DIGNITY OF LABOUR: CAN YOU REALLY AFFORD A NANNY?

My housekeeper was on holiday so I needed the services of someone who could do the job this holiday. I made enquiries and I eventually found one. She asked to be paid N3,000. I was shocked by that, so I asked what exactly she intended to do for N3,000. I expected that she’d say, to dust the place and then go home. That wasn’t it though. It was N3,000 to clean the entire house. I did the conversion in my head, that’s about $3. That didn’t just feel right to me. I told her to get to work whilst still refusing to believe she meant N3000.

Most Nigerians who have not experienced it themselves know those who have. It is the understandable behaviour of converting every expense/prospective expense to Naira when abroad, especially when in the United States (US) or the United Kingdom (UK). In practice, a Nigerian in the UK sees something they’d love to buy, they then convert the cost of that thing to Naira, often to help them make a decision. The conversion mostly leaves the bearer feeling like the price is dearer in Naira-reality than it really is in the original price. You want to get a nanny in the US? Convert the cost to Naira and you suddenly start to see how you don’t really need a nanny.

My experience with the above housekeeper is the reverse of that reality that I have found myself living. I remember back when I’d get on a bike — okada — and at the destination/or whilst on the bike, they’d mention the cost. I was always thinking, “that’s it? That’s all you’d take for this work?” Needless to say except out of cash, I often ended up paying more. This holiday, a trending video got me thinking a lot about the absence of dignity of labour this side of the world.

When we talk “dignity of labour,” we often think of it from the abstract point of view. The philosophy of respect for every job equally and not equate one occupation above the other. Dignity of labour is about inclusion, the belief that we should not look down on anyone on account of their job. That said, philosophy has not exactly matched reality in our socioeconomic culture.

People respect plumbers in the UK. They have little or no choice because you know how much their services would cost you per hour. No one looks down on a bricklayer in the US, you can’t because you know their services come at a considerable cost. Think of any job, in countries where dignity of labour is entrenched in their laws, there is no labour that is without dignity. When I lived in Germany, I had a friend who came from a wealthy home who spent her holiday waiting tables. Dignity. of Labour.

We talk about the need to respect everyone, irrespective of their job. If you are paying them a respectable sum for their services, respect for them comes by default. I was watching a video where a senior citizen who genuinely meant well was talking about how easy/cheaper it is to get labour here as part of his argument for why people should re-consider leaving Nigeria. In his opinion, you can’t afford the privilege of a cheap nanny or chauffeur abroad. Nigeria hands you those on a platter. So, stay in Nigeria. He meant well.

What he of course didn’t pay attention to was that the cheap labour is an indictment on all of us. Abroad, no artisan is going to send you a text message about some desperate need for money for food or a sick child. They won’t message you to send them something for Christmas. Matter of fact, if you met some of them at the mall and offered to pay for their groceries – as it is normal here – they’d consider it an insult on their sense of self and dignity.

We complain about our cleaners, plumbers, gardeners, etc., asking for money outside the services they already offer. In fact, we find some sense of pride in handing them one little help or the other from time to time. We do not consider that it is abnormal for people who work to constantly have need for bail out.

How do we speak of the dignity of labour when those who work cannot even afford to meet their regular needs? What is the dignity in a life that works yet must depend on some hand-out to enjoy say a sumptuous meal during the holidays? This is not an indictment on an individual. That’d have been nothing. It is an indictment on us.

Sadly, this anomaly and unjust labour culture is what we consider as a privilege, a token of being above the poverty line — rich, nouveau riche and fake-it-to-make-it class — walking tall, shoulders straight, chin up, head slanted in pride as we strut through our daily lives feeling rich and proud that we made it.

And a telling sign of that? The cheap labour we call on every day to clean our mess.

Plot twist. That housekeeper did a shoddy job, so I paid her N10,000 for her services. That’s over 200 percent of the sum she asked for, yet she’d have earned more. I bet she’d have gone home feeling lucky and I, standing in gap for the privileged Nigerian, felt like Alexander the Great as she thanked me for my benevolence. For paying her a paltry $10. And you go to bed thinking you are rich because you can afford to hire the services of a housekeeper. But can you really or did your socio-economic system subsidize yet another service for you? I don’t know.

What is at the root of this? Many things. Professionalization? Because to start with, if I spent time training and learning to qualify to earn fees for offering my services for a craft, rest assured, you’d be paying more. Can you really afford a nanny? That said, how many people can really do what they say they are qualified to do? Let’s not even start with that.

is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/ author, Digital Wealth Book