My Work Place 1

Thank you all for always reading my piece and encouraging me. I love you all. Let's keep growing together. I will love to tell you about my Work place and the things I have observe over time.

One of the essence of living is to make money and live large and comfortable but I also feel that it is not the only essence of life. Impacting, love, friendship are some important values of life that one should always try to impact in people around them always especially if you are paid to do so.

However, in a society where everyone is looking for money these values may be replaced unknowingly or without much concern. That is why it is good to always keep one's self in check because what ever we do people check mate us be you the boss or the worker, leader or the lead, Bishop or the congregant whichever one you are, we must strive to impact, love and build a good friendship zone because life is just but one. We can't live more than once and it is the Legacy we leave behind that people will remember us for.

I will love to share with us a little drama that happened at our shop the day before yesterday. Hahaha I honestly have to laugh. It was quite funny and dramatic. After the incident it was on the lips of everybody and we all laughed about it. It may not seem funny to you though because you know, you weren't present or may not understand the reason for the outburst but I pray you get the gist after this piece. Before I do that, let me tell us about some things that shouldn't be neglected when teaching someone or a group of people.

Those who work at a place of acquisition will agree with me that there are methods and also some other things that the teachers follow and do to enable them achieve the set goals. Let me narrow it to Hair making skill. In Nigeria we call it salon work. I don't know how it is done outside Nigeria, but those in Nigeria will agree with me that they are certain privileges that the apprentice should have in order to encourage and motivate them. Well, it is not like the apprentice have to put her whole mind there but menh, we are humans and I believe we all need to be motivated and shown love one way or another and in doing this, one will see the best coming out from that person. The teacher and the apprentice will all feel happy.

In teaching, there is something called teacher's reward. A teacher rewards her student when they make effort to answer questions or sight examples. In doing so, the students will always try to say something, sometimes it may be wrong but they will keep trying, and this will help them build their confidence and boost their morale.

LET'S TALK ABOUT METHODOLOGY

Every organisation, School, society, even church has a particular method of doing things or ways they follow in other to achieve their aims and objective. You cannot give for instance a new convert communion without admonishing the person and giving the person the sacrament of baptism before communion. We can't start reading the alphabet from the bottom or from the middle, it will make no sense, the rule says begins from A-Z .

Now, there are so many salons in Nigeria and everybody learnt from different people and places. Some did not learn from people at all. Just gifted. Some learnt from professional while others learnt from quack, some learnt online and they are okay. However, whichever place one learns, there should be a method to follow in other to achieve the aims and objective.

In learning salon work, one has to first of all learn the basis which is weaving. Weaving is the popular all back style where you plait the hair to the back. Mostly school children wear this hair style or adults and use it to cover wig or to fix frontal wigs. Sometimes, for simplicity sake. It is a very beautiful and simple hair style if it is plaited very fine and neat. So one who came to learn how to make hair should first of all master how to cut hair atleast, then weaving before proceeding to something else. Atleast there should be a duration for each thing to be learnt so even you the student will be serious with what you have come to learn.

It is very sadden that some shop owners have less concern about this, infact they see you the apprentice as a worker. Once you are there and a customer comes around they will be like, you go and wash that hair, you fix the nails and so on. For someone who haven't had this idea before it will be difficult. The worse is that, when you are trying to show the little you know, you may be bad mouthed that this simple thing you don't know and you have been coming to work. Something that the almighty boss have not taught you. All they need see is that one you know and boom, you will keep doing it and making money for them while the aim for which you are there suffers. It's sad but most times the apprentice endures while some leave to other places. If they leave to better places it's fine but if it's worse Omo it's bad. If they stay and endure its also bad because they will just not learn anything but if they speak out maybe things will change or not because not everyone is a good teacher. That is why, you don't rely on your teacher alone, you make extra efforts by watching online and doing self learning too.

Let's Talk Briefly About Motivation

Motivation here is the reward you give to your student to boost their morale and confidence in that thing they are learning. In school, teachers ask student to clap for the said student or sing a song or sometimes reward them with some biscuits or sweet or even added marks. This will encourage the student to try to do more.

In real life situation, we know that not all teachers are professionals and this happens in all fields of life so we won't blame them however, this is just the method in which good learning process takes place.

At our shop, this is not seen, ranging from the methodology to the motivation process. Weather you are improving or not or trying no body tells you nothing. You motivate and hype your self by yourself for yourself hahaha. It is in few cases that you will hear, you are trying o. So you have learnt this. Chai, you are putting efforts oooo. Most times, these are efforts applied on self learning and development not from the teacher. You just look and try it but you most times get no corrections or you will hear things like, is this what I showed you. Later if they ask who teach you, you will say I am the one... The boss will only allow you make a customer's hair maybe when she isn't around if not it is just the finishing part she will allow you do. These are people that have atleast learnt how to do certain things for months and should be allowed to work so as to be perfect. Atleast the boss should only make observations and correct them where she feel they are failing and in a way that won't bring down their confidence. Some have stayed up to a year but still can't confidently make a hair from start to finish. Infact, they will be mocked so they don't try it. Sad...

It is sadden, that most times the method of corrections is bad. Yesterday a colleague was making a customer's hair. She has been learning for like 7 months or so and she is good. The boss came, collected the work and said you are trying ooo but... But what? Nothing... She did the hair and it was same style the apprentice was doing. She felt bad, I saw it on her face but what to do. With this kind of behavior, it kills the attitude and morale of the students and this makes them not to frequent the shop and also not to be happy. They may go home not feeling work satisfied for the day however, one good thing I love them for is that, they are optimistic that tomorrow will be better.

Some things to take note from my little piece...

Try to motivate and appreciate your subordinate no matter how little it is as it will help to build their confidence and help them grow.

Let me not bore you with lengthy story. We will continue on the next article. Thank you so much for reading my piece I hope you are getting the gist...