and do my job………
The straw that broke the camels back happened about a month ago……………..
First let me give u some background info on what goes on @ my radio station……….before each show every broadcaster/personality is given a music log (list of songs to be played), a commercial log (list of commercials to be played). & after every show there’s a specific place that these logs should be returned to. Also, the studio is supposed to be tidy, with all the cd‘s (discs) to be returned to the shelves. Whenever David & I do our show, I always make sure I return the cds, the logs and so on. However some days, David does his personal show and my personal show comes up right after his. I started to notice that he would leave the studio without tidying up, he wouldn’t return his log(s) or some of his cd’s and I would quietly put them back. I even mentioned it to him a couple of times, and he would laugh it off!

One day, (about a month ago) I walked in to studio to find his usual mess. Both logs not returned and some cds not returned. I got angry and wrote him a note on the back of the log. It read “David, return your logs & cds after ur show!”.
The next day, I came into the studio, he was there, I said “Good Morning” and he ignored me. I was like “Hey! Good Morning” and

He said: I saw ur nasty little note!

I said: What was so nasty about it, I didn’t insult u did I? I only told u to…He Interrupts in a LOUD voice)

He said: DON’T U EVER IN YOUR LIFE ASK ME TO DO ANYTHING AGAIN! I’VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR FIFTEEN YEARS, WHERE DO U GET OFF TELLING ME WHAT TO DO?

I said: (Raising my voice) Well then, MR “IVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR 15 YEARS, YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER!

He says: ISNT IT UR JOB ANYWAY? DON’T U WORK FOR ME?

I say: EXCUSE ME? MY JOB? POINT OF CORRECTION! I DON’T WORK FOR U! U DON’T PAY ME SALARY! I WORK FOR THE RADIO STATION!

He says: THAT’S ALL U DO ANYWAY! U SIT THERE, I DO ALL THE WORK! I RUN THE SHOW! ALL U DO IS CLEAN UP AFTERWARDS. ITS NOT LIKE U PUT ON THE MIC ON UR OWN TIP, U JUST SIT THERE, U CANT SAY ANYTHING ON THE AIR WITHOUT STUMBLING ANYWAY!

I say: I DON’T KNOW WHAT UR PROBLEM IS, STOP BEING SO DAMN SENSITIVE! NEXT TIME, DO THE RIGHT THING, THEN I WONT HAVE TO WRITE YOU A NOTE.

He says: I CAN SEE U NOW FEEL THAT U HAVE OUTGROWN BEING MY ASSISTANT! U THINK U’RE IRREPLACABLE?

I say: NO DUDE! U THINK U R IRREPLACBLE, U THINK U’RE A god NOW ABI? U THINK U CAN DO ANYTHING? GO RUN FOR PRESIDENT THEN!

He says: I WILL GO TO THE BIG BOSS & REQUEST FOR ANOTHER ASSISTANT, U THINK UR TOO BIG NOW! U KNOW HE REALLY DOESN’T LIKE U OR UR VOICE!

I say: WHAT THE HELL DO U WANT ME TO DO? BEG U? I DON’T CARE! PLS RUN! RUN! & GO & MEET HIM!

He says : U FEEL TOO BIG TO RETURN 4 OR 5 CDS! INFACT, ITS TIME TOBLOW SOMEONE ELSE UP! WHEN THEY MOVE U FROM THIS SHOW, I’LL SEE WHAT SHOW THEY WILL PUT U ON! MAYBE UR DADDY WILL COME AND SEE THE DEPUTY BIG BOSS AFTER THIS, HE GOT U THE JOB ANYWAY, U JUST GOT ON THE AIR, U DIDN’T PAY ANY DUES, WRITING ME A NASTY ASS NOTE OVER A FEW CD’S, WHY Didn’t U GO AHEAD AND WRITE A MEMO

I say: I DON’T GIVE A SHIT IF ITS ONE CD, DO WHAT THE HELL U ARE SUPPOSED TO DO & THERE WONT BE DRAMA! MR I HAVE BEEN DOING THIS SINCE I WAS BORN, THEN UR OLD EXPERIENCED ASS SHOULD KNOW BETTER!

He says: I RUN THE SHOW, IM GETTING A NEW ASSISTANT, I DON’T NEED U ON THE SHOW ANYMORE……….

I say: DO THE RIGHT THING! THERE WONT BE DRAMA!

(He storms out……………and we officially stop talking………even on air)
TO BE CONTINUED!