with Britt Reints
Forget the 9 to 5; Full Time, All the Time is a blog about the mobile working life - when you have the freedom to work from anywhere and the responsibility of always having your smartphone turned on. Britt Reints works as a freelance writer while traveling fulltime in an RV with her husband and two kids. She explores balancing real-life bills with an unconventional work life, and finding time to maintain relationships with family and friends.
You can also find Britt at InPursuitOfHappiness.net.
|
I am constantly amazed at what little respect employers and co-workers have for other people’s paychecks.
A morning phone call with my husband reminded me of how frequently this problem comes up in the workplace. He is a subcontractor and bills for his work on a daily basis. The person in charge of processing that billing is consistently dismissive about any problems that come up.
“Oh, it will probably be fine.”
“If there’s a problem, we’ll just resubmit the invoice and you’ll get paid for it next time.”
“What’s the big deal? It will get taken care of eventually.”
Statements like this make my normally mild mannered husband fume, and understandably so. After all, the reason he shows up to work every day is to get paid. It’s kind of a big deal in our household. And while his monthly bills aren’t his co-worker’s concern, presumably she has personal experience with the expectation of being paid properly and on time.
I’ve had encounters with this lackadaisical attitude about my own paychecks in the past. I’ve been treated like a pain for double-checking commission invoices or inquiring about a check that hasn’t shown up in the mail. I’ve been assured that errors would be addressed in the next pay period, without so much as an apology or acknowledgment that this was a big deal. And while I’ve been fortunate that those incidents rarely have caused a problem in my personal finances, the attitude still ticks me off on principle.
As a professional writer, I have several bosses and people responsible for making sure my paychecks get to me on time and in the proper amounts. I’m fortunate that nearly every client I have right now does an exceptional job of handling payment - and that’s no accident. I am more likely to continue a relationship with someone who treats my income with respect. I’m also more likely to say yes to extra work and professional favors because being payed on time is a sign that my work is valued.
Don’t mess with my money.
Why is this not a simple concept that every business, employer and fellow employee understands?
In my office I’m the person everyone comes to with their payroll problems, even though our payroll is processed by Corporate in another state. I take these issues very seriously because I know how it feels to have your paycheck screwed up. My husband took a paycut equal to 1/3 of his salary this year to get away from a boss who bounced several paychecks and then put us through months of “I can’t pay you right now, but will *soon*” The income adjustment has been difficult but it’s much better than not getting paid at all at Christmas, which actually happened.
Lisa | January 19th, 2011 at 12:37 pm
It’s beyond frustrating. I run a home daycare so my paychecks are solely dependent on payment from a number of different people. I can’t tell you how many times parents have come in sighing about not having enough money and how hard it is for them, only to transfer that burden to me when they choose to put off paying me. Since when did paying your daycare provider become optional? And now *I* have to figure out how *our* bills are going to get paid. Nice.
Furthermore, when I “put you on a payment plan” like you ask…do NOT show up the next week with a brand new pair of boots to show off. I am totally with you on the lack of respect (and concern) when it comes to properly paying what you are due.
Mama Kat | January 19th, 2011 at 2:35 pm
I’ve always received my paycheck, with the amount I was expecting. What has happened to me is that my payment for my COBRA insurance was “lost” by my former employer and the only way I found out is noticing through my bank statement that the check for the next month was cashed but never the one for the month before. When I inquired I was told someone lost some checks, and mine must be one of them, that I should go ahead and just cancel that check. It’s $25 for me to cancel a check. I mentioned this and was told “huh, oh well, that sucks” in different words than those. So I emailed back “who lost my check? I want to speak to that person.” In the end I was permitted to cancel the check on my dime but then pay $25 less for my next check to pay for my benefits.
$25 of my money for something I didn’t do when I’m *unemployed* through no fault of my own is actually kind of a big deal. And there were no guarantees that this wasn’t going to happen again. And there were no guarantees that their loss of my check wouldn’t result in me losing my benefits for “not paying on time”.
I appreciate that people who handle money have a lot of money sources to pay attention to, but there are people behind all of those money sources. People who don’t necessarily have thousands of dollars to play with at any given moment depending on their situation.
Sometimes we forget the people affected by our actions. And that sucks.
Poppy | January 19th, 2011 at 4:47 pm
It might have been my first day in my first “permanent” job when my predecessor, who was training me, said: “Whatever you do, always prioritize payroll issues. There is nothing that makes people more angry than having their paycheck screwed up.” It made sense to me, so I was always very careful about such things.
In my next job, the owners were screwy and they would write checks (for unbudgeted personal stuff) without bothering to inform or check with me (the controller). Once they did this and caused an insufficient funds issue, which caused a couple of employees to have to pay $5 for their checks to be redeposited, and we reimbursed the $5 immediately. But the employees nevertheless complained to my boss. Of course the boss acted like it was all my fault. (I was happily leaving the company at that point anyway.)
So yes, it bears repeating that payroll, commissions, etc. have to be prioritized in a business. If you can’t pay your people, you won’t be in business long anyway.
SKL | January 20th, 2011 at 12:40 am
want to know about usage of money
newnaze | January 21st, 2011 at 10:44 am
At my first job my paychecks used to regularly bounce. I worked for a mom and pop hotel management company. Money was always tight so instead of having the entire payroll amount ready they’d play this transfer game that was fine when it worked but often resulted in bounced checks. Of course, they would pay all fees, no problem. But it wasn’t their rent check bouncing. And the were so cavalier about it. Fortunately this was in the days before all the electronic tracking of checks. But one local bank had a practice of going back and bouncing checks they had already approved. So I’d think I was safe and a week later my paycheck would bounce.
I ended up saving enough to get one paycheck ahead so my paycheck could go into savings and my savings account made regular deposits to my checking account. And I left that job fairly soon after.
Jenn | January 24th, 2011 at 9:56 am
My husband is a freelancer, and as of this moment, we’ve been waiting 90 days for one of his invoices to be paid. Because the company “only pays on a net 90 schedule.” Well, bully for you.But I bet they get their paycheck every two weeks like clockwork. Not every 3 months.
What people in staff jobs sometimes forget is that freelancers/contractors/small businesses rely on that invoice being paid the same way THEY depend on their paychecks. If businesses would understand this, my husband and I wouldn’t have to balance quite so much.
Ginger | January 26th, 2011 at 8:07 pm