Uber Driver? Ok I didn’t actually immediately join the “gig” economy as an Uber driver after I left UNICEF. I did observe the legal drama around whether Uber drivers were employees or contractors and that in turn got me to thinking about how UNICEF so often seemed to rely on consultants (SSAs to dehumanise UNICEF’s many and generally wonderful consultants a little bit more) to do important/necessary work for/with UNICEF.
In my part of the world the Courts decided Uber drivers were employees not contractors. Not sure how this played out in the rest of the world or the implications (if any) of this for an organisation like UNICEF.
In my last months in UNICEF a number of people asked and, in some cases seemed to offer me some vaguely defined consultancy to think about doing for UNICEF, after I left UNICEF. Maybe that was all just part of saying “see you later”. I didn’t follow up on any of these. I was on a break – “breathing”, so I never crossed the employee/consultant “Rubicon” with UNICEF.
But back to driving and being driven. Some of the UNICEF Colleagues I most admired in all my duty stations were UNICEF Drivers. So skilled and caring and committed to UNICEF’s work. I learnt a lot from our drivers particularly on so many long road trips. You get to talk on road trips, particularly in “interesting” or dangerous places. Being driven between Baghdad and Amman at the beginning of this century, you covered a lot of ground (870 kms) with the driver, and a lot of conversational “ground”, particularly on the Jordanian side of the border!
Similarly in the northeast of Sri Lanka, seven or eight years after the "conclusion" of the Civil War, our driver told us in heart wrenchingly graphic detail how some of his family had escaped “the cage” towards the end of the war, by wading and swimming across the Lagoon at night. And then how his brother had dropped his baby daughter when he stumbled into a bomb hole and the baby had fallen out of his arms and disappeared below the surface and the mad scramble to try and find her in the dark amid all the confusion of ongoing shelling in the middle of a tidal lagoon. They did find her and she must be a teenager by now.
Back here in New Zealand one of the first things that I ended up doing after leaving UNICEF was being the unofficial “Uber driver” for my teenage daughters and their ever-increasing circles of friends. My days seemed often to be dominated by driving to and from school, to and from the shopping centre (or Mall), to and from sports practice, to and from there and then more to and from where-ever. I did a lot of driving in those first few years before my daughters got their drivers licences!
I also did a lot of listening, took part in some pretty interesting conversations and like to think that I offered some pretty useful (wise?) advice from time to time. Boy friends, girl friends, nail polish colours, teachers, vaping n the school toilets were all part of the conversation. But my daughters’ friends (not so much my daughters) were also interested in what was happening in the world and what I thought about it. And perhaps because I wasn’t their parent they were quite interested in engaging in some of the issues of day, Covid 19, Climate Change, Jacinda Adern – good or bad?
For some reason driving or being driven in a car is a great place and time to talk and listen and learn. And this doesn’t change when you leave UNICEF.
More musings to come so please look out for - What to do la #3- Friends?
In my part of the world the Courts decided Uber drivers were employees not contractors. Not sure how this played out in the rest of the world or the implications (if any) of this for an organisation like UNICEF.
In my last months in UNICEF a number of people asked and, in some cases seemed to offer me some vaguely defined consultancy to think about doing for UNICEF, after I left UNICEF. Maybe that was all just part of saying “see you later”. I didn’t follow up on any of these. I was on a break – “breathing”, so I never crossed the employee/consultant “Rubicon” with UNICEF.
But back to driving and being driven. Some of the UNICEF Colleagues I most admired in all my duty stations were UNICEF Drivers. So skilled and caring and committed to UNICEF’s work. I learnt a lot from our drivers particularly on so many long road trips. You get to talk on road trips, particularly in “interesting” or dangerous places. Being driven between Baghdad and Amman at the beginning of this century, you covered a lot of ground (870 kms) with the driver, and a lot of conversational “ground”, particularly on the Jordanian side of the border!
Similarly in the northeast of Sri Lanka, seven or eight years after the "conclusion" of the Civil War, our driver told us in heart wrenchingly graphic detail how some of his family had escaped “the cage” towards the end of the war, by wading and swimming across the Lagoon at night. And then how his brother had dropped his baby daughter when he stumbled into a bomb hole and the baby had fallen out of his arms and disappeared below the surface and the mad scramble to try and find her in the dark amid all the confusion of ongoing shelling in the middle of a tidal lagoon. They did find her and she must be a teenager by now.
Back here in New Zealand one of the first things that I ended up doing after leaving UNICEF was being the unofficial “Uber driver” for my teenage daughters and their ever-increasing circles of friends. My days seemed often to be dominated by driving to and from school, to and from the shopping centre (or Mall), to and from sports practice, to and from there and then more to and from where-ever. I did a lot of driving in those first few years before my daughters got their drivers licences!
I also did a lot of listening, took part in some pretty interesting conversations and like to think that I offered some pretty useful (wise?) advice from time to time. Boy friends, girl friends, nail polish colours, teachers, vaping n the school toilets were all part of the conversation. But my daughters’ friends (not so much my daughters) were also interested in what was happening in the world and what I thought about it. And perhaps because I wasn’t their parent they were quite interested in engaging in some of the issues of day, Covid 19, Climate Change, Jacinda Adern – good or bad?
For some reason driving or being driven in a car is a great place and time to talk and listen and learn. And this doesn’t change when you leave UNICEF.
More musings to come so please look out for - What to do la #3- Friends?
Great story - inspired me too. Drivers changed our lives - more than just arriving safely.
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