SOME employers care more for their profits than the welfare of their workers. In this narrative, OUR CORRESPONDENT, a security guard, describes how he worked an inordinately long shift almost on an empty stomach one day, a thing that eased his decision to move on.

I STOOD at the door of my office (guard room) pondering whether today someone would come to take over the shift.
As a security guard to many, I start my shift at 06:00 hours in Chelston, working for a renowned security company. This means waking up at 04:00 hours to bath and prepare for parade and deployment.
Having attended parade, I was deployed and released at exactly 30 minutes after 6 am.
This was after having gone to buy fritters and sugar for breakfast and lunch for the day.
Thank God, I worked my shift and expected to be heading home as the night officer was soon to come at around 18:00 hours to take over from me..
Surprisingly, 19:00 hours came and went and ,I was still waiting to be relieved. The result was that I even worked the night shift and the client even asked me’ “Are you not knocking off?” I responded,’Maybe, Sir’.
Surely I had worked two shifts (24 hours non-stop) and was worried about my family at home who I had left a paltry sum of money for breakfast and lunch expecting to scrounge or hustle for some more for supper.
The six fritters and the K1 sugar I had bought finished during the first shift and I drank water for the other shift.
At 6.00 am, I stood on the door of my office pondering whether I would do another shift and got happy every time I heard footsteps towards the gate from outside anticipating someone had come to relieve me, but I got the shock of my life when I discovered the footsteps belonged to someone else! Practically,I had entered another shift, the third or 36 hours straight of non-stop work to be precise.
Mind you, I had finished my food during the first shift and was now drinking water only and salivating for the paw paws that are almost getting rotten in the backyard of this house and I’m not allowed to pick any to quench my 24 hours of hunger.
I don’t know whether my family of a wife and three kids all below 10 years, had anything back home. As I thought about my family and home, I saw the maid at this same house whose pawpaws are going to waste,coming with a basin of food.
I was sure she was going to give me some, but to my horror, it was meant for the dog!The pangs of hunger gnawed at me even more and I felt short of begging for the crumbs!
I continued thinking about my home, and wondered how and why my company could not send my relief for 36 hours knowing I had to bath, eat, rest and take care of family needs.
At exactly 21.00 hours, I was released, meaning I had worked for almost 40 hours with six fritters (vitumbuwa) and less than 30 grammes of sugar, without bathing and resting.
I reached home well after 22.00 hours and, luckily, the landlady helped my family during my absence, despite my being three months in arrears in rentals.
I couldn’t believe it when my managers told me to sacrifice my time for the company when I asked them what happened.
Some of these employers! It happened to me and I’m now with another security company.
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