Dear Dalitso

Everyday lessons for tomorrow

Go Get Coffee

October 4, 2023
Letter #14

I think there is a relationship between coffee consumption and productivity. This could be at an individual level or even national level. I have been meaning to carry out a study focused on high performing cultures and their levels of coffee consumption. Is there a relationship at all? Most of us in Zimbabwe don’t drink coffee- there is a herbal tea which most of us prefer. Could that explain some of our performance challenges. It could also help explain why we score very low on the happiness index. Others think that we are unhappy because of our economic circumstances. Agreed. But there are many drivers of happiness. Coffee consumption is one of them. Seriously. How many times have you heard me say this? It’s like a joke I know. But it comes from a place and point of frustration. The instruction to go and get coffee is a euphemism for please wake up or rather ‘changamuka’. 

 I generally have good relationships with most of the colleagues on staff- we are one big team. I will not make the claim that they are all happy. But the uneven performance can be of concern- not from the whole team but still a point of bother. So, in many instances I urge a colleague to ‘go and get coffee’. Not an insult. But to make my frustration clear that I was hoping by now the colleague would have understood what is required of them.  

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