adminhusband’s mother, sisters or brothers pitch up at your home announced. As a true daughter-in-law (makoti/muroora) raised in the proper African way, do you open your arms wide and embrace them into your home to stay for as long as they want, without quipping to your husband about the extra expense that their stay will bring? Do you pointedly ignore them to show them that next time you would appreciate them telling you in advance before they just pitch up?
Even in workplaces, just how welcoming are we as a people to the numerous publics we get throughout the day? It is a well known fact that some offices are no-go areas because of the personnel who man them. There are receptionists and secretaries whose countenances are so unwelcome that everyone dreads approaching them. I am talking here of those offices where the secretary or front office person can keep you waiting for ages before finally attending to you just because it gives them some sort of perverse pleasure to do so. I am referring here to those receptionists and secretaries who can chat with colleagues from the office or on the phone while someone is waiting to be attended to. Just the look on the face of these people is enough to wilt the potential clients and destroy their confidence.
This is where you find someone approaching the front office desk, where you usually get very glamorous looking ladies whose disposition is completely at odds with their sunny and attractive dressing, with trepidation and hesitation. People actually fear these unwelcoming people who are being paid to be welcoming.
I remember meeting an elderly woman in some office some years ago and she hesitantly asked me to ask for her if the manager of the place she was at was present. I asked her why she had not asked the receptionist for assistance and she told me that no one was serving her or even asking her if she wanted help because “she did not look smart or educated enough”.
Her exact words were “they keep pointing at me and saying something in English so that means I am not good enough for their office”. When I asked the receptionist why she was not assisting the lady, she pointedly told me that she had kindly asked the lady four times how she could help, in English, and when she did not respond she decided to assist other people.
Imagine?
I asked the receptionist if she was telling me that she could not speak a word in Shona and whether she knew that English, as much as it is the official language, was not our mother tongue and as such there were some who could not understand it. I also asked her why she had applied for a job at reception when she could not converse in the local languages. When it turned out that the elderly woman being snubbed was actually the mother of the finance director of the organisation who had been dropped off by his driver and directed upstairs to see his office before going for lunch with her son, the receptionist started running around and miraculously started speaking in Shona.
My word! To say I was shocked is an understatement. Of course the receptionist got into trouble and quite rightly so. But the damage had been done. Welcoming people is very important, whether we are at home, at work or wherever we may be. It is also important never to judge and look down on people because of certain silly beliefs and attitudes we may have.
I got the idea to pose these questions because I write this while in Victoria Falls where I am attending the World Malaria Day commemorations and as one arrives in Victoria Falls, they are welcomed obviously by signs of “welcome to the town” which will this August play host to the United Nations World Tourism Assembly General Assembly. Welcome is the key word in Victoria Falls and that is as it should be. As we stand ready to welcome the world to our doorsteps as Zimbabwe, this culture of real hospitality is something that should always be at the top of our heads.
Do you know just how irritating it is to arrive at a hotel counter for check in after spending the whole day travelling and then you find things are not in order and its taking long to get a room and just settle down? Or you just do not get a satisfactory service at the airport check-in or bus check-in? Or you order food which should take 10 to 15 minutes and 40 minutes later you do not know what is going on?
While delays are inevitable and will happen, truth is it all boils down to how the delays or any challenges are explained. While challenges and last minute mishaps will happen in any situation, the whole issue boils down to how one conducts their public relations. I have seen things getting nasty when someone who is dealing with the public gets their PR wrong.
As a people, Zimbabweans are known to be very hospitable. But we also know there are just some bad apples among us who do not know how to deal with other people in a nice way. I have met my fair share of people who will give you bad attitude, at times when you do not even know them or are doing them a favour or good turn.
As we stand ready to host people in August, let us be welcoming. And let it not be about the UNWTO GA only but a way of living. If you smile at those around you and allow them to approach you without fear or hesitancy, who knows just how much further we would all go in life? But if we go through life giving out attitude and being difficult, who knows, we may be doing ourselves a disservice. If they are two taxi drivers, one who smiles in greeting, opens and shuts the door for his clients and one who just sits there looking grumpy, who do you think will get all the business?
Even hotel staff should take heed of that, and public transport drivers as well as bank tellers. Let us welcome the world to Zimbabwe with a smile in August. And let us welcome everyone else with a smile no matter where we are or what we do. There is power in being welcoming. We can make a difference through the welcome we give.
Online Reporter