19/08/2019
THE MISSING MANAGER
By Joshua K. Njenga
In corporate training in Kenya, the years between 2001 and 2010 are what I call “the decade of team building.” Most organizations were doing it and we trainers were busy.
Economically, it was a period of prosperity, and nearly every company had a budget for team building.
I was one of the pioneer team building facilitators, and there were only a few of us. The result is that most of my weekends were spent training.
That’s how, in 2009, I ended up doing team building for company X. It is a blue-chip company, the kind that every trainer would love to have as a client.
It had planned team building events for its eight departments, and all of them took place at a hotel in Naivasha.
Typically, a bus picked them up from their head office on Saturday morning, and they returned on Sunday afternoon.
We did the first seven groups without incident; but, for the last group, we left late.
Like all the other groups, we assembled at their head office at 7.00 a.m.on Saturday; and all employees were on time. However, we were asked to wait for their head of department who was still “finishing something” in the office.
I had met him a week earlier to discuss his department’s requirements, and he insisted we must depart on time. I found it curious that he was the one delaying us.
While sitting in the bus, waiting, his employees were gossiping about him; and I learned a few things about him from listening to it. For example, I learned that most employees liked him because of his easy-going nature; but he was a workaholic who spent long hours in the office.
He left the office past midnight every day, and he came to to work all weekends and public holidays.
All his life seemed to rotate around work, and he had not taken leave the previous three years. It seemed like there was always something for him to do in the office.
At 9:00 a.m. he came to the bus, and we all thought it was time to leave. However, he said he had not finished what he was doing.
He told us to depart without him, and that he would join us after two hours.
We got to Naivasha at 11:00 a.m. and got on with our program. However, by the end of the day, the manager had not yet arrived.
His team tried calling him but he did not answer. However, they said it was normal for him not to pick calls when he was busy.
His assistant called his wife, but she said she was not expecting him. He had told her he would travel to Naivasha with the team.
As is the case most team building events, evenings are spent making partying. There was plenty of alcohol, and the team had brought along a DJ. So, amidst the dance and the alcohol, everyone forgot about the manager.
The following day we had breakfast at 7:30 a.m., and we were getting ready to begin our events for the second day.
However, we returned to Nairobi after breakfast.
The call came in as were walking to the team building grounds.
Security officers patrolling the building had seen him in his office at at 3:00 a.m., and he was slumped on his desk. It was normal for him to spend nights in the office, so they didn't find it unusual. They had seen him resting in that position many times before, so they moved on to inspect other floors.
When they came back at 6:00 a.m., he had not moved an inch. They tried to open the door, but it was locked from inside.
That is when they called the Managing Director.
Somewhere along his busy day or night, he had suffered a heart attack, and it killed him.
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