The guys chin-chin selling will be overlooked as long as he has a good relationship with his boss.

As soon as he gets a new boss who doesnt like him, he can be sacked easily by law for carrying out the trade of another company in company office.

Once had a friend who got sacked for emailing his own company-on-the-side using his work's email constantly.

In conclusion,

If nairalanders could leave their duty in the office, (same work they are been paid monthly to do) just to come in here with ''wise/good/silly/crappy'' comments, then there is nothing wrong sir.

jidobaba: @amdman, you make selling chin chin sound like fortune500 business. No self-respecting man should be selling chin chin in the office.

Bad belle. Did you understand his post before replying?

Oga when you want to discipline a colleague and he begins to question your objectivity based on "because he does not patronise your chin-chin", you might probably see the bigger picture. As a safeguard to this threat, I kindly advice you stop it from now. As you can see some are already whining over it in the office. No say I no tell you, this is workplace politics.

amdman: ^^^^Like I said earlier, it is not a going-forward strategy to be selling the stuff in the office, displaying it and all that.

Its more like wearing a shirt to the office and a colleague says 'I love that shirt, pls get one for me'. If I choose to oblige him, it won't be at variance with company policy. Likewise, I distributed the chin-chin free of charge the first time and feedback was like 'wow, its so nice, bring for me tomorrow' and 'always bring for me'. Obliging them does not infringe on the company policy which is actually targetted as using official hours for private biz. If I was displaying the products, or going from desk to desk to sell, that's a different thing altogether.

Selling personal stuff in the office is a bad idea. What if other junior colleague also decides to sell their own stuff too? As a leader you are setting a bad precedent regardless of the benefit to your wife. Good to see you will stop it now.

Great to see a guy supporting his wife in business. Wish you all the best and hope the business continues to grow.

Jarus: Professionally speaking, I don't think this is totally right, especially as most likely the organization, like many others, will have a policy that forbids selling during workhours.

But this is Naija, even the policy makers don't abide by the rules, not to talk of enforcing compliance. Although I came across it tucked somewhere in my former company's staff handbook, I must confess I also marketed my wife's wares (jewelries) to my colleagues in office a couple of times, albeit not openly.

Jarusu, the guy is not hawking the stuff in the office as it is based on demand.

amdman: My friend (poster Nahinbdis) just showed me this post now and I am the one he is referring to.

Wifey is currently doing her NYSC here in Lagos. We had previously resolved that she would not be going into paid employment upon completion. Because of her industrious nature, she mooted the idea of starting a catering business while she is still serving, as a learning process before going bigger. And I think any husband in a great marriage such as I have would support her.

I don’t actually ‘hawk’ the stuff in the office. Like OP said, I brought it to the office for testing and people just loved it, and asked that I keep bringing (including my supervising manager), and right now when people know that I bring, demand exceeds supply. It doesn’t affect my job at all (issues raised by Braveheart are germane) as I have drawn up a list of those interested and I just ask them if they want. However, the selling is a short term thing as there are avenues I am currently exploring that will take care of that (a bigger platform) in about 2 weeks or so.

And the truth is there is profit in it (for wifey though). She told me yesterday that she has started saving N2000 per day as untouchable profit (other profits are reinvested) and we have not even done 1% of the actual marketing and sales in our business plan. She is so anxious to start the real stuff and am the one holding her on a leash right now (so she does not put too much on her plate).

Do I really care what people think? Sometimes. But when I look at the big picture I kill those thoughts. Someday, this will be part of the testimony and it would all have been worth it.

Amdman, you can also make an arrangement with whoever operates your staff canteen to sell the chin chin. That way, company policy can never work against you. The only thing is it would reduce your profit however, it keeps your job safe cos trust, as naija people, we dey jealous successful people well ooo and bad belle them go dey find how to put you for trouble.

Nigerians will never change..... just allow the husband to be oooooo
una jealousy too much all this enemies of progress

armyofone: leave him alone. that little side money can be used to buy kortex and jabaki.

a real man with head for him shoulder, i'm sure he has a good relationship with madam.

those are the type of guys who will prefer to come home to madam than hitting niteclub drinking beer and developing pottybelle.
ezigbo mmadu carry on and don't mind what others are say.

God bless you jaire, the guy loves him wife no be for mouth. That family will prosper without limit.

Tell ur wife to come register as a chin chin vendor n ur bank, thereby legalising. And she shud do supplies herself, there it will be professional. This is ur own firm, the bank is not urs, u will leave there one day. I knw a banker that left his job n became a manager in his wife 4star amala spot. She bought him a 6O5, when it dawned on him to resign, bought a house n the rest is history. You can do bizness, just don't break any laws while on it. See you at the top

what does your office rule state?.is he vilating any of them by selling the chin chin? if he has not foul the law in anyway,encourage my man to carry on.another macdonald,mr bigs and co are in the making.who knws what will happen to that his work later in life.
he needs encouragement, love or no love.

quite an interesting one,
personally, i understand the issue with hawking in the office, but once the man doesn't do it openly and doesn't affect his Job, then i don't have an issue with it but it should be done in a strictly controlled manner.....its not easy to assist a wife in stuff like this and i applaud the guy..

by the time this business is developed and doing well, some of us opening our mouth here talking against it would be suprised,

sometimes, all these our "abroad" brothers makes it look like nobody has ever travelled and no other person get sense pass dem, abeg make we hear word jooor

wishin de family busines de very best

Nothing is bad in that.

Ayatullah: @nahinbdis, I want to believe that 'NAYOUBDAT', it's very likely you are telling your own story. Well if selling your wife chin-chin did not put obstacle in your own work and it is not against your office policy, then carry on.........but do not be a greedy Nigerian.

OMG! Even after the man in the story has posted up to 5 comments? You need to have your head examined.

Chinchin is welcome! OP, send some my way too.

jidobaba: @amdman, you make selling chin chin sound like fortune500 business. No self-respecting man should be selling chin chin in the office.

How many self-respecting men (out of the approximately 3 billion men on planet earth) have you actually met? Or which dictionary did you use to get this definition of a 'self-respecting man'?

I love my wife. And I will sell moi-moi, akara, pap, epa, guguru and zobo drink if it will help advance her business without compromising my work/career.

It is one thing to question the man's action in terms of its effect on his work or the professional atmosphere. It is another thing to start pontificating on the qualities of a self-respecting man. Any man who refuses to help his wife (when he can) does not love her and/or does not wish her well.

This is marriage at work. This is what marital vow is all about. Kudos to the man.

nahinbdis: I work in one of the foriegn Banks in VI. I have this close pal (a team leader) that recently started selling his wife's chin-chin in the office. I found he initially brought some for product testing in order to obtain valuable feedback for improvement. However people loved it and asked him to keep bringing and he has just started.

Thing is the guy is not broke (I know his pay and he drives an SUV). Someone commented today that he must really love the wife to do that. Another said its not so cool. I think its not so bad afterall particularly because the wife is just starting. What do you think?

some say small minds discuss people and big minds discuss idea

it starts from selling chin-chin then it grows big

ever thought that the profit from chin chin can cover his weekly chin chin and the money that was meant for fuel can be used for something else eg save it for college or university etc

@ OP and friend,

hmmm......you just made yourself vulnerable to damaging office politics that would be put to use at the right time.

what everyone approves or seem to approve now can turn against you the next moment.
if its corporate policy,it's better not to flout it in any way because the same people that purchased/ordered for it everyday will turn out to be witnesses or better still point out that particular issue.

if you have ever lost out or won battles in office politics,then you know what am yapping about.

hopefully it never happens or it is a world class chin chin biz by the time it does.

if he enjoys himself while doing it, then i don't see any reason why he can't even sell his wifes' roasted corn.
you guys have to give it to him, this man loves his wife and it is sooooo obvious, so people, just let them be okay...

amdman:

You are entitled to your views, but note that food business is what many Fortune 500 companies do! PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola, Tyson Foods, etc are companies I can immediately point at as American companies in food business and are in the top Fortune 100 companies by revenue - http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/full_list/index.html

In Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Nestle, Guinness, Flour Mills, Dangote Sugar, Cadbury, Dangote Flour Mills, 7-UP Bottling Coy, Honeywell Flour Mill, National Salt Coy, Presco, Okomu Oil Palm. etc are Food/Beverage companies in the Thisday/BGL 50 top stocks in Nigeria. Or ask UAC Foods, Chi Group, Tastee Fried Chicken, Tantalizers, Integrated Dairies etc what their annual revenues are.

The value of education is that you can take roasted plantain and turn it into a world class product. Applying innovation, you turn an unattractive item into a commodity of choice. I am a lawyer turned credit/investment analyst, so I should know a few things.

Dem dey Clap for this forum at all. Nna e di too Much. Am so impressed, that I actually have tears in my eyes writing this.

all these westernized people...relax jo!

in my opinion, dere s realli nothing so wrong here...its not like he puts the chin chin on his desk or he hawks it or sells to customers. moreover, its not a permanent situation...soon enuf, dat wud stop and his wife wud have a shop or something. and even then, his collegues myt still make him bring theirs to work!

@27naira-your thoughts are very wise,your message if am the adman shoe i will take to heart for better understanding of the issue at hand. @braveheart2012-i share your taughts (coming from a background of multi-national firm) you are very correct-but in 9ja these policies dont work out some times. @,Adint-great point,GboyegaD-you just gave the best advise,seun001-office politics?that is one battle those of us in multionationals do face from time to time,when your 'good' actions will be turned against you at the next board meeting (where you might probably be absent) you wont have an idea.
In all adman/;wife has a great idea,doing it for madam isnt any bad option either but consider if any of your junior staff is currently in your shoe,consider what office politics might turn your action into,consider if by any chance someone might use these action against you, then consider if this might pop at a management meeting (how will you defend your action),i agree that man must 'wack' but man must also protect where in 'garri' de com from.i will do the same thing for my wife but i will carefully play safe since its work environment.

omoh he luvs his wife dts y he is doin dat..................

In many companies, what your friend is doing is totally unprofessional.

i dont know where he works so I wont criticize it.

during my IT days with intercontinenta bank, one of the bankers then sells plantain chips 4 his wife. And today the biz has grown, some people dont like buying chin chin or plantain chips anyhow cos its not hygienic, Also packaging matas. Oga cary go, am ur bigest fan

Hardworking!