The great paycheck debacle (AKA your paychek will be LATE this week!)

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

A few summers ago I worked (very briefly) for a telemarketing company. I took the job because I needed the money but quit after a few months because I found something better.

At this job we got paid every second Friday. On my third payday I logged into my bank account and saw my check hadn't been deposited...hmmm....

Slightly peeved, I go to work to shockingly find that NO ONE got their paycheck! Not the managers, not the supervisors, not any of the agents, no one. So the call center manager called a meeting and told us the problem was with the company who processes payroll and they are trying to get it fixed as soon as possible.

By the end of the day Friday, we still had no paychecks and most of us were pretty irritated by now (as a general rule, fucking with people's paychecks in any way is NOT a good idea!).

Saturday and Sunday go by and still no paychecks. We go in on monday and the manager has another meeting and gives us several reasons why we still don't have our money:

1) Certain people at our corporate level were off on the weekend
2) Certain people at the payroll company were off on the weekend
3) They still haven't determined why the checks were not deposited in the first place.

At this point people are seriously pissed. Several of them have already had their accounts overdrafted due to payments that were scheduled to come out after payday. Others, while not overdrafted, are still unable to buy food or other necessities because they have not been paid. Our manager told us the company would take care of the overdrafts if we filled out the proper forms (yay, more paperwork we have to do because of a fuck up that wasn't our fault!).

By Tuesday we STILL didn't have checks and even our manager was seriously pissed by this point. He was on the phone practically all day with various people trying to get the problem fixed.

A small group of employees had decided they weren't going to work another minute for the company until they got their checks and were either hanging around outside or in the break room. Practically everyone in the place was in a foul mood, it was not a fun place to be.

FINALLY, on Wednesday, the checks were deposited.

But it didn't end there:

- The company said they would write-up all the employees who refused to work until they were paid, this didn't go over well.

- I was told by a coworker of mine who was still there after I left that it took a handful of employees MONTHS to get the overdrafts credited back to them.

- There was talk of a lawsuit against the company by employees because of this whole debacle.

I got all the money I was owed and so didn't need to bother with any lawsuit.

But man, what a mess.

I suppose that's what I get for working for a company as shady as that one was.

[Dave1982]

A small group of employees had decided they weren't going to work another minute for the company until they got their checks and were either hanging around outside or in the break room.

- The company said they would write-up all the employees who refused to work until they were paid, this didn't go over well.

If you ask me......that is complete and utter horse puckey. I work/you pay me is the most fundamental aspect of ANY job. Therefore You don't pay me = I don't work is ENTIRELY reasonable. Writing someone up for that would almost certainly result in MORE trouble for the company if anyone notified the labor board or brought it up during the lawsuit you mentioned.

Glad you don't work for such a craptacular company more.

[HeatherWolf]

I've worked for a few companies who were weird about giving you your paycheck for some reason. As if they expected you to work for free.

[Dreamstalker]

One of my bosses did a few weird things with paychecks; once or twice I was actually told "don't cash or deposit this until [week or so in the future], there's not enough money in the account." (I thought it's illegal to issue checks you know you can't honor). One time everyone's checks bounced, he promised to reissue them as well as pay any overdraft fees people incurred. The reissue happened eventually (although it took some whining), but nobody's fees were paid.

I was also once accused of padding my hours when I stayed clocked-in until all closing stuff was finished.

[Dave1982]

I was also once accused of padding my hours when I stayed clocked-in until all closing stuff was finished.

If you were dilly-dallying then I'd understand the complaint, but otherwise....hell no! You get paid for time worked. If he doesn't want to pay you for closing duties, then just leave once the last customer does!

[Ghel]

Let me throw a monkey wrench into this discussion. At the bank, we have a business customer (whose loan I complained about in another thread) who has a checking account with us. She used to have 3 accounts - business, payroll, and personal - but they were all overdrawn constantly, so we closed 2. The remaining one is still overdrawn a lot, but now we can easily see how much money she has and return checks as needed.

The problem, as we were informed by our attorney, is that many of the checks causing her account to be overdrawn were payroll checks. If we, being the nice folks that we are, allow the account to be overdrawn (by cashing paychecks when there aren't funds available) and the business customer doesn't pay the money to the IRS or state that she withheld from the paychecks, then the bank could be liable for that money.

I don't know if this was part of the issue in either of the cases you guys mentioned, but it's something that we, as a bank, have to be aware of.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I think the logic with the write up was the company felt the employees WERE being paid for their time even though they were having difficulty getting the checks issued and therefore had no reason to abandon their work.

But I agree with what they did.

[Dave1982]

Perhaps....but that logic is tenuous at best.

[Victory Sabre]

Earlier this year, one of the partners (who did the payroll) was in the end stages of terminal cancer. He only had days to live, and was in really rough shape. In spite of that he still got the payroll checks out. Now if someone who has terminal cancer can do that, than those idiots, described in the story, can do it too.

He died 4 days after the payday, and even after that we've gotten the checks out on time.

[Dreamstalker]

If we, being the nice folks that we are, allow the account to be overdrawn (by cashing paychecks when there aren't funds available) and the business customer doesn't pay the money to the IRS or state that she withheld from the paychecks, then the bank could be liable for that money.

That could have been a factor in my case; I happened to come aboard the store at a time of fairly serious financial problems (...if your cashflow problem is so bad why was I even hired?). I did learn that he was in the hole to both entities.

Why issue the checks if you don't want people to cash them?

[Hyndis]

Why issue the checks if you don't want people to cash them?

Because they have to.

If they don't pay their workers they will almost instantly be closing the store due to all the employees abandoning the company to jobs that actually pay them real money.

[LadyAndreca]

My husband had a paycheck bounce once, but his boss (the company owner) was awesome about it...he paid the employees whose checks bounced out of his own savings account, then spent the week on the phone tracking down the problem.

Turned out that one of the contractors that owed his company a large sum of money had written them a bad check, which bounced, so there wasn't enough in the payroll account to cover payroll. According to my husband, this is a normal tactic with contractors that want more time to pay off a bill...just this time, with how much trouble they've been having getting contractors to pay them at all (they've had to sue a few), it affected payroll.

[Primer]

When I worked for the animal hospital, we were paid on Saturday morning. First paycheck, I waited till Monday to deposit the check at my bank. It bounced. My bank would not allow me to cash their checks any more. I could deposit it, and have a 2 week hold put on it, but not cash it. To heck with that! That was MY money, and I needed it! I quickly learned to get to work early on Saturday, and walk it next door to the clinic's bank to cash it immediately! (They had Sat morning lobby hours.)

That was also the job where I got used to carrying large amounts of cash in small bills, as *I* would be the only source of change orders most nights and weekends. Thank goodness I never had any trouble! These days, I don't carry much, but it's still all in small bills.

[Javarod]

Laughs, "One of the papers i worked for called me up one day (i was the delivery and placement staff, and had been asked repeatedly to take on ad sales as well), and told me that there wouldn't be a paper this week as he couldn't afford the printing costs and repairing his car. Considering the paper and his car, i kinda knew that this was coming, although it happened more suddenly than i expected. As to bouncing paychecks, i had that once with a vending company, and it led to my hatred of Bank of America."