Welcome to Corporate Amrica!

The BBQ Pit
1

Note: this happened to my friend and coworker, not me.

To: Ms. Benefits Coordinator

Fm: Extremely disgruntled employee, soon to be seeking legal advice

“So, let me get this straight: you’re dropping me and my family from the company’s health insurance plan because you didn’t receive my enrollment form on time?”

“Is this the enrollment form I scanned and then e-mailed to you 6 weeks ago? See the forwarded e-mail, and note the date and time on it.”

“Or is it the form I faxed to you directly to your office 4 weeks ago when you said you didn’t receive the scanned & e-mailed form?”

“Or is it the form I finally sent to you via Overnight Guaranteed mail, USPS, two weeks ago? Is this not your signature on the delivery confirmation receipt, that I have right here in my hand? Copies available upon request.”

“What’s that? You sent an e-mail directly to my supervisor last week? He claims he never received it. But that’s between you and him. My question is, why didn’t you e-mail me?”

“You say you sent four letters to my home address via registered mail, warning me not to delay in submitting my enrollment form? That’s strange; I didn’t see one of them.”

“You say those registered letters were all returned ‘undeliverable?’ That’s strange; I receive my direct deposit pay stubs twice a month, like clockwork.”

“You say that you weren’t able to contact me any other way? That’s strange; I have a company cell phone, a company laptop, a company e-mail account, and a home phone number, with answering machine. Also, my wife’s work and cell numbers are both listed in my contact information, maintained by Human Resources (which you work for), and are current.”

“However, I did receive the e-mail you sent me just yesterday, in which you cc’d the North America CEO, the U.S. CEO, our Business Area Manager, our Regional Manager, and my direct supervisor, the Area Service Leader, in which you claim to have tried repeatedly to contact me, and that I failed to answer any of your communiques.”

“And you go on to say in that e-mail I received just yesterday that my family and I are now without insurance, and that the decision is final because I didn’t appeal in a timely fashion during the ‘hearing & review’ held last week!?”

Everyone in our local office is extremely pissed over this; if it can happen to one of us, it can happen to any of us.

2

Assuming that he has the documentation you mention, how the hell can he lose the case, if it comes to that? What a clusterfuck!

3

I’d go to your manager and the HR director, and tell them to sort it out. Provide copies of the documentation.

I would also be real tempted to reply all on that email (with the documentation attached) so that the CEO et al can see what fucktards they are.

Oh, ya, might be a lawsuit in there. It’s corporate amerika and they hate that kinda stuff.

4

Hm. Did you get the memo about the TPS reports?

5

Please keep us updated on this situation. It sure sounds it’s a slam dunk for your friend.

6

If I were your friend, I would definitely respond, politely, to Ms. Fuckwad, giving all the information on how your friend tried to respond, including a scanned in copy of the receipts. And definitely cc the CEOs. I predict Ms. Fuckwad’s ass will soon be roasting, and your friend will get benefits without having to pay for a lawyer and becoming unpopular as the company circles the wagons.

And your friend should get his/her manager to run with the ball, which keeps it from being personal. Stuff like this is a cakewalk so long as HR doesn’t feel threatened as a group. Ms. Fuckwad might have a long history of neglecting her job, and this might be the thing they could use to fire her ass.

7

One more thing. In my experience, high level execs don’t want to be bothered with stuff like this. If your friend had cc’ed the CEOs, he’d (I’ll use he) would be making a big mistake. The HR idiot who cce’ed them made it instead.

I worked in one place where some anonymous person accused a high level exec of nepotism. There was actually some truth to this, though the person hired turned out to be okay, and was a nice guy. I assure you that the accuser got more heat than the accused.

However, since she sent it, your friend is justified in cc’ing them also. He’ll look a lot better than she does. he shouldn’t threaten, but ask nicely. Now, if they tell him tough, then it’s time for the big guns, but he shouldn’t confuse the whole company with one jerk. He might wind up with a medal for helping to get rid of an idiot. It’s hard to get rid of anyone for cause, I can imagine how hard it would be to get rid of an HR person.

8

So how long has your friend worked for Ford Motor Company? I had them say that I had not faxed in an approval when I had the fax confirmation in my hand. :rolleyes:

From a seasoned fuck me? No FUCK YOU corporate warrior, do the following:
Get your boss on board. Their boss also if possible.
San all the documentation.
Hit reply all
Attach all copies to documentation to e mail.
Point out that anyone with a room temperature or above IQ can see that you complied with the requests in a timely manner, therefore no lapse in coverage should have occurred.
Note that you will give them 7 days to straighten this out, or you will be forced to seek legal aid to make sure your family is covered.
You also expect a letter from the head of HR explaining why this happened, and a promise that steps will be taken to ensure that it does not happen again.
Point out that you cannot do the job the company is paying you to do, if you have to follow HR* around to pick up the balls they drop.

*In this case HR stands for Hardly Reliable.

9

That is funny. I was about to ask how long the friend had worked for the company I work for! It took me 16 months to get a corporate credit card. They kept “losing” the paperwork I faxed them. Finally, I eFaxed to to myself, made it a PDF, and then forwarded that email each time they said they “lost” it. It took 4 more tries, but once they noticed that I was documenting the resending of that same email, magically the card showed up.

Someone did not do their job & is trying to shift the blame to your friend. A “reply all” to that email is definitely in order.

10

So when is your friend/coworker hiring a lawyer?

11

Yep, yep. For some reason, every person who’s ever sent me a nastymail has felt the need to copy half the company… makes the “reply all” terribly pleasurable, when I’ve bothered to respond.

I always finish the respond all with something like “In any case, I consider that this should be continued between you, me and (supervisors names).” Meaning “it ain’t me who’s dragging you Important People in, eh!”

12

He says he’s consulting one. He’s afraid that as soon as he raises the “legal issue,” he’ll be terminated from employment. It’s “at will.”

13

I would only modify this with the following replacement…

“You also expect a letter from the head of HR explaining why this happened, and a what changes will be made to ensure that it does not happen again to myself or any other employee.”

Promises don’t mean a hill of shit in corporate america…documentation does.

14

I used to work in enrollment at a big insurance company, your friend still has a few options, depending on how far past the enrollment date this is.

An appeal to the insurance company, showing the dates and times of the various faxes, letters and other documentation your friend has. This means the BA would have to admit fault to the ins. company though. Happened all the time when I was there, coverage could be retro up to 60 days with the appeal and supporting docs most times. If your company is self billing, which is also fairly common, premiums may have even been paid in his name, which makes that even easier. Do you know if the company withheld from his check his portions of the premium? I doubt it since they said he never enrolled, but I’ve seen it happen.

The company might also be liable to pay, at no additional costs to your friend other than what his premium on the group plan would be, an individual plan.

I’m not sure how big your HR dept. is, but if the Ben. Coordinator has a supervisor, it is time to deal with them directly, because time really matters in this situation. 90 days sticks out to me as the furthest one can be retro-added.

Obviously, this is all subject to your state and federal laws, it’s been a few years since I was on that side of things, and I’m sure the laws have changed a bit. His lawyer would know best at this point.

15

Well, he can always use the lawyer to sue for wrongful dismissal even in an at will state. :smiley:

More seriously, I would think that making copies of all the paperwork (including the e-mails, the mail receipts, and the functional acknowledgements for any faxes he was smart enough to keep) and sending them to the chief of HR (and maybe the company president or divisional VP if the political climate permits) should be enough to get this resolved without even mentionaing lawyers.