đDracarys!!!đĽ
The greatest out-of-office reply was written in Westeros
The exclusive newsletter for Leaders, Founders, Managers, and HR Professionals. If you missed last weekâs issue, you can catch up here.
In Todayâs Email:
The Executive Thinker: Rhaenyraâs line, and the five career gems hiding inside House of the Dragon.
The Real Numbers: What dispatch riding in Lagos actually earns.
Whoâs Hiring: Roles across finance, HR, operations, and commercial.
THE BIG IDEA
Everyone on LinkedIn Should Be Watching House of the Dragon
Forget the dragons. Westeros is quietly running a masterclass in corporate survival, and the latest season just gave us the greatest out-of-office reply ever written.
Somewhere between the fire and the family therapy that Westeros badly needs, House of the Dragon has become something nobody expected: appointment viewing for anyone navigating office politics.
The realisation crystallised in the latest episode, when Rhaenyra â juggling a succession crisis, a fracturing council, and relatives who communicate exclusively through betrayal â delivered a line that deserves to be laminated and pinned above every burnt-out professionalâs desk:
âI am awash in dilemmas and deficiencies. Let me find my footing and I will attend to your request.â
Whoever wrote that line, we know your pen was on fire. Because that is not dialogue. That is the perfect auto-reply email, composed four hundred years before email was invented, and it does everything the modern workplace has spent two decades failing to teach us:
⢠It admits capacity limits without apologising for existing.
⢠It doesnât over-explain.
⢠It doesnât promise a fake deadline it will miss.
⢠It commits to exactly one thing â I will attend to your request â on exactly one condition: when I have found my footing.
Compare that to the average Nigerian professionalâs actual auto-reply, which is either nothing at all or a paragraph of apology that invites the sender to call your personal line âin case of urgency,â thereby defeating the entire purpose of being away.
Set your out-of-office to Rhaenyraâs line this December and watch how people treat your time differently.
But the Career Gems, as the timeline has taken to calling them, run deeper than one email. Consider what else the show has been teaching, entirely free of charge:
Succession planning is not optional.
The entire war â the dead dragons, the ruined houses â happens because one CEO named a successor, never socialised the decision with his leadership team, and assumed goodwill would do the paperwork. Every family business owner in Nigeria watching this show should be taking notes with a trembling hand.
Your title means nothing without stakeholder buy-in.
Rhaenyra has the crown, the decree, and the founderâs blessing. Her rival has the office headquarters and the people who control payroll. Guess whoâs winning. A promotion announced but not accepted by the people around you is just a new email signature.
The quiet operators outlast the loud ones.
For every dramatic dragon-rider burning their political capital in one glorious gesture, thereâs a Maester or a small-council survivor who has served four administrations by mastering one skill: knowing what not to say in the meeting.
Document everything.
Half of Westerosâs problems trace back to a deathbed statement with no witnesses, no minutes, and no follow-up email saying âas discussed.â If Viserys had simply sent a recap memo, thousands of fictional lives would have been saved. Send the recap memo.
Manage your energy like a queen.
Which brings us back to Rhaenyraâs line, because underneath the beautiful phrasing is a radical act for anyone raised on hustle culture: she tells powerful people not yet, and survives it. She names her state honestly (âawash in dilemmas and deficienciesâ is, letâs be honest, most of us by Wednesday), takes the time she needs, and returns on her own schedule.
Thatâs the real gem. The permission. You are allowed to find your footing before you attend to the request.
Now if youâll excuse me, Iâll be updating my auto-reply.
Learn From The Best âď¸
Lagos on Two Wheels: How Much Do Dispatch Riders Actually Make?
Everyone has a dispatch rider story. Almost nobody has asked the dispatch rider for his.
We did. Two Lagos riders broke down the maths â what they gross, what they lose, and whatâs left after expenses, and the six weeks one of them spent off the road after a hit-and-run with no salary coming in.
đ Read the full piece
đź WHOâS HIRING
Share if you know someone whoâd be a great fit or step forward yourself.
⢠Head, Portfolio Value Creation â Onsite
⢠Finance & Investment Research Analyst â Hybrid
⢠Administrative Specialist â Onsite
⢠Human Resource Manager â Lagos ¡ Onsite
⢠Account Officer â Lagos ¡ Onsite
⢠Senior Finance Manager â Lagos ¡ Onsite
𼳠RelaxxxxâŚ.. with Tech UnWind
When was the last time you left your laptop at home?
Itâs July. Half the year is gone. If we asked you to name one evening in 2026 where you were fully present somewhere that had absolutely nothing to do with deadlines, how long would you have to think?
Exactly.
Work doesnât permit you to stop! Thereâs always another sprint, another launch, or another fire to put out.
That is why we are bringing TechUnwind back; and this time, we are wearing Owambe.
No stiff panels. No boring corporate networking. Just a pure environment for tech and creative professionals to exhale, eat properly, and laugh.
đ When: Sunday, July 12, 2026 | 3 PM â 10 PM
đ Where: Gameland Lekki, Lagos
đ The Vibe: Traditional Nigerian Attire, live band, cold palm wine, games, and an after-party DJ set.
Passes & Packages: You can pull up in your own fit or grab an official TechUnwind branded cloth package (the fabric + entry ticket come straight to your doorstep so you just hand it to your tailor!).
đď¸ Regular Ticket: âŚ15,000
đĽ Squad Ticket (5 People): âŚ45,000
đŚ Cloth Packages: From âŚ38,000 (Includes fabric, entry + free delivery)
Forward this to your team or your work bestie right now.
Share With Your Friend đŁ
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ABOUT CAREERBUDDY
Hire Smarter, Not Harder
At CareerBuddy, we make hiring seamless for fast-growing companies, we pride ourselves on knowing the best people who will excel in a startup. With a candidate retention rate of 90.3%, it is safe to say âWe are the best in the game for startup hiring in Africaâ.
We have worked with our partners to hire both for Technical and Non-Technical roles, we have also helped them with expansion in Africa. Some of our clients include Bamboo, AAA Credit Limited, Vynt, FX Bridge, Shuttlers, Intron, LadderAfrica, Cadana, Fincra, Nordica Healthcare, Oval Finance, FortiFoods, Moniepoint, Sabi, etc.
Are you hiring at the moment? Contact us