Today was supposed to be payday. When I arrived at work this morning, I found the following email message from our accounting department in my in-basket:

If you aren't already aware, we upgraded our accounting system this week in order to be Y2k compliant and to get the latest enhancements to the system. Well, with all upgrades there seems to be some glitches. And of course we had some. One of them was the check printing alignment got real confused. The programmers in New York are working on it and we will print checks as soon as they get it fixed. Probably this afternoon. I will send another email when we have them printed.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

The irony of this situation is that a little more than a year ago, I made a post to this forum that suggested this very situation might occur and stated what my reaction would be.

First, let me say that I do not consider this a big problem at the moment. Because I had anticipated and was prepared for it, it is merely a minor inconvenience. I like my job and my employer and intend to cooperate with them in this situation for as long as possible. The company I work for is making money and there is no reason to suspect that this situation will not be quickly resolved.

Over the past year, I have suspected that such inconveniences were likely. As I stated, I do believe that this will be corrected in short order but am also prepared at this time to go several weeks without a check if need be.

So, in a very small way, my preparations have already 'paid off' (pun intended). I think it is important to keep in mind as we move into the year 2000 that we should not over-react to incidents of this type. A few hours without a paycheck is totally insignificant - and that is what this incident is shaping up as right now.

A few days without a check is a minor inconvenience. A few weeks would be a bit tougher - but it is something that I am prepared for. Anything longer than a few weeks would cause trouble but I feel that I am prepared to help my employer by simply being patient while this issue is resolved. I will post again when this has been resolved - most likely, later today.

If this is as bad as it gets, I will be one happy camper. Regards.

PS: Critt: Excellent job on your informative post (BITR, TEOTWAWKI, and Middle Ground).

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), October 29, 1999

Answers

Arnie,

Don't feel all alone...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/102999_paymess29_19.htm lIN K

Orange school raises on way

Mike Berry of The Sentinel Staff

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on October 29, 1999.

Orange County school district employees will get back pay from summer raises a little earlier than anticipated.

That's about the only good news they have received since a new computer system that went into effect in July created a nightmare of snafus.

School district officials originally said they would not be able to hand out the back pay until mid-December, much to the dismay of employees and School Board members. That's because they wanted to sort out other payroll problems first, such as employees who were underpaid.

But spokesman Joe Mittiga said Thursday that the district has worked out a new schedule that calls for giving teachers back pay on Nov. 24 or Dec. 1, depending on their status. Other employees will get the back pay on Dec. 8 or Dec. 15, depending on their status.

The latest payroll this week went fairly smoothly, with only isolated problems, Mittiga said.

"By and large, it was a good payroll for us."

The biggest problem in recent weeks has been paying new or transferred employees and substitute teachers correctly.

Some teachers have reported having a difficult time lining up substitute teachers because of frustration about incorrect pay. They said they had to fill in for each other, using up planning time.

Another big issue has been pay stubs. Under the new computer system, employees complained they could not figure out how much money they were owed.

Improved pay stubs with more detailed information will be distributed Nov. 24 for teachers and Nov. 17 for other employees, said Superintendent Dennis Smith.

There have been other pay issues as well.

In a memo to School Board members last week, Smith said he cannot not figure out why employees were reporting that pay deducted for tax-sheltered annuities was not passed along to annuity companies.

"All payments, except for one small group during Hurricane Floyd, have gone in on time," he said in the memo.

[Posted 10/28/1999 10:15 PM EST]

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 29, 1999.

Another experience with a payroll problem. Only some of us got paid today. Direct deposit for some strange reason decided not to deposit. They're working on it and assure us it is a real easy fix. I think I'll wait to Monday to see if it really is. As you can see from my e-mail address, I do not work for a small business.

-- Jon Liles (lilesj@squared.com), October 29, 1999.