An A/P certification trainer’s lunch hour experience in Johannesburg, SA

I had the great experience of training 62 A/P professionals that are member the Gauteng Province Shared Service Center. There is a great deal of commonality among A/P professionals regardless of where the A/P function is performed in the world, and also very similar personnel concerns.

On Monday, the first day of training, we stopped for lunch at 11:45 and I asked everyone to be back in an hour to continue with the review and preparation for the AP Certification exams by 2:30PM.

I needed to go to the bank to cash a Travelers Check in order to give my driver a tip when we returned to my hotel. The first bank I went to informed me that there would be a one hour wait, since a tour group was converting their currency. I stopped at a coffee shop figuring I would get a cup of coffee and a Danish, give the clerk $20.00, and use the change in Rand (the country’s currency) to tip the driver. I gave the clerk the $20.00 and he looked at me rather strangely and went into the back room. Upon returning he told me he could not accept my money, but told me I could have the coffee free. I began to wonder what would happen if I went to the Pizza shop down the street and gave them a $20 dollar bill! I finally told myself not to go there.

I found another bank with two people just waiting for me to convert my Travelers Check. Fifteen minutes later, with four forms and many rubber stamps, I received my receipt. I waited for the cash and was informed that I needed to take the receipt to a teller to obtain the converted Rand.

I quickly learned that the South African banking system is a mirror image of our banking system. The tellers take their lunch hour at the same time as those people that are using their lunch hour to try to do their banking. There were only two tellers on duty and eight people in front of me at what is now 12:30PM. I still am not worried because the bank is just across the street from the Training Center. Finally at 12:50 I get the money.

When I returned to the Center, people were crowded in the lobby, and one of the A/P professionals asked me when was the last time I was at the gym. “Why,” I asked? I was informed that the power was off, and I needed to climb the stairs to the training room on the 4th floor.

I was later informed that we were on what we in the U.S. call the fifth floor, since the first floor in South Africa is not the ground floor but the first one above the ground floor! After climbing 120 steps I arrived in the room at 1:30PM, of course just ready to continue training.

Later, when I returned to the hotel I called the TAPN office, and talked to several people on a speaker phone, at which time I requested hazardous pay for my heroic efforts. All I heard was laughter in the background.

Tuesday, I smartly elected to have a big breakfast and skip lunch, and you guessed it, the power was not shut down.

Wednesday, you guessed right again, the power went off at lunch time. I told them, “I am not climbing the stairs again!” and we found a conference room in the main facility that had backup power, where we continued the training session.

In spite of all the power problems, it was a great learning experience for me.

However, I am requesting that if you support my claim for hazardous pay, please send me an e-mail!

Tom Nichols, president of Process Management Improvement, Inc., provides research, AP process improvement consulting, training and seminars to large companies and financial associations. Email Tom Nichols