O.k someone explain this to me, i am a bit lost by this story,

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/nov/14/803.html

I quit because most clients want bank marketers to offer their bodies - Joke Adegun

[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2010/nov/14/punch/images/pix20101113036230[1].jpg[/img]

Joke Adegun, a former banker, resigned her well-paying job to take up the ushering aspect of event management. She tells ADEOLA BALOGUN why she wants to take ushering to a higher level


Joke Adegun had always dreamt of delving into event management, but her job as a banker had not allowed her to take into it fully. But when the unimaginable twist in the banking industry started and bank workers started losing their jobs late in 2009, the beautiful lady saw this as a wake-up call to make up her mind on what she actually wanted in life.

While she was in the bank, the bucks were rolling in but her soul was somewhere else, waiting to be liberated and nurtured. Though she was doing a bit of event management as an aside with her job in the bank, she was not fulfilled, which meant she had to give herself a time frame to launch out as an event manager.

Though many lost their job as a result of the meltdown in the banking sector, Adegun's job was never threatened. Still, she decided to opt out herself to become her own boss.

She says, "I had had the dream even as a banker but the recent happening in the banking industry was like a wake-up call for me. I drew a plan and promised myself to leave willingly at a particular time. I didn't lose my job in the bank but I resigned my job from Zenith Bank. Before Zenith, I had been in other banks such as GTB and Bank PHB and I joined banking as a graduate. I studied English but I found myself in banking."

The young ex-banker had a swell time while she worked in the customer service section but she got turned off when she had to join the marketing. As a marketer, her duty was to go out and look for depositors in order to meet a target set for her.

"For the most part, I was in the customer service section which I really enjoyed," says Adegun. "It was what I really loved to do. However, along the line, I was in marketing and while I was there, I didn't like it at all."

A lot of people have accused banks of forcing ladies in their employ into prostitution by giving them unrealisable targets which they must meet. It is said that the ladies who are usually called marketers out of desperation to meet their target often fall victim of exploitation by would-be depositors. Perhaps, Adegun found marketing unpalatable because of the unethical practice in the bank, hence her dislike for marketing.

She says, "What we do in Nigeria is not really banking. They just ask people to go and get deposits from outside without bothering how they achieve that. And for some people to part with their money, you must have something to offer in return and to me, it was not professional.

"For me, I didn't find it funny and I was not fulfilled. I can't rule out the fact that some customers are willing to give you their money because of some strings attached. They would ask you what you want to offer and if you are not forthcoming with an explanation, they ask you to offer yourself.

"I got this a number of times and I am sure any average bank marketer would tell you the same thing, but it depends on how you handle such situations. When people say marketers are love-peddlers because of the work they do, I tell them that those who are doing it have always had the tendency in them; that if nobody is compelling you to do it, you don't have to do it. If anyone demands that you offer yourself before he can give you money, you move on if every diplomatic tactics you employ to disabuse his mind failed, another person would give you."

She says that despite the fact that she was not ready to compromise, she was still able to win some depositors for her bank. "I was able to bring in something even though it was not so much, I didn't enjoy it," she explains. "Inasmuch as you would not want to tell off your customers, there are ways you can handle advances from men without being impolite and that was how I was able to manage it.

"But even at that, it affected my relationship because customers would call me at times at odd hours when I was with my boyfriend, demanding to see me during the weekends and stuff like that."

With a mixed bag of experience in banking, Adegun was very glad to leave and embrace her first love, event management. She just didn't face everything wholesale, she chose ushering as her area of specialisation.

With the little time she has spent as an event manager, Adegun has changed the face of ushering at events. If by chance you walk into an event where you find young beautiful damsels beaming you smile and attending to you with utmost courtesy, they might be Adegun's crop of ushers.

She says, "For now, we are concentrating on ushering even though we are into event management as a whole. I saw a need to change the trend where people see ushers as just any set of loose girls kitted in jeans and T-shirts attending to guests at events. I said to myself that I can package ushering in a way that has not been seen before. We get very good looking people, dressed in unique outfits that people will see and every time, they always looking forward to your next event because they want to see what style you want to introduce. We train our ushers not only to attend to guests professionally, we also train them on first aid; we train them on health and safety, so that when they are attending to people, it is a total package."

Adegun takes the job seriously by establishing a finishing school where her girls are polished in spoken English and manners. The outfits they dress in are another aspect that is taken seriously. Depending on the taste of the event owners, her girls dress in different styles and outfits at parties.

She says, "But you will never find me dressing my girls in the usual jeans and T-shirts that is common everywhere, I will never do that. You will not see my ushers exchange numbers with guests or engage in such frivolities. Even guests cannot have anything personal with them unless through their supervisors."

With such a package, Adegun's services sure must be too expensive for event owners to afford it. The English graduate smiles and says it is worth it to put money on something that is noble and classy.

"But people have come to realise the change. Now, the impression people have about ushers have changed, they know that the young lady providing services at their party is more than a mere trouser and T-shirt wearing loose girl. Most of the jobs we do now are referrals from people who recommend us," she says

Adegun who is still a spinster says that she was not able to settle down while working in the bank because of her tight schedule. All her siblings, including her younger ones have got married but she is not bothered by any pressure.

"I am an independent person and since I was not able to get married while working in the bank, now that I am no longer under any incessant pressure of work, I can begin to look at that. But I am not into any rush simply because every other person has done so. I will get married when the right man comes," she says.

is it new?

Nothing new here. The female banker is synonymous with high-tech prostitution in Nigeria.
She should have know that when accepting the job.
Anyhow, she is going to sell the 'body' sooner or later.
The price is not right enough.