Like so many of our friends, Shweta too took up a job offer in the UAE. She joined as senior manager in the human resource department of the company. Her posting was in India, but she had to be at their home office in Abu Dhabi on deputation for a year. As expected, she was quite excited at the prospect of an international assignment and trusted the employer to be fair, as they have been in the business long enough. The pre-travel proceedings went fine, except for a tiny hitch around her housing facilities. Shweta had objected to a shared accommodation, but the employer had been adamant because an independent accommodation would be beyond their budget, they claimed.
On arrival, she was taken to a ‘temporary’ one-bedroom apartment. This was to be the arrangement till they find an exclusive room and bath for her, with a kitchen ‘shared’ with 3-4 other girls. Shweta started enjoying her transient luxury while it lasted. One fine day, she was told, her accommodation was ready should she wish to take a look. To her dismay, Shweta found the apartment was shared by 8-9 girls, so much so that the living room too has 4 beds laid out. The kitchen was unimaginably dirty and laundry was being dried on the corridor. There is no dining area, so the employees eat on their respective beds! Needless to say, no visitors are allowed in the apartment, not even family. The housemates are recent graduates and about 6 to 7 levels professionally junior to Shweta.
She had expected to share an executive company guest house and not a workers’ mess. So, her first reaction was to discuss it with her colleagues. She figured that other employees at her level – who are not recruited for India – are offered two-bedroom apartments. So, what she was being offered amounts to serious discrimination. Shweta was forced to wonder if she was recruited only because she is a single woman without a family. It would work out cheaper for the company to accommodate her than another candidate with a family.
She decided to take these issues to her senior at the workplace, who explained that she was the first recruit in her category and the company had no proper guidelines to follow. She was asked to frame a policy on global deputations and assignments to deal with similar challenges in the future. Thank goodness for specializing in personnel management. But, what about her own accommodation issue? That’s been looked into, came the reply.
PS: Dear readers, do you have similar experiences to share, especially when you or your dear ones have flocked to the Middle East lured by a plum job offer?
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