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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

How transparent are we, really?


Just saw a vacancy advert for a driver at the British Council. Employer's expectations were clearly spelt out and what the would-be employee would be entitled to from salary to working hours and deductible tax were spelt out. With that level of transparency, there'll be no surprise for either party. Plus the recruitment process is not complicated by people who already enjoy far more enhanced conditions of service with their current employers, but are blindly fighting to get what they don't need.

In Nigeria, many blindly fight for a post and displace people who genuinely need it only to receive letters of appointment with offers far below what they are enjoying with their subsisting employers. Why do we do that stupid thing?

Why is it that Nigerian employers advertise vacancies full of their own expectations and not a word of what the employee should expect? In some societies you cannot advertise a position without stating the starting basic salary range. You cannot advertise a product without putting its price, even if it is asking price.

What's wrong with us? Is this to do with some intrinsic deviousness in us or some inherent tendency of a typical Nigerian to cheat, short-change or 419 his fellow men and women? Isn’t this some form of corruption we fail to recognise? Can we as a country be a little more transparent and fair to ourselves?

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