Hi M,

I**** has conveyed your message to me that the travel allowance in my claims is not approved.

I do not understand why you have not approached me directly with a clarification on this.

If I may help you recap, this discussion of reinstating travel allowance was dated during our Kota Kinabalu site inspection trip in May. I am certain you are aware I was the one who tabled this matter for your consideration. I had requested that the original travel allowance amount of $90/$45 per day be reinstated and that we could do away with the meal allowance of $50 per day. During that discussion, you had agreed in principle on the basis of ‘providing a benefit to confirmed staff only’. You may have forgotten but when we returned to office the following week, I had brought up this matter again with you in your office which you then cast in stone by clearly stating names of staff like J******, J****** and S**** who will also be entitled to this new travel policy. You had also agreed to my suggestion that the Company will pick up the tab if a team dinner with mandatory attendance is required to be organized when we are overseas.

The amount of $90/$45 is to be used to cover all meals expense, personal phone expenses, laundry expenses and the like whereas the $50 allowance is only for meals. Also, I clearly recalled that you had specifically instructed that  meals will have to be on dutch if we are claiming this travel allowance which I had also duly practiced (and paid you back in cash) at our last trip to Philippines except one dinner which you had kindly treated me.

Apparently now it seems that Management will not be honouring its initial decision.

Referring to the recent incident of time off-in-lieu for working on Saturday, please be reminded that I had not approached you to request for time off-in-lieu before but you had informed me that a half day will be given back to my team and myself as our attendance were required at the **-***** meeting on a non-working Saturday which I had also informed my team straight after your confirmation. It came as a shock when the week before the meeting, you informed me again that from that day onwards, no time off-in-lieu will be given for working on weekends and that ‘senior staff’ (with salary of above 1.5k) will not be entitled to time off-in-lieu. I understood your frustration because other staff had made demands on you. I respected your decision on this and did not further pursue.

This is however the second time Management is ‘playing its own staff out’.

M, I am not trying to be difficult but I hope you can understand where I am coming from. As a senior HOD in this Company, I have always exercised my full professionalism in my work and in the office which you have acknowledged and complimented me on. It is disheartening and extremely difficult to work in an environment and be a HOD when we do not have fixed policies, have ever-changing policies (without formal notification to staff) and we don’t deliver what we promise to staff. If Company is not willing to make adjustments or give staff their due benefits (which are now discounted further from the recent adjustment again), then it shouldn’t even be promised (and said) in the first place because it is never delivered in the end.

I really need to review how I can continue to work with you in future.

We need to talk. Please call me on my mobile when you are available.

Thanks,

G