A Diasporan Experience at Work

Job are hard to get these days and when you land on one you want to give it your best, as being a weak performer or under delivering is unacceptable and can threaten your continued employment.

What is even worse today is when you are very good at your job..and at the same time you happen to be a Diasporan this is a perfect recipe for double stress. It is potentially dangerous. A boss who is insecure, paranoid and feels threatened by your competency because they cannot deliver the goods like you do, can make your life at work hell.

Being too ambitious makes you the biggest threat in their career path. You become a threat bigger than them getting a redundancy package, because your ambition endangers their career path and future financial security.

Worse still is when you have a racist boss, one who cannot understand how you can be better than them. As a Diasporan you have to work twice as much to be recognised for your work, you cannot pin point the discrimination but it there, you see it, you feel it, they discriminate on you in all manners, office politics and fake smiles makes one contemplate quitting on the spot….but when you remember where you are coming from and the responsibilities on your shoulders …you then have no options but to develop a thick skin and turn a blind eye.

Being too good and competent in your job can land you a bad appraisal, an appraisal with intentions of tearing you into pieces, one that will marginalise your contribution to the institution you work for and endanger your career progression, bad enough to make you so mad that you will be forced to resign in protest, but being so far away from home you put your head down and soldier on…

Being your own boss is a dream for many, a dream many have achieved and enjoying that freedom.

By Esther Wairumbi. Esther is a Banker/Enterprenuer based in the United Kingdom. She also writes the estherwairumbi.blogspot.co.uk blog.

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