How Kofi Amoabeng sacked an employee a week after his wedding for breaching their Amorous Policy

If you have followed the stories coming out of ‘The UT Story Vol 2: Building A Winning Team’, by Capt Prince Kofi Amoabeng (rtd), that GhanaWeb has started serializing, you would have read by now that the old soldier had cause to set up an Amorous Policy at the company.

This was after a 2002 incident with a certain ‘Adoley’ prompted that radical move.

You can read that story here, but while on that same tangent, this is one of the stories of one of Capt Amoabeng’s former employees who tried to play smart with him in attempting to outwit the system that caused them a hefty, unexpected blow.

According to the author, some years after the Amorous Policy was instituted, he got wind of information on the upcoming wedding of one of his employees.

And because at the time, the company had expanded relatively, he admitted that he was not able to always attend functions of these sort of his employees, but with this one, he kept on getting a prompt from his secretary to attend this particular wedding.

After asking a few questions on who the person was, he decided that he would not make it, although his secretary kept insisting. He, however, still did not budge.

Prince Kofi Amoabeng explained that along the way, however, his mind played back something his secretary had told him: “the groom-to-be was a current employee and the bride-to-be did her National Service with us.”

Without any hesitation after noticing this, he said he immediately summoned back his secretary to his office.

“’When did the lady stop working here?’

“’Oh, she just completed her National Service,’” he wrote, quickly adding that when he had this conversation with the secretary, it was in the month of July.

Calculating things in his head, he realized that if the NSP just finished her work with them, then something was amiss there, with regards to their Amorous Policy.

“’And they’re having a wedding in early August?’

“’Yes, sir,’ he answered, not following my train of thought,’” he continued.

Furthering his instinct, Capt Kofi Amoabeng (rtd) said he called his HR and started asking more questions: questions such as the dates the bride-to-be left the company, and if the groom-to-be still works with them.

Having established the merit for the major next line of action he would take, he said he was left with no option than to wait a week after the gentleman’s wedding to make his move.

“Exactly a week later, Edem (HR) came to report that the gentleman had resumed work.

“’Ask him to come on my interview, right,’ I instructed, recalling my military jargon.’

“The young man came to see me as requested. He was indeed a nice fellow. He seemed excited to see me. I guess he misconstrued my invitation to mean I wanted to personally congratulate him on his wedding and perhaps give him a wedding gift. After glad-handing him, I said, ‘So, you had a wedding, was it good?’

“’Yes sir,’ he answered, cheerfully.

“’And your wife, she used to work here, right?’

“’Yes sir. She did her National Service here.’

“’Good. Was she in the same Branch as you?’

“’Yes sir.’

“’Okay. Now listen to me carefully. Are you aware that we have a policy which prohibits amorous relationships among staff?’”

“By this time, he had lost all the enthusiasm he had when he first walked into my office. Any illusions he had, that this was some kind of a goodwill meeting, had evaporated.

“’Yes sir,’ he answered, somberly.

“’So, you’re aware and you worked out all the details of your marriage within three weeks, after the lady quit working here?’

“’Yes sir,’ he said, diffidently.

“’So, you want me and the whole world to believe the lady left three weeks ago, then all of a sudden, you realized that you loved her, and you were able to arrange an engagement ceremony, wedding dress, venue, printed invitation cards, bought rings, met both families and did all that goes into planning a wedding, all within three weeks?’

“He could not muster an answer.

“’Think carefully before you answer, because your answer will mean either I’m a fool or you’re guilty of Amorous. So, take your time and answer,’ I cautioned.

“He just stared at me, unable to answer.

“’Are you going to answer me or not?’

“He could not utter a word.

“’Don’t push me, because you know very well that you’re guilty. Now, this is the best wedding present I could give you; I will not dismiss you summarily for you to lose all your entitlements. Rather, I want you to bring me your resignation letter so you can go home peacefully and enjoy your marriage. You’ve breached Amorous. I need your resignation letter on my desk by 3 pm, otherwise you’ll hear from me at 4 pm. That’ll be all, you may go.’

“That was my signature statement on such matter; anytime I had to ask a Team Member to resign, I said to them, ‘If I don’t hear from you by 3pm, you’ll hear from me at 4pm.’ It meant if they do not submit their resignation letter by 3pm, I would sack them at 4pm.

“’The gentleman did as I had instructed. He brought his resignation letter and went home,” Prince Amoabeng wrote.