What the CEO Told a Nairobi Lady Before She Packed Her Bags and Quit on Day One

A young Nairobi woman has sparked widespread discussion online after revealing the exact words her new boss told her moments before she packed her belongings and resigned on her very first day at work.

Marianah Kelly, a digital content creator and social media manager, shared her ordeal in a candid video on TikTok, explaining why she walked away from a brand-new job without a backup plan. According to Kelly, she had applied for a social media management role, passed the interviews, and sat down with the company’s chief executive officer to negotiate her employment terms.

During the discussion, they settled on a monthly salary of KSh 20,000. Although Kelly quietly felt the pay was low, she accepted the offer with the hope of proving her worth over time. However, the true weight of the job only became clear when she reported for duty.

Upon arriving at the workplace, Kelly discovered she would be working seven days a week without a single rest day. Her schedule ran from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday, and from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm on Sundays.

In addition, the company enforced a strict rule where three counts of lateness in a single week meant automatic dismissal. She was also expected to manage digital pages across three different retail branches selling electronics and bags, alongside a second social media manager hired on the exact same terms.

After completing an onboarding session and filming a test video inside the shop, Kelly stepped aside to calculate her daily living expenses. Living in Ngong meant commuting into Nairobi every single day, buying lunch, and covering other basic costs out of a KSh 20,000 monthly paycheck.

Realizing the numbers simply did not add up, she approached the CEO with a polite compromise. She proposed a hybrid schedule where she and her co-manager would each work three days on-site per week, while both reported to the office on Sundays.

Instead of considering the suggestion, the CEO rejected her proposal outright. He told her she had disappointed him and insisted he believed they had already reached a clear understanding from the very beginning. When Kelly was referred to the operations manager, she received no alternative solution either.

Left with no room for flexibility, Kelly gathered her personal items and left before her first shift even ended. Explaining her decision, she noted that daily fare from Ngong and lunch expenses would consume nearly her entire salary, leaving her unable to survive financially.

She added that the arrangement might have worked if one manager earned a combined KSh 40,000, rather than splitting the workload and pay between two people. Her story has since ignited fierce debate among Kenyan workers regarding fair pay, realistic workloads, and the rising cost of commuting in Nairobi.

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