Why is it so hard to remember to pay me?

The BBQ Pit
1

I have a side job doing some technical writing for a colleague’s grant project. It’s not a ton of money, but it has certainly been welcome in a year when the consulting business (my regular job) has been going less than stellar.

Normally, I keep track of my hours and send an email, once every couple of weeks, to the department administrator who handles the research group’s finances. In fact, when I submit my hours, it’s in response to a reminder email that the admin sends, high priority, to each of the six or so people who get paid the same way that I do. So tell me -

How damn hard is it to remember to submit someone’s hours to payroll when that is part of your job?

I have no idea what happened around the beginning of July, but ever since then, I’m lucky if I get paid every third pay period. There’s always some excuse… “sorry, I just forgot… I tried to submit hours from home but the secure connection to payroll didn’t work… payroll switched the submission deadline and I missed it…” For some unspecified reason, he missed getting my hours in for the last pay period, so when I sent in my hours this past Monday I said I hoped there would be no more problems. Today I got this email:

YOU’RE jinxed?!? So, IF there isn’t another screw-up, I might finally get paid in mid-November for hours I worked in early October. Super. :mad:

I do eventually get the money owed me, but at this point it’s the principle of the thing. Plus I was really hoping to use the extra cash to take care of some large-ticket, (currently) non-emergency maintenance on my car before winter settles in, and my work sched combined with the holidays is going to make it hard to schedule after mid-November.

Damn. Just … damn.

2

That sucks. You might want to send an email stating that you’re going to need your money in the immediately following pay period. It doesn’t have to be a nasty email…just mention that there is work you need to have done on your car.

It wouldn’t be impolite to send another email the following day asking if it’s been submitted to payroll.

Some people are just legitimately forgetful, and need to be given a gentle push…

3

Man, that just sucks. I’ve had that happen to me. What’s worse, is that when it does happen, I don’t receive a separate check for the back pay. They tack it on my current paycheck, which of course means Uncle Sam receives a bigger bite from it for taxes. :mad:

4

Well, I work at a university. And sometimes I do payroll. And sometimes contracts don’t get properly renewed by Faculty so technicians don’t get paid in a timely fashion.

When this happens, I phone Financial Services, explain the situation, and ask for a manual cheque. They can usually issue it in about 24 hours. Then the dumb-ass Faculty person who screwed up gets fined.

I think now is about the time that you start freaking out a bit more at your administrator. It’s your money. You’re losing interest because of his incompetence. I would be demanding a manual cheque in a big hurry.

Additionally, I’d be speaking to the supervisor of the dumb-ass. Once is an honest mistake. Three times is (expensive for you) incompetence.