I worked for a while with a logistics company during a school break, I was able to work then because the break from school was a really long one due to Academic Staff Union University (ASUU) strike. At my workplace, I met Ayomide, who was a co-worker; getting to know her was fun, she was smart, hardworking, caring, she was a sweet soul but had a serious character flaw.
Ayomide was ill-tempered, her anger issues were so bad that she couldn’t control them whenever she was angry. She would go as far as throwing things at people, hitting the wall and cussing at anyone.
That day, I got to the office pretty early, surprisingly Mide as I often called her, was not at the office yet, which was weird because she was the most punctual. After some minutes she came in and greeted, keeping her face straight, I asked her if she was alright and she answered yes. That was the end of our conversation until we had a little break, "this is so not Mide but everyone goes through stuffs once in a while, maybe she needs distance." I told myself.
I had just come out of the restroom when I started hearing loud voices, I rushed out immediately, it was Mide and her boyfriend. They were quarreling over something, Mide kept cussing at him as her voice went over the roof, my manager came out of his office and angrily sent Mide and her boyfriend outside to settle their differences. On their way out Mide’s boyfriend said "I do not want to continue in this relationship, your anger issue has ruined things terribly for me, everyone around me has complained of this, I’ve begged you severally to change this attitude of yours, but you’ve made no effort to do so. It’s over between us."
Mide still with no remorse, started fighting the guy, it took a lot before everything could die down. I couldn’t believe what my eyes had seen nor did I want to believe she was that quick to anger, our manager warned her to not allow what had happened to ever repeat itself or she would lose her job.
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Weeks after Mide’s boyfriend broke up with her, things returned to normalcy at the office and Mide was back to being the Mide I knew. "Mide’s boyfriend must be a playboy who was just looking for ways to break up" I thought to myself.
One Friday evening after a long and tedious day at work, Mide and I decided to go to a local supermarket together, when we got there, the place was full of people probably because it was the weekend, I could see Mide feeling already irritated. She kept hissing, stomping her feet and complaining about the long queue, then a guy with a shopping basket hit her unintentionally with the basket. The guy wanted to apologize but that was her breaking point, she began cussing at the guy out of anger, she rained all sorts of insults, I cautioned her to stop but she wouldn’t listen, the situation soon escalated as the guy wasn’t going to have any of it again.
In anger, she left me there and stormed out of the supermarket, she called me later to ask if I had seen her wallet—It turned out she misplaced it with lots of cash, important Id cards in it. As if that wasn’t enough, it was discovered that the guy Mide yelled at was a senior manager at one of our branches, to cut the long story short, she lost the job which was her only means of livelihood.
Then she learnt her lessons in a hard way. She remembered all the pieces of advice I and other people around her.
A reaction out of anger can cost a lot and having a rethink before acting out of anger can prevent a lifetime of regrets.
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