There is an actual need for civil servants in Nigeria, who make the majority of the country’s labour force, to travel more often on vacations. Whether it is within their local government, interstate, or out of the country (going abroad) traveling offers to them essential benefits that cannot be denied.
From unwinding, sightseeing to adventure, a trip or vacation does not just spice the boring office life that most of them have; it takes away the daily hustle-bustle and constant pressures that come with life in Nigeria. Even more, civil servants who tend to travel often, tend to succeed more at work and business than those who do not.
Certainly, traveling creates ripple effects which go on, deep and permanent, affecting the traveler’s ideas of life and work. Curious to know how this happens? Jumia Travel, Africa’s No.1 online hotel booking site gives 5 ways traveling can give Nigerian civil servants the much-needed boost at work or in their career.
Fuels creativity
Travelling has a way of opening the mind of the traveler and thus enhancing creativity. Most Nigerians who work in offices or other corporate environments agree to the fact that they find it easier to focus on their works after a vacation and they find themselves becoming much more creative.
This is because their mind is refreshed and much more open; they have a clearer perspective about almost everything and somehow they become less pessimistic and more optimistic in their assumptions and conclusions.
Again, while traveling, these civil servants are most times faced with certain impromptu challenges, which force them to get creative and rethink their plans, thus building creative skills which come in handy at work. Creativity is all about finding new, different ways to get things done.
Fosters social skills
Socializing and networking are no doubt key attributes to surviving in any work environment. When civil servants travel, they most times find themselves lodged in new environments with cultures, languages, society, and lifestyle that are very unlike their own and they have to find a way to acquire the knowledge they need about these different cultures, languages, etc.
In the process, they find they are actually socializing based on their sole effort, no translation book or app needed. Basically, traveling tests anyone’s social skills: ability to communicate freely, patience, tactfulness, and etiquette. If one can pass this test while traveling, it becomes so much easier to scale through similar tests in their career or at work with ease.
Advances the travelers’ link with technology
While the main idea of going on vacation is to break free from work as well as certain technologies, ironically, travel finds a way of forcing workers to rely on technology while break free of it at the same time. Most travelers in Nigeria go either by road or air and usually they have to book their tickets online.
Again, during their travel they have to rely on certain apps and sites to keep up with events going on at home, keep in touch with relevant contacts and possibly find out more about the place they are visiting. All these help make them much more tech savvy and this eventually helps with work at the office.
Improves their organization skills
This mostly applies to people whose jobs are in HR, accounting, or solving logistic problems. Whether they are traveling solo, with family, friends, or even for business, there are certain steps they need to take and certain things they need to put in place.
Before setting out on a trip, it’s important that one’s passports and IDs are all updated. Also, one would need to sort out where to stay, what to do, where to eat, how best to look after companion(s), etc. In the process of sorting out all these, they find that they also improve the way they organize things, and this also affects them at work positively. They find it becomes easier to follow procedures, create and tick off checklists, etc.
