According to Mitesh:
In one of my previous companies, I had to make a visit to USA. Initially I was planned to travel along with another colleague of mine, Misha, but later on my travel was delayed. Finally, my travel was scheduled when she (Misha) was coming back to India.
There was a kitty (financial assitance) for first time travellers from the company to ensure the traveller has adequate preparation for the travel (like warm clothes, formal dresses, jackets etc.). I asked for the kitty money from my manager to buy a jacket. The manager, fully prepared to show his loyality for the company by saving some money on my travel, rejected my plea. I explained that Misha has informed that it's quite cold in USA and I would require a thick jacket to survive for next 21 days. The manager then recollected that Misha has already purchased a jacket for her and, like our codes/programmes, this jacket could be shared between two of us. He made me mail to Misha asking her to leave the jacket with secretory in USA so that I could collect it from the secretory for my use. The reply from Misha was so embarrassing that I could not dare to reply her immediately. She wrote - "atleast the manager should have known the difference between a lady jacket and that for a man; has he forgotten the difference in our phyical size? Thanks God that he didn't go beyond jacket for sharing of clothes !". Being embarassed, I just went to my manager's desk and told - " if you can let me avail that kitty, its fine otherwise I don't mind spending from my pocket for my jacket. Just few days back there was a half-day training organized for managers that costed some 20,000INR per person. If you are keen on saving some money for the company, please look at such wastage of money."
I was least bothered about whether Mitesh got cost of his jacket reimbursed from the company, what mattered more for me was the discrimination - Can such thing happen to an US employee?.
If this was the situation well before this global recession, I wonder what would the managers have asked to share in this situation !!
