Background
A few days after I had sent my email to Sumer Johal stating my schedule which showed that I was spending about 11 hours away to attend classes (actually only about 6-7 hours during non-lunch hours) and made up much more than that by working during lunch, late during the weekdays and on weekends, I got an email from Sumer Johal asking me to meet him and Jeffrey Klein regarding certain points they were concerned about and had 'discussed extensively' This was my first and last joint non-technical meeting with these two during my entire 8 months at Xamplify!
I have broken down Sumer Johal's email into logical 3 segments and will comment on each segment separately. Segment 1 follows:
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 2:16 PM
To: Me
Cc: Elaine Mullarkey; Jeffrey Klein
Subject: RE: Schedule
Hey,
I'm running a bit behind this afternoon and would like to meet with you at 4:45 pm today rather than 3 pm, as we originally decided. Jeffrey will be joining us as well.
Frankly, I am having a difficult time converging what we had agreed upon when we decided to hire you and what is actually happening - due to the following issues:
1. When we agreed to bring you on as a full-time employee, I had agreed on a slightly lower salary (65.0k/yr down to 62.5k/yr) and agreed, in return to use the difference to pay for your classes at UC Berkeley. The monetary compensation for this class was not to exceed $1200/6 months which is approximately the difference between the salary. I did this to accommodate your interest in taking these classes, even as when we hired you, I was not aware that you would need to take any classes for the work that we needed you to do (clearly, we were not looking to hire someone who we needed to pay to train). So, in my opinion, I was not aware that the tuition amount for these classes was going to exceed $1200/6 months.
..... (My note: Points 2 and 3 are handled in subsequent documents.)
All of the above create an air of "uncertainty" regarding your presence at Xamplify and negatively impacts the general workings of our company (e.g., the modeling group cannot meet ad-hoc, since we need to have all modelers present for any meeting).
On a positive note, your effort and work towards the modeling team has been matching my expectations and I also realize that you work very hard during off-peak times. This gives me reason to try hard to meet your needs and requirements - while ensuring that the company's interests are not harmed.
Jeffrey and I talked about this quite extensively and need further thought on proceeding further. Before we do that, we want to talk to you to get clarity on all this.
Thanks!Sumer Johal
My Comments
[Briefly about "...you would need to take any classes for the work that we needed you to do (clearly, we were not looking to hire someone who we needed to pay to train)..." Check out my resume and compare with that of Johal's background.
I paid $600 for each of those two courses. Exactly the amount I had told Sumer Johal about. Assuming that I had billed the company more than I had told them, which I didn't, was there is a need for discussing that in a special meeting, especially over a small amount? Just as a side note, I must remark on some useless software I saw kept new and unused for a long time, in the storage room and I was told that it costed the company around $70,000. That useless software was bought by a Caucasian male.
UC berkeley Tuition + Other Bills
I had submitted an itemized reimbursement sheet with all the receipts. This email dealt with this. The items were as follows:
UC Berkeley tuition: $1200
Course Registration Fee: $75
UC Alumni Membership: $50 (allowed access to library ...)
Books (job-related and course-related): about $125
I had agreed to $1250 reduction in my salary every 6 months. I had asked Sumer Johal about all the above items and after getting okay from him had turned in my reimbursement form.