Prospect for new job sparks payslip row with Shiro

I am very nervous and full of nerves; I have just completed an interview. Some time ago, a head hunter from the UK called me wanting to discuss some operations role in a new company.

She went quiet for one month then last week, she gave me a call. She asked me if I was still interested in the role and I quickly said yes.

She then scheduled a phone interview for the next day. That evening I went home and a chat with Shiro regarding this new development.

Shiro sought to know more about the role, “how much will they be paying? Does this mean we work out of the country? Do we move back to Nairobi?”

I told her that I know it would mean moving away from Mombasa but perhaps not out of the country. She then asked me, “how much are you looking to earn?” I told her, “a lot more than I am earning?”

And that is when the questions started piling in— she wanted to know exactly how much I earn and I did not want to tell her.

I initially laughed it off saying, “I do not earn enough for all the stress I get!” She said, “Can you show me your payslip?”

I looked at her as if she was from Mars and told her, “Kwani you do not trust me, my payslip is usually online and so I cannot access it from here.”

She was not budging and neither was I — at the back of my mind I knew that I had not even told her about the bonus that we got paid off.

I told her that, “all that matters is that I always meet my fair share of the budget and I meet all your bills.”

She said, “We need to be open with each other and share these details.”

I knew I had to stop this and so told her, “Why don’t you show your payslip.” She started giving me some long lines about her payslip being in the office.

So I decided to put a stop to all this and said, “Listen, let us have a chat tomorrow about a joint account and how much each of us will contribute to it so that we can achieve our goals.”

I cannot just bring myself to divulge all the details about my salary to my wife and especially now that my fortunes will change. I also did not want to get into a fight the day before an interview because that would mess things up.

I was a bit stunned when the head hunter told me that some people from her firm would fly to Mombasa to interview me.