HR where I work - almost a rant.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

But I just can’t get the angry energy up, and I’m honestly wondering if I’m over reacting to the situation. So, when in doubt, get fair, balanced Doper takes on things.

Last week one of the HR types called me and told me that the leave from a couple of amended time sheets was going to be applied to my leave balance. Typically, we submit time sheets electronically, but if you don’t for some reason, it must be submitted on paper and faxed to HR. I questioned him, since I hadn’t filed any amended time sheets lately, when these time sheets were filed. He told me that he had “just got them” so I went to my records. I faxed them in the beginning of December last year. Four months ago.

So four months later they’re finally applying the leave I used against my account. Not a big deal, I used the leave, I certainly have to lose the leave. I got a tad ticked because the new leave balance didn’t leave me enough vacation for some of the things that I’ve already planned (and paid for) this year. That’s not what has me pissed. I certainly don’t deserve extra leave.

What has me pissed is that my leave balance, which is tracked and calculated electronically, was wrong. It was wrong because the guy who’s sole job centers on making sure leave is accurate is obviously incapable of doing his job properly. I am, apprently, not the only person who got a call like this last week.

I could track my leave with a spread sheet, I know. In fact, I did when I first started here. But after a while, I realized that amended time sheet or not, the leave balance was always correct, so it was kind of stupid to keep a secondary record.

Turns out I was wrong, I guess.

What really has me pissed is that his co-worker, who is the HR contact for my department, called me the next day to:

  1. Blame the discrepancy on me. If I’d filed my time sheet on time (I was out of the country) there wouldn’t be a problem.

  2. Tell me that it’s not HR’s fault that there is a backlog of four months. The argument here made no sense either. I asked specifically whether there was a four month backlog, and was told “no”. “So why is there a four month backlog in my case?” “There isn’t.” What?

  3. Let me know that, in the future, I should file my timesheets on time, because I’m obviously the cause of the problem. It’s people like me “who cause all sorts of problems with the leave system” I was out of the effing country for god’s sake! I should rent a computer and internet connection to file a time sheet? Of ocurse not, that’s why there is the option of amending my time sheet, dammit!

I’m sending a nasty-gram to the director of HR, especially since this isn’t the first problem I’ve had with the “employees” over there. Or might be.

Over reaction? Getting what I deserve? I’ll read your thoughts and decide whether to send a letter in a day or two, when I’m slightly calmer.

2

I say you have every right to be annoyed with these idiots. And I’d write a strongly worded letter. Or at least, I’d think about writing it and then forget to. :slight_smile:

3

Someone who doesn’t do real income-producing work for a copmpany should never ever be allowed to say “And it’s all your fault.” They are subservient beings, and must always bow before the needs and demands of those that make the money for that dweebs salary.

I say burn the MFer, but good.

4

Uh, I’d be pissed too.

Do you recieve an accounting of your leave balance on your pay stubs? Is there a way you could go back to when this started, look at the leave balances, subtract the leave taken, and figure out what your true leave balance is?

At any rate, I’d definitely be writing a very firmly worded, but professional letter to the director of HR. I’d attach any supporting documentation as well.

5

We don’t acutally get printed pay stubs, it’s all electronic. Therefore, when there’s a mistake on the leave balance, my electronic stub would reflect an icorrect balance as well.

And what’s all this about professional? I wanted to rant and rave and call them all nasty names!

I think the letter will go, the last time one of the HR goons made a mistake, it cost me nearly $1000 out oof my pocket.

6

Yeah, I know I’d would rather rant, rave and call them nasty names too. It’s somehow sooooo much more satisfying.

But, that ain’t gonna butter your bread now, is it? :wink:

7

Sean, you wound me! I know, I know, I’m just a bean counter, I don’t bring in revenue, blah blah blah.

However, I’m not taking this chucklehead’s side. Four months behind on tracking leave? Sheesh, I look at how much vacation time I earn in a period of four months, and I look at the number of days available to take one of those days off, and damn! Do you know how much can happen in four months?!?

I don’t think you should have been reprimanded for this, man. Sounds like the problem is with them.

8

If the records were properly updated in December, would the leave have been against your 2005 balance? If you’re now losing leave from your 2006 allocation because of this, I think you’d be especially right to be upset.

9

This is a load of fetid dingoes kidneys. Every time someone refers to accounting staff and support staff as “not doing real income-producing work”, I wonder how far these people would get in their jobs if we didn’t do ours. Go ahead; add up your own time sheets and calculate your own pay. Then, figure out the taxes the company owes and you owe, and pay them. On time. Don’t forget benefit calculations, workers comp insurance, health plan payments, etc. Oh, and pay for the supplies & services needed for you to do your job. And field your own paperwork, files, records, etc. How much time do you have left to do your sales (or whatever it is you do, which to most of us in the office looks a lot like goofing off at least 40% of the time). And try to do all of this without screwing up and getting the company shut down or bankrupt.

Yes, it sounds like the welby has a legitimate complaint. But then, welby didn’t spout off a bunch of festering crap about “subservient beings” and “dweebs,” so I’m not aiming my irritation at welby.

10

Sorry, welby, I didn’t mean to call you “the” welby. Having my panties in a wad caused me to shift from saying “the OP” to your name, and I forgot to take out the article. Yeah, that’s it.

11

I think he’d probably like being called The Welby. :slight_smile:

12

Damn Straight. Wonder if I can get them to change my user name?

Dewey, my balance carries over, so it would have come from my total leave balance.

The story gets better, apparently there’s yet another 4 month old time sheet with a few more hours of leave on it.

I’m totally gonna write a professional letter.

YaWanna, I agree. In my particular case, this isn’t the first time one of these goobs have screwed up. I ended up coming out of pocket for some medical expenses because it took them 6 months to change my son’s birthday in the computer - a mistake they made when I was first hired 3 years ago. By the time my HR “professional” got her act together, the insurance company said the claims were too old to be paid.

13

Four years of accounting school and this is the best you can do?

Go add up some numbers.

14

Could you clarify a couple of things for me?

I am assuming you got paid during the time you were out of the country, despite not having filed a time sheet? Is there some default salary that hits if you do nothing?? Or were you unexpectedly out of the country after you had filed the original sheet?

What pay period were the timesheets you faxed over in December for?

Do you get a confirmation record back on electronic timesheets you file, so you eyeball whether the change in leave balance on your pay stub matches what you filed?

15

You know what, this type of attitude pisses me off. As an ex-IT person, we would get this attitude all the time. People who were too stupid to figure out how to press the power button on the front of the PC, and refused to listen to our instructions no matter what, claimed that becuase they were in sales we should be there licking their boots for the opportunity to serve them.

We are professionals, who have just as much stake in the company as you do. We work hard to keep the expenses down for the company, and all of our projects were evaluatesd on the basis that they had to cut costs, or make it possible to sell more product.

In this case the HR person was being an ass, but people who aren’t in sales do real work. You try doing your job without a computer network, without email, without phones. If you treat us with respect we will treat you with respect.

16

Could you clarify a couple of things for me?

I am assuming you got paid during the time you were out of the country, despite not having filed a time sheet? Is there some default salary that hits if you do nothing?? Or were you unexpectedly out of the country after you had filed the original sheet?

What pay period were the timesheets you faxed over in December for?

Do you get a confirmation record back on electronic timesheets you file, so you eyeball whether the change in leave balance on your pay stub matches what you filed?

17

I guarantee that YaWanna didn’t learn the term “fetid dingoes kidneys” in accounting school. We’re not usually known for our creativity!

:smiley:

18

As a person who worked in HR I can tell you two things. Number one, once a problem hits H/R be it with that dept or another dept, it’s too late. I rarely see anything resolved when it hits H/R

Look for another job, because it’s a broken job you have. And it won’t get better. I don’t mean to quit, but get your resume up and get applying NOW.

There are TONS of broken jobs and this company sounds like one.

Often H/R makes rules and won’t stick to them. This is where trouble starts. This H/R is guilty of not enforcing rules.

Whe I did payroll it was simple. You take leave you fill out forms. You don’t fill it out. NO PAY.

If I had an issue with an employee it was only once. They learned quickly when the got shorted on their check for not filling out their time off request.

Remember H/R does NOT exist to help the employees, they exist to protect the COMPANY FROM the employees. To minimize lawsuits and hire desirable candidates that will toe the company line.

H/R is not FOR you. This is what most people fair to realize.

19

I did get paid. The way our system works is that if I don’t submit the electronic sheet, it gets forwarded along with a tag that I was “absent”.

The time sheets were pretty late. I didn’t realize I’d missed a submission date, and my boss didn’t pick up on it for another month or so. She went back to doublecheck something of hers and pointed out that I’d missed filing mine and hadn’t yet sent an amended sheet in.

I don’t get any sort of confirmation. After my time sheet is approved and processed I can go back and look at it, but there’s no confirmation per se.

ZeroZero, sadly, I work for the Commonwealth of Virginia (technically). I kinda figured this place was broke.

20

I’m going to have to disagree, and agree, with you here.

My view is that it’s the jobs of both IT and HR to make sure that everyone else in the company can do their jobs. In my job, I could do my work without either (although it would be a lot more difficult), and bring money to the company’s table- but the inverse is not true; no matter how good HR or IT are, without the actual production of goods, there’s no way they could make money. I’ve worked in several jobs where HR seems to have forgotten that- they viewed their department as the most important part of the company. Needless to say, those companies were filled with very unhappy employees and had a high turnover rate.

That said, however, I’ve always maintained that there are two people you absolutely, positively don’t piss off: IT ('cause they can “lose” your email if they don’t like you). and HR ('cause they can “lose” your paycheck for the same reason). :slight_smile: