So there’s a man on Instagram named Emmanuel Basy. You might know him as the Minister of Jobs. We don’t know him. And I’m not sure he knows us. But somehow, something happened somewhere, he came up with a list, and ranked the Top 40 Nigerian Companies with the Best Work Culture.
Breet came in at number 19.
First question: how did he end up with that list? Did he poll people, visit offices, sweet-talk somebody’s HR, scrape Glassdoor? No idea. But the list exists, the ranking is real, and Breet is on it. So we won’t poke at the methodology, or should we?
Number 19 Is Actually… Pretty Good?
Let me zoom out.
Nigeria has an estimated 41.5 million businesses operating within its borders, according to the latest nationwide survey by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN).
And out of 41.5 million, Emmanuel put Breet at number 19. So we had to put the methodology aside for a second and concluded that this is actually an honour 😊. Let’s just say that, from this angle, we fully assumed the methodology was correct.
Then we got greedy and looked at the 18 companies ahead of us and asked: “How did they rank above us?” From this angle, the methodology is clearly wrong 😐
But what’s honest about it is that the Minister just noticed. We don’t need to bother about the “how”, because being noticed for the thing you didn’t perform for is a win in itself.
In Case You’re Wondering What Our Culture Actually Looks Like
It’s mostly GIFs.
We send a frankly unsustainable number of GIFs on Slack. We also send ridiculous stickers on WhatsApp, more like it’s a contest (the best sticker wins). And every once in a while, we throw a party ‘cos we love to boogie down. In fact, we have a silent disco next week, and I’m looking forward to that one.
But underneath the GIFs, the real version is less photogenic. People here ship things they’re proud of, argue about designs like it’s personal, send Slack messages at hours no reasonable person should be awake (Tega is guilty of this), and still show up the next day to do it again.
Oh, and there’s a part where every morning, before anyone touches their laptop, the whole team stands on their desks and shouts “hooooooorah” seven times. It’s in the handbook. Nobody knows if it helps the culture, but management believes it does.
So… We’ll Take It, Humbly.
Emmanuel, the Minister of Jobs himself: thank you. We don’t know how you found us, or how you know the culture here is solid, but we’re glad you did.
Number 19 is a real number, and we are holding it with both hands. In fact, we’ll make a plaque for it and put it at the entrance of our fresh office.
To the 18 companies ahead of us: enjoy the view, we’re coming for your seat.
We stay building. 🫡
PS → The reel that started all of this is here.
