Back in the day, ....
~ by Hénock Gugsa ~
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One day, a flight from Europe arrived with an unaccompanied child aboard that needed special handling. The telecom message arrived kind of late and did not get to me as I was the one assigned to receive and handle all incoming flights' passengers.
As it happened, one of the passengers aboard that same flight as the child's was one of those TWA hotshots. He was Director of Passenger (Customer) Relations at Ethiopian Airlines. This was 1970.
So then, this gentleman frantically grabbed me in the arrival hall and started to berate me for "not having attended to the child's needs immediately". As I said earlier, I was not aware of the discrepancy because I had not received the telecom message in time. At any rate, this man publicly shamed me harshly and ended his criticism with: That's what you are paid for, isn't it?
Well, that broke the camel's back. I did not say anything back to him then. But that afternoon, after work, I sat down at home and wrote a grievance letter to the "gentle" man and mailed it to his house. In the letter, I said that he committed several things that were unprofessional and wrong in his rant that morning. I pointed out the following:
1) He did not follow the correct procedure of chain-of-command. He should have gotten hold of my supervisor and inquired why the child was not attended to immediately.
2) He should not have bawled me out in the open publicly, thus giving a very bad image of the company. He himself was a bad employee in that sense.
3) I am not a "whore" to be addressed that way.
4) He should remember that he is a foreigner in Ethiopia and that he should respect people and the culture of Ethiopians [who are more civilized and more polite than his countrymen].
Two weeks later, my supervisor (a fellow Ethiopian), called me in to his office. He had a copy of my letter on his desk. But, he was not irate or anything. He asked me why I wrote that letter and why I did not come to him with my complaint first. I said that the matter was of a personal nature since the addressee had verbally attacked me himself. So then, my supervisor asked me to write a formal apology letter because the [idiot] was upset as were all of the top brass. I said no and explained that I was the aggrieved party, I should be the one getting an apology. My supervisor was flustered , but I suspect deep down he was on my side. So, after talking to him, I went back to my duties. I never heard about the matter ever again, and I definitely was not penalized.
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© Hénock Gugsa 🤔 👍 😀
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