Have you ever been discriminated?
In 2003, my friend told me about this company she works for that sends employees to the U.S. for training. It was a good opportunity and it promised a higher income. Plus, it would be an easy way to get a visa so I can visit my best friend, Sheryl.
I applied and I got the job. Worked on my requirements: Medical Certificate due to my
Tetralogy of Fallot. Check. U.S. visa application. Check. Samsonite Luggage, which I bought just for this trip. Check. I was so excited to visit Sheryl who is in San Diego. It was all planned out. I was going to take the Greyhound bus to San Diego and stay with her during the weekends on my days off. We have already coordinated our plans and she taught me everything I needed to know.
Two days before my scheduled departure, we were called in for last minute instructions and the release of passport, visa, credit card and plane ticket. My agents were all called one by one to the Human Resource Manager’s office while I was called to the Finance Manager’s office. I thought that since I was in the supervisory level, maybe it was the FM’s task to brief me.
BOOM! I was wrong.
He told me that even though I submitted a medical certificate, I was not cleared by the company doctor.
My thoughts: What? Why are you telling me this now? Your offer letter stated I passed the medical tests! Also, compared to your company doctor who is not even a specialist, my Cardiologist is one of the best in the country! He’s doctor to the likes of Imelda Marcos and Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
He said that since they are an insurance company, the contract includes full medical and life insurance while in the U.S. However, due to my medical condition, they cannot grant it to me. Hence, I will not be sent for training.
My thoughts:
I'm not dying anytime soon so no need to worry about any life insurance expense. FYI. It’s 2011 and I’m still alive!
He apologized for the confusion and said that although they are not sending me to the U.S. for training, they will retain me as an employee but they cannot give me life insurance (even though it was part of the package).
My thoughts: Are you kidding me? Isn’t that breach of contract? What am I going to do with my huge Samsonite luggage???!!!
It was hard to keep a straight face because I was in the verge of crying. I tried very hard to keep my composure. I thanked him for the offer but I told him that I choose to resign. The moment I stepped out of the building, I cried. I remember crying in my car for some 40 minutes. I felt so discriminated and unwanted. I was angry. I didn't want a pity job.
Looking back, I was thinking of actions I could’ve done. It was a Fortune 500 company. Had I sued them, would I have won the case? Would I have gotten my revenge? Why did it have to happen? I was so close to an opportunity. But then I remember in
Jeremiah 29:11,
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I believe that things happen for a reason. This happened to me because it was meant to make me stronger, and it did.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
But he said to me,
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
