ET921 About this firm: We have been reporting that our respondent was busy so we couldn’t get two weeks reports. The reason was they have a huge book order so they have been busy and the employee who has been giving us the report was in the production place. But today, unfortunately, we did not get the report and as you can see in the image they are doing an ID card for a government company. The machinery which produces the ID is out of service because one of the employees is working by the lamination machine. She was complaining about the machinery not working because it takes a long time to do it manually.
ET714 when we arrived today as you guys can see in the image his accountant was doing an excel sheet for the employees, she was giving him advice and he was busy doing the samples which will be exported to Uganda. I have mentioned the opportunity he got a few weeks ago.
ET995 is a firm that is engaged in photo studio service. We still couldn’t get the weekly report. It’s been more than a month now. Last week we have visited the firm and the employees hadn’t heard from him and we called him the next day and his wife picked up the phone and said: “he is not in the country and he will come after 15days”. And today we went there to check if there is a new thing but everything is still the same. We have informed our supervisor Henok about this situation.
ET641 has returned from South Africa. And she is busy. We went to her firm today and all the employees were busy and she wasn’t there so we called, as usual, she said she will not come to her firm this week so we decide to ask her through phone/telegram.
ET356 she still has no income she is thinking of closing her firm but hasn’t decided yet.
ET242 is one of the sealed firms we call every week and this week she told us she is in the process of opening her firm. If things go as planned next week we might meet in person.
ET129 the furniture owner when we arrive today he wasn’t in his firm. He is organising his new showroom so he is kinda busy so we will visit him tomorrow or take the report by phone it’s up to our respondent comfort zone.
Et 316 engaged in their own tailor business. She and her husband do the work, most of the time we meet her but today we were able to get both It was good for us to have both because it lets us know the ideas on both sides.
According to them, their work has been greatly reduced due to the current crisis or instability in the country and one of the reasons is that their exports outside of Addis Ababa have been completely cut off and they are not able to work in many places as before but they also told us that they are doing better for the upcoming holiday season
Et 998– This respondent was working at the time we went to meet her today, but she was willing to stop working and talk to us. She told us that her income was not good this week because her workers were leaving for various reasons and now as we know the road was closed and she could not buy Teff(raw material) as much as she wanted and at the same price as before. Currently, suppliers are using this as a reason to increase their prices significantly. This made her work difficult for our respondents.
ET166_ liquid soup production. This respondent did a good job this week but the problem is the instability in our country, which is the problem of not being able to earn as much money as she expected during the day. This is because the security checks that are being made to stop the flow of traffic are disrupting the working hours of many people. One of them is our respondent because her home is so far away from work and there are checkpoints everywhere and the road is closed, she spends most of her time on the road, not at her place of work.
In addition, her co-worker was out of Addis Ababa for a week due to family reasons, and she found it a little difficult to work alone.
ET358
1/12/2021
When I arrived at my respondent’s place of work today, everyone was busy and my respondent was working with his employees. As I have tried to explain before, this respondent has created an internet service for employees to have the skills to produce new products. As a result, the staff improved their skills and were able to do a lot better work but some of the workers who were able to do well that their skills had improved and that their behaviour had changed and they were starting to show unwanted behaviour Their motivation for work diminished when they thought they were needed. and the owner was inspired to produce those two beds on his own and as he said to me this shows that sometimes managing employees is not easy.
ET262
Business sector: woodwork
My respondent told me that he has reduced 2 workers from work. They were five now he has only three employees. The reason he told me for reducing employees is that customers order decreased .since employees are paid in piece rate income they got will decrease if customers order decreased .he has decided that to work with his employees to fulfil the role of reduced employees.
ET713
Business sector: Milk and Milk products
My respondent told me that starting from November 25 their daily income has decreased. The reason for daily income decreasing is that Christmas fast of Ethiopian orthodox church.
ET796
Business sector: Garaj
• This small firm has no income for two weeks.
• Unknown person has robbed his work shop last week.
• He has lost his grinding machine, welding machine, compressor, one his car battery, and 6 customers car batteries due to robbery.
• He has replaced all robbed machines and customers car batteries with expense of 76, 000 birr from his account.
• He told me that his employee’s were paid weekly salary 600 birr but now he has added for each employee 100 birr weekly starting from last week.
ET – 876 Writing and copy centre
while we were working on a technology survey, this respondent told us that technology has its own advantages and limitations these limitations have their own impact and he told us the incident he faced when he was using mobile banking. Once, he needed to transfer money to the church and tried and he received an error message and he tried again but finally, both attempts were sent; due to this, he was obliged to send twice without his intention. By chance the receiver was church, so he thought it as Gods will and leaved it, but he said “what if the receivers were others, it would make me irritated”.
Furniture and Wood products business: ETH 992
By the time we went to this firm’s work shop, he was sleeping inside his resting room because he serve as security-keeper for the whole night. But as soon as he hear coming of us and his employees voice” he is inside the resting room” he opened the room and served us. It is obligatory to serve as a watchman which is location-based as a result he forced to keep in two sites; at his work shop and his home. Thus, he may keep for two consecutive nights depending on the sequence. Any resident is obliged to serve as a watchman in his residence address through forming a group in ordinal way. It is difficult because he worked during day time and the weather is very cold. There is also no guarantee for their security because they keep with out holding any form of weapons.
ETH 654
This respondent engaged in furniture and woodworks.
At the time when we met this respondent he was busy softening furniture with his one employee outside of the workshop because his workshop is full of stock; both finished products and inputs. While his two employees add design to the furniture and decor it inside the workshop, the respondent and his employees are working in a place that is vulnerable to sunlight.
ET299 Woodwork
We visited today this business firm with my FS, unfortunately, the business owner was unavailable. We have fun with his employee and shared with us, he was very sick for almost 20 days after he received an unexpected amount of electricity bill requested (52,000ETB). He claimed for it and they finally decided to pay 3,000 ETB for they understood there is damage on the main electric grid meter of him. Even today he went home to rest and until now he has not been cured of Typhoid disease. We observed the whole working environment and the ongoing working situation and it was very interesting. They received orders from their clients and some of them are in the production process while others are completed. We had an appointment with the employee to visit them by tomorrow.
ET496 own carpentry house. He usually supplies his products for retailers at lower prices. In normal condition, he produces and sells many wood furniture. Unlike other months, his customers demand his products reduced by the case of current political instability. Consequently, he laid off two of his employees. Furthermore, he also reduced the number of working hours.
ET-489 Cement block, ET – 799 Metal Work, and ET – 435 Torno House
These respondents told us mobile banking and ATM led them to an extravagance, whenever they needed the money they couldn’t see the balance.
ET – 489 told us an example, he said that ” Since I started to use mobile banking to top up airtime, I became very lazy to go out to buy airtime. I am always used mobile banking to top up airtime, even if there is money in my pocket. I stopped using the union account and the money that doesn’t belong to me to avoid confusion created between the members of the union and me because I was using the union account to top up airtime but the airtime was not only for the work I used it but also for my personal issues; this was the reason for the confusion or conflict between us. He rephrased that as the banking technologies expose people to unwanted extravagant costs.
ET-275 Enjera Bakery
This respondent told us the limitations of the ATM machine, he discussed that he had tried to withdraw money from the ATM machine, but in his trial, the machine didn’t provide him with the cash money and he left the place after waiting for a while. After minutes he received a bank message as his account debited the money amount he tried before; then he directly went to the bank to claim the money and they told him that as the cash already withdrew and as he may not get it back. He had become nervous and threw his visa card and never used it.
ET-876 Writing and Copy Centre
At the time we arrived there the employee was sitting without work due to a power outage. She told us recently the electricity situation was bothering them a lot and making them lose a lot of money. While we were sitting there we observed that many customers returned due to a power outage. The other incident which happened in this week was that the transport car (force) of our respondent clashed with a car as a result, he spent a lot of money on repairs and was very depressed.
ET269 private school
When I visited this firm, the manager of the firm is away from the business premises and she was in her own shop that is in front of the school. I conducted weekly transactions and special event surveys with standing in the front of the shop. she didn’t remember all transactions because she told me from her head that the record notes are not in her hand. After I finished the interview, I gave the incentive. She was very happy with the incentive and she immediately closed the shops and we went to the school. After that, she opened her record notes and gave me all data. Since the data that she told me from her head and notebook are not similar, I edited all the data. At the end of the interview, I acknowledge her for their cooperativeness.