Just a quick update, today I finally received an email apologising for the stuff up and the lack of communication from either payroll or HR.
Bit strange though…the person who emailed me (one of the HR team) mentioned that my initial email had been ‘filed’ and she had only just come across it today. :dubious:
Secondly, she mentioned that she was away the day of the debacle, and that the Big Boss had instructed the payroll team specifically not to alert the employees about the delay. :dubious: She acknowledged her disappointment in management’s behaviour, and assured me that while she works there, it will NEVER happen again.
I really hope she doesn’t catch any flack from the higher-ups for this, but it was decent of her to explain and apologise on behalf of the company.
You don’t even have to be someone who doesn’t earn enough to save anything. If you’ve had extra expenses that month and have bills automatically paid from that account, timing issues in the pay being delayed could result in being overdrawn. Yes, some banks have a deal where they’ll automatically pull out of your savings account to prevent an overdraft, but this service may not be free or your savings account may not be at that bank.
Your approach to your HR was wrong, because you were not actually seeking any sort of remedy.
Sure they can promise to do things better, sure they can say we will inform you earlier, but these word actually mean little, and sorry does not pay anything at all.
So what should you have done? Had it been me, I would have demonstrated that I had suffered some sort of detriment, and evidenced it. Once you have a detriment, you are then in a position to seek remedy.
So what is the most likely detriment - seems obvious to me, if you happen to incur costs from your bank due to insufficient funds, and you can prove that you would not have incurred such costs if the payment had been on time, then you are in a position to submit a complaint or grievance for the amount of additional costs that late payment has caused.
You can dress up the tone of your complaint as you like, but it is far more useful to make it very formal and non-accusatory.
'Dear Sir/madam, on xxxx of xxx there was an unfortunate delay in payment of salaries.
As a direct result of this, my personal account was overdrawn and this resulted in the following bank charges - see statement attached - I therefore wish to make a claim for the event which caused unplanned costs.
Additionally, this problem was known in advance of the date, had employees been notified in reasonable time, arrangements could have been made to ensure such costs were not incurred.’
It sounds like you are trying to tell them how to run their business. That never ends well for either side. You have logic and common sense on your side. That and some cash will get you a cup of coffee if you are in to that sort of thing.
Treat others as they treat you. If you don’t like the treatment, find others.
I had a friend who endured similar treatment from their company for years. One Friday he walked in and mentioned to his boss that he was retiring at the end of the day and would not be in on Monday. Among other psychic benefits he skipped out on a retirement lunch. Lucky him. And you know what? The company was OK with it. They treated their employees that way and apparently accepted that they would receive the same treatment. There were no repercussions that he was aware of. His retirement funds were all 401K and not under the control of the company. He filled out the forms they sent him over the next few weeks. Done.