Cafe Maurice

Breakfast
What is the most interesting car you have ever owned and why?
I haven’t owned a car since I was born. Let’s hope we can remedy that in three years.

Lunch
What book are you currently reading?
Some chick lit books I borrowed from friends.

Dinner
Did you have any pets growing up?
Yes, they all died on me. I’m talking about dogs (I had several), fishes, hamsters and lovebirds.

Midnight Snack
How do you unwind at night?
I usually surf until my eyes hurt

Recipe of the Week (instead of your recipe for life what is it just for the week?)
Learn to focus and let go of things that won’t help you achieve what you dream for.

I have been mentioning it many times on my blogs before – Id love for us to have a car. It has escalated from a want to a need for us given that we live in the province where everything is 30 minutes away from everything We have an old jeep we use but it really is not safe as it is open. It is getting chilly and colder here so we need to be inside the house once 7PM hits or even jackets and bonnets will not be enough to keep us warm. There is good news though – with the continuous lowering of the price of gasoline, the husband can now use the 4×4 of his Dad during the weekends. We are still hoping for our own but not until he gets one from his company, I don’t think we can afford to get a new one. Anyway, the husband is very optimistic that he will get promoted and transferred to our area by next January so we might be getting one (crossing our fingers!).With their line of work, I’m quite disappointed a car plan is not even given as a benefit right on. A Car allowance program plan should do the trick for their company. It will allow them to get cars for their employees without having to shell out much money.

I am quite familiar with vehicle reimbursement programs. The company I have worked for for five years offered it to its top-level employees – managers, trainers, and executives. The Fleet program is actually a merit (reward) and tenure benefit. Once you reach a certain tenure in the company (for us it was only 7 years since our industry, the BPO industry, has a high fall-out and pirate rate) and if at that tenure, you have been appraised outstanding by your manager (next level person you report to) with two promotions or three step-level promotion, you are entitled to a car.

Now the car model will be up to you. They have different budgets for different levels of employees. You can give them the car model, they will buy it for you (they sometimes have preferred models) or you take the cash, get a loan to add to the lump sum you got, and buy one. All the lump sum needs to be paid back by tenure of service again. If you stay at the company for 10 years, the car (money) is yours. If you decide to take it out your pay to be safe, the car allowance allotted to your salary will cover that.

We got the best HR Benefits Department I tell you.