In the earlier days of my 9 to 5 working life, I held a vital position in a multinational company, with a very special kind of boss, the word special used for want of another adjective.

He was nothing short of a slave-driver whose primary goal in life was to push his subordinates to the tethers of their limits until their elasticity broke it’s bounds. I think a lot of us went to bed, dreaming of a thousand different ways to kill a boss 😉

One particular occasion that comes easily to my mind, was when we hosted the West and Central Africa Top Team Leaders Convention and Team building program, when I was right in the thick of planning these affairs.

This program involved almost two hundred team leads flying in from so many parts of Africa as well as the United Kingdom. Since my ex-boss was the Top Team lead for our operational unit and as his special assistant, guess who had the responsibility to organize a perfect program down to the fine details of it, meanwhile, it was taking place in Abuja and not Lagos where my office was.

From sorting out hundreds of letters for visas, to airport pick-ups and security details, hotel accommodation, printing of programs, gift items, commissioning Tee-shirts with peoples specifics and other special Nigerian outfits, I had to fly to Abuja every few days to iron out arrangements of so many fine details of things….it was one hectic time and the program was made sweeter by some adults who got ill, a few managed to miss their flights, one got drunk and misplaced his international passport and all sent me into a tizzy.

Meanwhile, during the preparation of the convention, as incredible as it might sound, dear yours faithful and special boss took some vacation time to the UK and left me to wade alone in the entire matter. Mercifully, I had a colleague in Abuja who assisted in tying up some loose ends at that side to save me having to fly down every other day.

Certain things that needed approval from him, I had to give the go-ahead because getting him to approve stuff from UK was a major feat in itself.

The annoying part was that he flew in from London directly to the program, only to start pointing at what was not perfect from his point of view.

As a matter of fact he got so annoying, when he requested that I should take the last flight from Abuja to Lagos to get the printers to redo the program which was not the exact shade of blue of the up-country operations unit and I was expected to get it fixed and to take the red-eye back to the program the following day.

I was livid and had to go to the Area Director who was his boss from London. It was such a sweet moment when the AD nicely reminded him that everything had been handled by me, while he was off on a merry jaunt and confirmed that we could use the programs as they were.

Anyway, it was a whale of a job working with him. Somehow, I endured, thrived and I came away learning so much. It simply made me stronger, smarter and expanded the scope of my events coordination capabilities and looking back now, I realize that his actions were possibly due to the fact that he had garnered enough trust in me to leave me in charge of certain things.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha.

The Daily Post Sink or Swim.

Tell us about a time when you were left on your own, to fend for yourself in an overwhelming situation — on the job, at home, at school. What was the outcome?