I am writing to tell you a story from which to gain some experience, since it has happened to me and I would like that you do not have to incur into the same unpleasant situation.
It happens that on June 17th the HR Department of Unisys Belgium contacts me through a headhunter of London. They like my professional profile and they think I am perfect for an interesting job position available in Brussels. They convince me to take part in the selection process. I sustain several interviews with them and I do a very good impression. So much that on July 15th, they invite me in Brussels to discuss a final interview. The interview is scheduled for July 22nd, with a rather short notice. In addition to the short notice, they tell me that there would be a ceiling of expenditure for which the company can cover travel expenses. I am used to travel around Europe to discuss interviews, and it is the first time I find myself in this kind of situation. I am very surprised, in fact usually, if the company is hunting talents from abroad and invites me to a meeting at its headquarters, the journey is always fully refunded. I block the booking of the flights. With such short notice the cost, as you can imagine, is very high, around 600 euro. I immediately contact them and I explain my difficulty in supporting this expense and I clearly say that I must forego the opportunity in case I do not receive the refund of the tickets. They ask me to send them the document of booking in advance and assure me that the entire cost of the tickets will be refunded, but they asks me to support the costs of public transport and meals. I accept the proposal and I ask that I will be also refunded of the cost of the taxi, which is quite high as well. They remain vague and tell me that they will do their best to get the refund even of this expense.
On July 22nd, I go to Brussels, I discuss the interview, which I had prepared very well and the same evening, I send the request for reimbursement, with the form that they asked to use for this purpose, including the cost of the flights and of the taxi.
Unbelievably, the next day, not three days later or a week later (do you mean that they knew that very important information before my departure?), they answer me saying that the company has a directive at global level, so they cannot exceed a spending limit and that all my travel expenses won't be refunded except for a small amount. You can imagine the difficulties in which they put me, given that the entire cost of the trip came around 800 euro, which corresponds more or less to half a monthly salary in Italy, in the face of the fact that, according to the agreements made, I would have to anticipate only those expenses.
After my return, they asked me to lie on travel expenses and to request only the amount that they had posed as limit of the refund. In short, they blackmailed me, taking advantage of the situation of force in which they were located at that time. They also made fun of me, asking me what does it mean the importance to give up a couple of hundred euro of refund.
It is not my intention to assess people and I tried to expose the matter in an objective manner. You can assess for yourself what happened. I wish only to point out that I have other values. The word that I pronounce counts, and I believe that reputation counts over the long-term much more than a small gain of the moment. After more than one month of push and pull, I obtained only 250 euro as refund.
