17 Aug 2023
A Day In The Life Of A Station Officer, Olivia Ngulube
What’s your day like upon waking up?
My day starts at 4:30 A.M. I never skip a day without taking a few glasses of warm water in the morning and doing a bit of exercise then I prepare my daughter for school.
Being the only KQ staff in my station simply means everything literally depends on me (operational, commercial, and administrative duties). That also means, I am the CEO, HOD, DO, Kilo 1, Lima Lima, Office Groomer, Load Controller, name them. There are a lot of duties that must be carried out right from the moment I wake up in the morning.
What do you need to plan for work before you leave home?
Before I get cracking with the day’s tasks, there is a simple to do list that I must check off to make the most of the day.
One of the things I do before leaving home is to closely monitor the status of a flight, especially during peak seasons when we tend to have a lot of oversells. Being a transit station with limited rerouting options for our guests, it’s imperative that good planning be affected to avoid unnecessary inconvenience to our esteemed guests.
Take us through your typical day
Not all days are the same, so when dealing with busy flights, I get to work by 7:00am and have a briefing with the Ground Handlers. After the briefing, I visit all touch points to ensure everything is under control.
On a normal day, I only get to the airport at 08:30am considering that I have a very long day ahead of me.
After dispatch the morning flight to Cape Town whose routing is Nairobi-Livingstone-Cape Town (NBO-LVI-CPT), I begin to deal with any baggage-related issues and prepare the respective flight handling reports. Once that is done, I create time to deal with things like OTIs, Administrative and Commercial related issues as I wait for the return of the evening flight from CPT, whose routing is CPT-LVI-NBO.
Amidst my busy schedule, I also create time to break off for lunch, then later continue with my duties. I get guided by my to-do list to ensure important tasks are handled timely and accordingly.
When and how does your day end?
On days with normal flight operations, I end my day between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. Post-flight briefings are carried out to review our operational performance for the day, pointing out our successes and any possible OTIs. In case of flight disruptions, the day turns out to be too long because I don’t work in shifts and everything at the station depends on me.
I wrap up my day by doing an overall review of my daily tasks with the help of my To-Do List.
Any parting shot message?
I also wish to take this opportunity to thank the management for having nominated me to attend the International Women’s Conference in Nairobi. I count it as one of the greatest successes because I received a solution to my greatest challenge - Work- Life Integration. This got me equiped and I believe I will be able to deliver in an exemplary manner.
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