More than the civilians, I blame his command. I’m in the Navy, so I’m not familiar with what you mean when you say his “chief.” This should have shot straight up to his Dept. Head or XO through the Ombudsman. Pay is not something you screw around with. Usually, when a senior officer makes a call to the pay gurus, the problem is sorted out immediately. Whoever this chief is, IMO he should have 1) called pay to find out the exact problem, 2) informed his chain and the Ombudsman (or whatever the AF equivalent is) so they could have both your complaint and pay’s reason and could address it, and 3) followed up with both pay and you.
Not sure if any of this happened, but it doesn’t sound like it to me.
I’ve had my pay screwed up as well. In fact, I think I have a bout 6 months worth of back pay coming to me for, well, an additional 4 months.
And Eonwe, you misunderstand. There is great precedent for Government-employed civilians to be screwoffs. I’ve known and had to deal with quite a few in my time, and I don’t even mean the simple folk to work the registers at the PX.
In all, I agree with Sgt. J and I’m glad I’ll be out soon.
flyboy: We Sailors call a Chief Petty Officer (E7) “Chief.” The Airmen call the Chief Master Sergeant (E9) “Chief.” Oh, and the Soldiers call their Chief Warrant Officers (W2~W4) “Chief” and the Master Chief Warrant Officer (W5) “Master Chief.”
His chief is a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9). Airman’s chain is aware of this, however, and is prepared to act if necessary. We don’t want it to get to that point, because we don’t want to really piss these people off. I don’t even know if there is an ombudsman at his unit.
We also know where the mistake took place. The clerk responsible for Dave’s pay made some mistakes at the outset (he’s been shorted every paycheck, possibly to the tune of as much as a hundred dollars per check), never went back to correct those mistakes, and then made a large mistake with this past check. So far, the money has not shown up, is not pending, and no one knows what’s really going on. I suspect there’s some major butt-covering going on, but I don’t care about that. All I want is the money due Dave.
Again, I’ll say that pay is not something you screw around with. Your last paragraph is particularly worrisome, as it tells me no one at his command is trying to keep you informed. If it were me at this point, I’d call his XO directly and tell him what’s going on, and that while his chief was helpful, you’re still in the dark, don’t have your money, and would like the situation resolved asap.
I admire you for wanting to keep things at a low level, but when you say “We don’t want it to get to that point,” I think you’re already there. It’s been two weeks and you still have no idea what’s going on. You shouldn’t be afraid of pissing anyone off!! The pay office are the ones at fault and the command needs to rectify the situation. As long as you’re calm and rational, I don’t think anyone’s going to be pissed off at you.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Gorgon Heap *
And Eonwe, you misunderstand. There is great precedent for Government-employed civilians to be screwoffs.
[QUOTE]
Ah. If that’s the case, and the civilian support for the military is a frequent haven of the lazy and inept, then I suppose I withdraw my objections (muttering under my breath the whole way, mind you ).
And, I’ll also agree with flyboy88. This has reached “that point.” There is no excuse for what sounds like thousands of dollars of back pay owed to Airman. It’s ok to not want to rock the boat, but it doesn’t sound like you’re talking about chump-change here.
Take it as high as it needs to go. This treatment is not acceptable, and if whoever’s in charge doesn’t show your husband the respect of getting him his paycheck, then you sure as heck shouldn’t show that person the respect of treading lightly here.
Before the epithets begin flying, I know quite a few who are the opposite of what I said earlier as well. I also know there are several of these hard-working folk here on the boards, whom I’ve met personally.
I am referring to those who get along doing as little as possible, those who are snide and condescending because they are indeed Gummint-employed, and those family members who just jerk off on Gummint saleries because they need something to do during the day.
I’m with Montyet al. on this one - I’d encourage Doors, preferably accompanied by his chief, to do the quick climb up the slacker’s chain of command. There’s absolutely no excuse for his being screwed out of his pay. He’s earned it, and he’s entitled to every penny of it.
Forget subtle diplomacy - they’ve had two weeks, they haven’t fixed it, it’s time to make them feel the heat.
<hijack>So if military people are more entitled to correct pay on time, does this mean that I have any less inablity to buy food when my employer forgets to pay me because ‘they put the hours in a different little box on the form’?
Does the bank I owe loan money to give me an extra break because shit, I’m just a civilian. Who cares if my pay is screwed up?
If Airman doesn’t get paid, the people who depend on his pay to eat starve. If I don’t get paid, those who depend on my paycheck to eat starve.
So, does it matter that someone’s in the military if they can’t afford to eat because their employer just forgot to pay them?
Because my employer forgot to pay me 2 weeks ago. I should, possibly, see the money soon. And then I can buy some freaking food.
catsix, the bottom line is, Airman hasn’t been paid correctly since he joined. And his pay office wasn’t interested in making it right until his chief got involved and “encouraged” them to fix it. Airman has been shorted a LOT of money since the beginning. And your employer should be able to cut you a check if they “forgot” to pay you. If not, go to the state Labor Relations Board.
We did get the money that was due this afternoon, finally. Now, all we have to do is wait for them to reconcile the whole account.
Money in the government is always slow to arrive if you are not some congressmans or four stars pet project. And woe betide you if you are actually good at what you do, cause they will try their best to ruin you.
Mother is in charge of group that has to be selfsufficient because AFRL won’t give money to the only research organization that actually manages to get the job done on time and within budget. Father retired 20+ years civil service, Lt. Col AFReserves, brother told the Navy to take a flying leap due to the way they were treating him (As are most of the S-3 community) and is now discovering that NASA is just as bad as any other branch in a lot of ways. (‘We can’t consider him because his resume doesn’t say he did any night flying.’ 'Oh, that line on the first page that says ‘Night flights and carrier landings? That doesn’t say anything about night flying.’)
I didn’t say it was ‘OK’ that he hadn’t been paid correctly, because it certainly wasn’t.
The only thing that I took issue with is the statement that it’s ‘worse’ if a military person or a cop or a firefighter doesn’t get paid what they’re actually owed than it is if someone like me, an engineer teaching programming at a college, doesn’t get paid correctly.
And to stave of nitpicking, I will admit however that I can not speak about all of AFRL, and that there are probably a few other organizations in the whole of AFRL that are well managed, but that number is miniscule to say the least.
[hyjack] Narile, I love your sig. [/hyjack] catsix, methinks you’re too touchy. Dispite the fact that your arguing for no reason, as your jist boils down to “Why does she get to complain, Mommy? I want to complain too!”, and I don’t think anything close to civilians being less-deserving of on-time pay has been implied, there are a number of things I can add to oppose your little argument, such as:
There are a great number of personal freedoms you enjoy that those in the service to not - even little things like growing a beard and being able to call in sick.
Civilians are not (generally) expected to put their lives on the line in combat areas for the meager pay and months away from family we have to endure.
What Robin is saying is, “We put up with all this garbage, the least you could do is give us the pennies we were promised.”
Well, another day, another call from the chief. Seems that this civilian’s days as a pay clerk are numbered. Dave’s unit is compiling a documentation file of all these errors, and is planning to confront the military pay office with it. So, anytime the check is so much as one cent off, they’re going to hear about it.
On the plus side, I’m going back to work next week, so at least we’ll have a cushion going.
).