Recently, commissioned by the Director of a company, P executed a professional assignment for this company. When he raised his invoice, it included his professional fees, reimbursement of some expenses he had made on their behalf and conveyance expenses. The concerned people in Accounts Department called and told him that they would be rounding off conveyance to a higher amount. P protested and said that he wanted the exact amount and not more. They didn’t listen. Then, as the payment cheque came, P discovered that they had deducted tax on reimbursement and conveyance. So, later, the tax deduction certificate will show the wrong amount. That is not how we choose to operate. We want everything to be transparent, above board and precise.
So P got in touch with them and pointed out the discrepancy giving exact details of how the calculation ought to be. To this, they corrected their calculations and it turns out that they have paid a couple of hundred Rupees less to P. The way the concerned person had pointed out in his mail is as if P is a miser and has hankered for such a measly amount. P and I got really angry at this. We will now point out to him that it’s not a matter of a couple of hundred Rupees. It’s a matter of transacting business with precision and transparency. Also, we discovered, they have paid a couple of hundred Rupees more to another person involved in the same assignment due to this tendency to do work carelessly. A couple of hundred Rupees may be peanuts to the company or us, but it’s the principle of the thing. The attitude is wrong. How can they be at peace knowing that they are not doing their work precisely ?
I have seen this ‘chalta hai’ attitude in so many people, in so many spheres of life. It is extremely irritating and I fight against it whenever and wherever I can. But there still remain people and even organisations who will continue doing it ! Frustrating !
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