Incompetent Fools

I’ll make this story fairly short and skip the implicit details.

I had a meeting with the HR manager a couple weeks ago (procedure, of course) about why I’m quitting and leaving the company. It felt like an argument more than anything in regards to my reasoning behind my decisions. Like he just wouldn’t understand that I think this company is full of incompetent fools.

He then went on to explain to me the procedure of leaving and I made sure to clarify with him (before booking my plane ticket home) that I wasn’t going to have any problems with customs and  border patrol or ship contracts in staying for a few days in Miami before flying out (simply because the tickets were so much less expensive mid week). Yes, yes, everything is fine, he says.

Turns out it’s not so fine. Turns out that as policy states for me quitting and deciding not to complete my contract I’m obligated to fly out the same day and be safeguarded (in other words, taken by a customs agent to the airport to make sure I get on my plane).

But of course, I only learn this after I’ve spent hundreds on my flight and accommodations in Miami.

So NOW, I not only have to endure the costs of the flight I’ve already spent money on (which I agreed to as a consequence of leaving before the end of my contact), but another flight that the company has purchased for me because I’m required to leave that very same day.

Nowhere in my contract does it state this. Nowhere in my contract does it imply I need to fly out the same day that I disembark the ship. An advocate for company policy, who said I had to get the information verbally from him and nowhere else,  whose responsibility it is to inform crew of this information and be up to date on Customs and Border Patrol policy, told me I was allowed to fly out of America 3 days later because I’m a Canadian citizen.

I think the company is now liable for those costs. Do you agree?