Workers at one of the branches of Ecobank Kenya, a financial institution that is part of the expansive pan-African Ecobank Group, have come forward with alarming allegations of exploitation, emotional distress, and abuse of power under a branch manager they claim has created a toxic and fear-driven working environment.
Despite the official working hours being clearly stipulated as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., employees at Ecobank Towers Branch report being routinely compelled to arrive earlier than required for mandatory meetings and frequently held back long after the end of the workday, all without compensation or recognition for the additional hours sacrificed.
According to multiple sources who spoke under condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, the manager in question is said to routinely assign additional tasks at the end of the day, often using the justification that even top executives such as the CEO stay late, thereby normalizing a culture of unpaid overtime and severely impacting the staff’s work-life balance.
Internally, workers describe a hostile and demoralizing environment where open dialogue is stifled by fear, with any dissent or questioning of management decisions reportedly punished through deliberately poor performance appraisals, specifically through receiving low ratings that could lead to termination.
While she maintains a courteous and polished demeanor in public interactions with clients, staff allege that her internal conduct is marked by favoritism, intimidation, and manipulation, including a recent incident where junior staff were pressured into signing off on a large SACCO loan application on her behalf without room for objections.
The affected employees are now appealing for external attention and intervention, stating that internal reporting channels have failed them, and that they live in constant fear of being victimized or fired simply for raising concerns about workplace fairness and basic dignity.
“Hello Cyprian. Keep it anonymous please. Ecobank Ecotowers manager Mrs Violet Monari is really misusing us, our official working hours are supposed to be 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. but she always commands us to be in the office by 7:30 a.m. for morning meetings almost daily, and in the evening when you want to leave after finishing your work, she assigns you more duties, saying even the CEO leaves the office late. We end up leaving sometimes at 7, even 8 p.m. without overtime while affecting our work-life balance. We cannot talk against this. Otherwise, she will give you a bad rating of 2 during appraisal, and the bank will just fire you. In public, while talking to clients, she looks like an angel, but while dealing with us, she gets really toxic. She has favourites among the staff, especially those “yes madam” types. She intimidated her juniors to sign for her a huge loan from the SACCO recently, which they signed without questioning. Please help us highlight the issues since we fear being victimised.”
