2009-09-11
9/11/09
Apparently the motto for the new school year is "Make the Payroll deparment look like a couple of bumbling idiots."
Example #1
Our salaried school year employees are paid to attend workshops the two days prior to school beginning. Their salary agreement states it very clearly. The agreement also states that if they DO NOT attend the workshops, they are required to use vacation hours to make up the time.
When I received the salaried timesheets, I was amazed (and extremely frustrated) by the amount of employees who did not attend the workshops. I mentioned last week that I had to correct these timesheets and send copies of the corrections to the employees.
Yeah. One of the principals took it upon herself to tell HER employees NOT to attend the workshops in order to help with the budget cuts. This might have been a good idea if she'd checked with Admin and....I don't know...informed Payroll.
We've received non-stop phone calls from these employees. I don't blame them for being angry. I would be too. The principal is back pedalling as fast as she can.
We need to begin inputting this payroll today. When I left yesterday, the issue was still not resolved. The principal is trying to schedule workshops they can attend on a couple of Saturdays to make up the time. The employees are just all kinds of unhappy about the entire thing. Payroll is pretty unhappy about it too.
Example #2
The people who coach fall sports are paid their stipends in 2 installments. They get 1/2 in September and the other 1/2 whenever their season ends. Many of these coaches have been coaching their sport for YEARS. They have ALWAYS received their first 1/2 stipend on September 10th.
Last week, the district clerk and superintendant came to our office and told us that the coaches had not been approved by the school board yet. They would not be approved until the September 15th meeting. Hence, no coach payday on the 10th.
Our system doesn't let us choose to do a payroll whenever. It's set up to do one on the 10th and another on the 20th. So, we had to go ahead and run the coach pay with the 10th payroll. But, if they were signed up for direct deposit, we had to take the OFF direct deposit and print checks instead. We'll hold those checks until the morning of the 16th.
It's all good, right?
Uh, not so much. You see, no one felt it was necessary to tell any of the coaches about the change.
Non-stop phone calls began at 8am. We explained the situation over and over again.
THEN, the superintendant came to our office after lunch and said he'd just realized that the high school coaches HAD been approved. We could give them their checks. Yeah...
Luckily, the HS vice principal was at Admin when this happened, so he delivered the checks for us. I'm sure the coaches think we're completely incompetent.
However, life IS good.
Example #1
Today is Friday. Today is also Jean's Day.
Example #2
Bill and I got a gift card to a REALLY nice restaurant in Big City. Free meals ROCK.
Example #3
We ordered Shelby's senior photos last night. That was a HUGE thing on my "to do list." I do think it's a bit sadistic to show a mother 72 fantastic photos of her child and make her narrow it down to 5. Obviously, I wanted one of everything. My checkbook made sure that that wasn't an option.
Example #4
It's Friday. I may have mentioned that already.