If I was still working at my old job, this is the kind of letter I would write to my Boss during this world cup season; assuming that I am capable of doing this and I have written this with her in mind. In fact I should probably send this to her just for the fun of it. What do you say?
Dear Boss Lady,
Trust you are good? I know we are both busy so I shall cut right to the chase so we can both get back to work.
I am writing you this letter to inform you about the FIFA World Cup that has begun in the Motherland, Africa. The first time ever to happen on African Soil. This is no ordinary kind of football. This is the gathering of Football’s greatest and finest of which I intend to take in every waking moment.
Let me give you the dates of the world cup, it starts on the 11th of June and ends the 11th of July. So this is a whole month of football action at its best and since it comes around every four years the excitement is tremendous.
So let me state this for the duration of the world cup I shall come to work in the morning; however I shall leave much earlier than usual to go and watch the match. As you know, it is a thing of pride to sing the nation’s anthem so I intend to uphold my civic duty to all African countries by watching and singing the various anthems. I shall apologize in advance because I may show up at work a bit late some days. This will be determined by 2 major factors: the time the last match ends and how much alcohol is consumed due to either a win or a loss.
Now boss lady I know that you are not really into football which is fine. I myself love other sports with equal passion, like Tennis, Cricket and Basketball and I know you like some of these as well, but boss lady please I would like you to keep abreast of things, like not asking when a match is on; you say “so when is Man U playing”? Or is that David Beckham on the field wearing number 10? That would be known as stupid questions and you will be ignored for a month and your opinion will only be asked when totally necessary. Also don’t expect that we shall be 100% productive, we shall try and get the basics done but don’t push your luck in trying to force work especially when the Africans are playing.
Please be prepared to deal with our mood swings. Now depending on the game the night before, it will dictate the mood of the morning. So if England wins, I shall say something like this: “Yo morning boss, how are you? I am so happy; the 3 Lions did us proud. Yes Rooney and Gerard are the best. Would you like me to get you some coffee?” but if Nigeria loses, it may be like this: “morning boss” and that’s all you get for most of the morning. So, if you happen to know the results and you know my team lost, please do keep your comments to yourself unless I choose to talk about it.
Just to make things clear, since matches tend to start about mid day I will constantly be online to monitor goals and comments made about the matches on forum sites as well as twitter. I need to follow my fellow Nigerians’ comments as we Nigerians are known to have the best fun on twitter. So please let us not have the usual arguments about how ‘I can’t be online as I have to work’. It is essential that I be online. This is world cup season in Africa I repeat ‘I must not miss it’. So anytime past 3pm I will seize to be as efficient as I was earlier. From that time I will begin to wind down my work and prepare to slip out of the office to the nearest pub or rush home. Firing me is not an option because well, we know it is not an option, right boss?
Thank you very much for your understanding and I am looking forward to working with you while the biggest display of talent happens right on my continent.
Regards,
Odeli, Anni