Never missed a deadline<\/a>. When delivery targets kept slipping, and drivers were burning out, he decided to speak up during a team meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHe didn\u2019t shout.
He wasn\u2019t rude.
He simply said, \u201cI think the workload is affecting our output. Maybe we should look at how routes are assigned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone cleared their throat.
Someone avoided eye contact.
After the meeting, a colleague pulled him aside and whispered, \u201cCharlie, you be courageous oo\u2026 but take care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Friday, Kojo had a new unofficial title: \u201cThat guy who talks too much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, courage is one of KAK Logistics\u2019 core values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where some workplaces struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We say we value courage, but we only like it when it\u2019s quiet.
We say we value transparency, but only upward, never sideways.
We say we value teamwork, but questioning decisions is considered disrespectful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So employees learn fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They learn to nod in meetings and complain in the corridor.
They learn to say \u201cNoted\u201d in emails and vent on WhatsApp.
They learn that \u201copen door policy\u201d actually means open door, closed mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And over time, values stop being lived\u2014they become decor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The painful part?
When people stop living by the values, companies start losing the very things they claim to want. Courage turns into silence. Integrity turns into survival mode.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Excellence turns into \u201cdo what you\u2019re told and go home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then leadership asks, \u201cWhy don\u2019t people speak up anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Ghanaian employee already knows the answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because the last person who tried was labelled a rebel.
Because feedback was punished rather than appreciated.
Because values were celebrated on LinkedIn but discouraged in real life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Company values are powerful, but only when they are safe to practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If courage is truly a value, then speaking up shouldn\u2019t cost someone peace of mind.
If transparency matters, then feedback shouldn\u2019t feel like career suicide.
If teamwork is real, then disagreement shouldn\u2019t be mistaken for disloyalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Otherwise, let\u2019s be honest, they\u2019re not values. They\u2019re just nice words on a wall, watching quietly as employees learn to keep quiet, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gene\u2019s Office Survival Tip<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore you \u201clive the values,\u201d first observe how they are treated in practice.
Watch who speaks up and what happens to them after.
In some offices, wisdom is not just knowing the values but also knowing when, how, and where to apply them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speak with courage, yes, but also with strategy.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because in the Ghanaian workplace, survival is often about balancing truth with timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the Office Buzz!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Work culture and everything in between. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Share this with that colleague who needs to read this. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Company values are powerful, but only when they are safe to practice.
\nIf courage is truly a value, then speaking up shouldn\u2019t cost someone peace of mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":21109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1116],"tags":[2117,1739,2118],"content_author":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life-at-work","8":"tag-company-values","9":"tag-office-buzz","10":"tag-values"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21108"},{"taxonomy":"content_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jobberman.com.gh\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_author?post=21108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}