The office Lunch palava.

So yesterday, a friend of mine called to ask for my opinion about a certain office dilemma he had. This friend, is the Head of Admin and HR in his organisation and had been requested by his line Manager to review a reported case and revert on the action to be taken by the Company. So (again) before taking a decision and putting pen to paper, he wanted to be sure.

He gave me the gist as follows:

The pool car driver in his office had somehow gotten the delegated duty of buying food for everyone at work. The habit of sending this driver who i would nickname Papa Bose (for ease of reference) was formed over time because of his diligence and seeming care for the welfare of staff. Initially staff used to send Papa Bose to take them to an eatery not to far from the office for their lunch but that stopped after the Company Management complained that too much time was being utilized as lunch breaks. As such, staff were left with no other choice than to send the cleaners, or clerks to purchase their lunch. On one faithful day Papa Bose was asked by a couple of staff to help buy lunch and everyone noticed that the food was more than what the cleaners or the clerks usually brought back.

Word spread and everyone decided that henceforth Papa Bose would buy the food at a prescribed time daily. And from that day on Papa Bose would go round shortly before closing time to get lunch orders for the next day (stating he wouldn’t want to disturb them during work hours). This worked for everyone and pronto the next day at 12 pm lunch bowls in white nylons were deposited at the cafeteria with names stuck to them. Everyone noticed the food was better in terms of quantity and quality and all hailed Papa Bose for finding a more correct source.

This went on for almost 2 years until one sunny afternoon when a visibly disgruntled woman visited the office. She asked to see the Head of Admin and laid her story bare to my friend. She was Papa Bose’s wife and she wanted the Head of Admin to instruct him to give her the cooking job back. Which cooking job my friend said he asked her. The office cooking job she responded with confidence.

Sensing his bewilderment, she shared the full story. A couple of years back, Papa Bose informed her that he had been given the job of feeding the staff at the office and mandated her to get cooking materials. She would make the food daily and he would pick up from home. With the funds she was able to fend for herself and they even moved to a nicer apartment closer to the office. Because of her new baby, she employed a lady to help with the cooking and somehow Papa Bose started sleeping with the lady.

Now Papa Bose had stopped her from cooking and transferred the cooking utensils to the lady’s house. All pleas to Papa Bose fell on deaf ears as he had abandoned her for the lady. All Mama Bose wanted my friend to do was to tell Papa Bose to come back home, bring the utensils and let her continue her work!

In the heat of the moment, she raised her voice and attracted my friend’s line manager who then requested an official report with a recommendation from HR.

If you were in my friend’s shoes, what would you advice?