Some years back, at my previous job, I noticed something common to youthful workers in Lagos. When you are looking for employment there's so much passion, so much anxiety, so much feeling. It's like the world might end any minute. After getting a job, however, we easily get bogged down by the tedium and the routine of work. We begin to lose our edge, and then we turn to any form of excitement and entertainment we can find (within personal boundaries, of course, not like turning to marijuana because of boredom) to take away the gradual loss of interest in the job.
Then came the Blackberry Smart phones (or BB, as it is known all over N igeria), and for many working-class Nigerians, they became the quintessential toy-box, playmate, object of stimulation and sole representation of a happy life. Young workers went berserk with the endless possibilities the Blackberry Phones made available. It even became some kind of passport into an invisible circle of 'aware' people who forgave all of your many sins so long as you could chat with them on your 'BB'. Trysts could be arrange in detail, scandals could be enjoyed in total secrecy, and a new kind of playground was born.
Work became a necessity that was maintained just to be able to pay for 'subscriptions', 'flex' and live with 'swagga'. Then employers started complaining within the hallowed halls of corporate enterprise. CTOs began to see Blackberry Phones with arms and legs chasing them in their dreams, making them wake up screaming and jumping out of bed bathed in sweat. IT Administrators running BB Servers began to get more working-hour requests for patch-ups that were not of benefit to employers but were needed only for the entertainment of employees. Management began to face a new problem of mid-afternoon trysts and personal business meetings of employees outside of the boundaries of their current jobs. The fear of people actually going for job interviews instead of simple lunch drove some people to expressing the need for something with which they can have more control over their young, difficult workers. Somewhere in the realms of the web, a solution was proposed. They looked at all these young ones walking around totally absorbed in their little phones and disrupting the normal process flows of the office. And they snapped. The folks at Brickhouse Security have been tracking things and providing information about things and people "When you need to know." Their answer to the menace of Blackberry phones and the 'annoying' ones using them is this:
Read that and see how much our world has changed. Soon this will happen in Nigeria and you won't even know that your mobile is being actively tracked by not just your mobile carrier, but your employer too!
Phew!
Disclaimer: THIS ARTICLE IS NOT AN ADVERT FOR THE GPS TRACKER IN QUESTION. I AM NEITHER A MARKETER NOR SALESMAN FOR BRICKHOUSE. I DID NOT HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH THEM WHATSOEVER BEFORE POSTING THIS ARTICLE. I AM NOT AFFILIATED TO THEM OR ANY OTHER SIMILAR COMPANY.
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