The Horrors of the +234 Labor Market: Deluxe Edition
It’s two months into that new foreign gig you got and there is still that cloud of anxiety hovering around your mind. You’ve tried to push it out but it keeps coming back every time you get a new task. You know it’s not imposter’s syndrome because you’re a certified badass at your job but you can’t quite place your finger on what this is.
A mindless scroll on Twitter proves to be the eureka moment as you stumble on a hashtag that leads you down a rabbit hole of hardships your peers experienced at the hands of Nigerian employers and it unlocks a lot of memories you repressed.
#HorribleBosses
That’s it! This is what has been giving you grief. You shake your head in disbelief as your mind starts to unravel and you take a trip down memory lane. The Nigerian labor market showed you pepper, chewed you up and spat you out. From the passive aggressiveness, toxic competitiveness, dirty office politics to outright throwing under the bus in front of coworkers and clients alike.
No one talks about the trauma and anxiety that comes with working for Nigerian employers. I think I used the wrong word in the last sentence. Slavery. Yes, slavery is the word. Once you sign those dotted lines, it’s like you give them your soul and pounds of flesh to do as they please. They milk you dry and use you until you run dry then cast you away and at that moment, you realise you’re just a cog in a very big machine.
Soldier go, soldier come.
At every given opportunity, you’re reminded that you are replaceable and that hundreds would gladly take your job with half your pay. Appreciation and recognition are words that do not exist in the Nigerian employer’s playbook. Some even see themselves as mini gods who can do and undo. From the ones who demand a “thank you sir/ma” after they pay your salary to the emotional blackmailers who dangle your career prospects in front of you like a dog trainer showing a dog a trick with a treat as the reward.
Oh! don’t forget the great HR department too! We know there is nothing human about that department and who can blame them? Their livelihood is also from the source of your headaches.
Your confidence takes a huge hit and slowly you become a shell of your old self. You try to talk to your family and friends about it and they tell you to be thankful that you have a job at least.
Everyday you hear the same lies; “we are a family” at work with a sprinkle of “feel free to reach out if you have any issues, my door is open.” Ah yes, the door is always open. Open for biting criticisms disguised as feedback.
When you finally summon the courage to fight back. and salvage what’s left of your mental health, you’re labelled rude and disrespectful and slammed with queries which take a bite out of the salary that barely keeps you afloat for a month. No savings either, just vibes. You begin to weigh your decisions; between staying at the detriment of your mental health or going back to being unemployed.
With careful planning you pick the latter. You wait till your salary drops before sending the resignation letter. You remember how a coworker got played because he dropped a two-week quit notice so you decide to tender your resignation with immediate effect. You remember the day vividly, it was a Thursday and your salary had just dropped the day before. You scheduled the email to drop by 10pm and dropped your ID and access cards with the security officer with specific instructions to keep them safe and drop them with the HR the next day.
As expected, the email caught them by surprise and by 11am on Friday, they were trying to reach you on your mobile. The HR lets you know he would like you to have an exit interview with him at your own convenience (now they care about your comfort). You agreed and a time was set.
He failed to mention that your manager would be on the call too. So the call descends into a blame game and emotional manipulation with promises to increase your pay and rank if you changed your mind. You knew it would never be the same after the stunt you just pulled so you decline and wish them well.
While unemployed, you took a stab at freelancing for a bit hoping to get some form of sustenance only to fall right back into the hands of the brothers of your former captors.
You got into a contract with another Nigerian employer thinking it would be different this time because it’s not full time and you would be your own boss but this is just slavery-mini. You had hoped the freelance site’s strict laws would protect you from the madness and lack of regard for labor rights that Nigerian employers have come to embody but no, you’re right back where you started. Only this time it’s worse, there’s no one to complain to and there’s only so much the freelance site can do.
You submitted the project in good faith and they implemented your ideas without crediting your account as promised. You tried to reach out to them and their replies were as sarcastic as they were condescending.
Back to the present, you figure the anxiety might be related to your last job and how you were treated. The toxic work culture had you in bondage and now that you can taste a good working environment, your mind is in disbelief and braced for any form of toxicity. The feedback is now done in private and the appreciation is done in public and your roles are well defined in the company unlike how chaotic it was.
There is only so much we can do as young workers but with time, we’ll get to those positions and hopefully, we will make a change and do better.
