“Hey guys, did you see the email from the boss?” Temitope asked her colleagues.
“The one about working on the building project?” Seyi asked.
“Yep!” Temitope replied as they all turned away from their laptops to look at her.
“That stuff is going to take us nothing less than 2 weeks. What do you think?” Leke asked looking at his team mates with expectation.
“Yeah, 2 weeks minimum; 4 weeks max.” Temitope said matter-of-factly.
“How do we even go about it? Sincerely, I don’t understand”. Seyi exhaled.
“When are you ladies free? We need to have a meeting on this.”
“I’m free 2p.m tomorrow.” Temitope said. “What about you, Seyi?” She continued.
“2p.m tomorrow….” She hesitated; checking her calendar. “Okay by me.”
“So, 2p.m tomorrow it is.” Leke confirmed.
“You seem to have forgotten Tayo. He needs to be at the meeting as well.” Seyi said.
“I’d talk to him…..” Leke was saying as Tayo walked into the office. “Hey Tayo, we were just talking about you. Are you free 2p.m tomorrow? We need to discuss the building project.”
“Oh, that! I have started working on it already.” He sneered.
“Really, that’s nice. Can you put us through at 2p.m tomorrow then?” Seyi said excitedly.
“Sorry, I’m busy.” Tayo said as he walked to his workstation.
“At 2p.m tomorrow?” Temitope asked.
“I just told you I’m busy.” Tayo snapped.
Seeing that tension was beginning to brew in the office, Leke spoke “Ladies, he’s busy. Why don’t we talk about this tomorrow at 2p.m?”
“Okay.” They chorused.
2p.m the next day, the trio sat together and brainstormed on the issue. In a week, they had it all sorted without Tayo. The day prior to the presentation with the boss, Leke asked for a time out with Tayo. “Hi Tayo, we have the project sorted out and would be presenting tomorrow. Would you like to see what we have done so far?”
“Do you need to? Why don’t we all just present what we have tomorrow?” Tayo replied.
“You really don’t want to see it?” Leke asked confused.
“Nah….no need to bother yourself.”
“Okay, then.” Leke concluded.
The presentation of the trio was done by Temitope while Tayo also presented his. After the presentation, the boss asked; “Tayo, how come you got the project done in a week all by yourself?”
“I went to the internet and also reviewed books, sir.” He replied grinning from ear to ear.
“Wow, I’m impressed. Good job.” The boss congratulated.
“Thank you, sir.” He replied rubbing his palms together as Temitope, Seyi and Leke shared a glance.
“You all have done a very good job and I’m impressed. However, this project was meant to rate your competency at teamwork for your appraisals next week. Therefore, I’m sorry, Tayo, your good job couldn’t earn you marks for teamwork. I hope you would learn to work with your team in the future.”
“But, sir…I…em…” Tayo stammered.
“You can all go back to work now. No excuses, Tayo.” The boss concluded.
——
Ever had such a colleague at work? Don’t hesitate to share your experiences in the comments section below.
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