Unfortunately I’m not the best at cracking jokes at the
office and, except for a few amusing lunches with good colleagues now and again, I don’t laugh that much at work.
That being said, I was washing my hands in the bathroom the
other day next to my Taanzanian colleague who also seemed to appreciate clean
hands. He told be that a company we worked with a few months back kept calling him
wanting to give a presentation and basically wanting more contracts with us.
“They keep calling me and don’t know what to tell them; what should I do?”
“Tell
him to call me,” I replied "and I’ll tell him NO!” I added.
My colleague burst
out laughing, “Yeah because I can’t tell him no…ha ha ha…it is
true…culture!”
He shook his head laughing and we went back to our separate
offices, but I was still laughing when I reached my office. This is a very particular
culture where a “no” sometimes can be difficult to communicate, especially if the
receiver is older than yourself. What I found so funny was that he openly
admitted to it and was happy to hand over the case to me.
KW
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