My colleague sent me her CV at 1am. The salary she's asking for made me sit up.

Woke up to a message from a young lady in my office. She sent her CV at 1am with one line. "Aunty Zainab, please look at this before I submit tomorrow."

So I opened it. Four years experience, solid record, no gaps. Then I saw the figure she put as expected salary. Wallahi I had to put my phone down. She is asking for something that a manager in my parastatal has been fighting for since 2021. And she is a senior officer.

I called her this morning. I did not tell her to reduce it. I told her the truth instead. That the number is fair for the work. That the problem is not her. The problem is the system that trained her to be scared of her own value. She said something that stayed with me. She said "everybody in my level dey collect the same thing, so I thought that one is the ceiling."

That is the thing about this capital. We learn our worth from the person sitting next to us, not from the market. I told her to submit it as it is. If they say no, they say no. But at least she will know what she is worth before she starts negotiating against herself. What do we owe the ones coming behind us if not the truth about their own value?