Incompetence exemplified - am I THIS unimportant?

[Lexophile]

OK - so I had a conversation with our general manager almost two weeks ago about my new responsibilities and the necessity to compensate me fairly for my new job. He agreed that my taking on more duties meant that the company needed to examine my salary and adjust it accordingly. He said he would follow up with me on the following Wednesday. That was last Wednesday. He has been completely unavailable and hasn't answered a single email of mine asking him for another meeting. Today I sent him an actual meeting request. If he doesn't answer it by 3 p.m., I will physically track him down.

His assistant, we'll call her Tammy, was supposed to change my pay code last February when I moved to the new office from the old office. Old office is in a city that taxes anyone who works there. Turns out, Tammy didn't do it in February, but in July, when everyone else form old office came over to new office. So when I got my W-2 in the mail, it was incorrect. Not only did the mistake allow the old office to deduct taxes from my paycheck when I wasn't even working there, but the gross pay they used to calculate those taxes adds up to seven months of pay, not the actual two. Long story short, I have an incorrect W-2.

I went to payroll and asked one of the staff up there, I'll call her Tanya, what I needed to do to get it corrected. SHe told me it was only $14 they took out of my paycheck for taxes, so I shouldn't stress over it. I said, "Well, my W-2 is still incorrect. If anyone finds out that I moved over here in February and not July, that gross pay calculation does not add up to two months of pay. That can cause some serious problems for me."  She then gave me some lazy song and dance about how I should get a tax advisor and just tell them that I moved over in February and not July. That should clear things up.

Um, no, THat doesn't prove anything. So I went back to assistant General Manager and explained the problem (half because I didn't know where else to turn and half because Tammy is his assistant and he needed to know about her mistake). He said something about trying to back out and submitting a revised personnel action form and maybe they can issue a new W-2 from that, blahblahblah. I watched him write it down and say it would be the first thing he checked on the following day. So I never heard back from him, and sent him and email asking what he found out. No reply.

So this morning, first thing, I emailed the head of the payroll group, explaining the situation and asking what I need to do because I need to get rolling on my tax returns and I have an incorrect W-2. It is now noon and still no response. What do I do now? Am I THAT unimportant that nobody wants to return ANY of my emails or phone calls? What the heck is going on here?

[Lisbeth]

Apparently, everyone except Maggie thinks you are that unimportant.

I'd involve Maggie in your discussions with the payroll department on up the ladder.  Make it clear that they have to issue you a corrected W-2 (take it from a professional tax person that Tanya's advice is crap).

[NOVA Lady]

Ugh sorry! The only thing I can say from someone who is payroll (well I am the accountant and I do the payroll) that this time of the year can get pretty burdensome.

However, being busy is no excuse for being lazy and that really seems to be the case here. No one wants to help solve your problem most likely because its going to have a long and complicated fix and they don't want to bother. I have had days myself where someone has asked me for something and I just sign inward at the amount of work involved.

That being said, what does Tammy have to say for herself? Thats a pretty big mistake!

[Lexophile]

Thank you! The sinister part of all of this is that everyone is tiptoeing around the fact that Tammy never made the change in the first place. Nobody has called her out for that.

I understand that it might be a PITA to go back and fix it, but it was the company's mistake, shouldn't the company be responsible for repairing the damage? ANY kind of a response would be more acceptable than outright ignoring me!

BTW - I have cc'd Maggie on everything. As my supervisor, she needs to know what's going on.

[behindbj]

I remember asking someone to correct their mistake.  After she was done rambling on about why it would be so difficult and it's really not a big deal and can't you just explain it in the meeting, I asked her if she realized that the amount of time she just spent trying to wheedle her way out of actual work took more time than the actual work. 

I also told her that she has now wasted my time, made herself look bad and STILL had to make the correction.  Talked to her boss (because she complained, naturally).  He agreed with me.

I never had a problem with her again.  I call people like this "willing to walk 5 miles out of their way to avoid chopping wood for 20 minutes."  I remember that as the moral to some story I heard in my youth. 

behindbj

[Slartibartfast]

I had a part-time job in college where I started working there in November, and I got my one and only actual paycheck THE FOLLOWING MAY.  As in, a year and a half later.  And that was only because they fired the original secretary (I wasn't the only one she did this to), went over the new secretary's head with my boss physically standing over her and the department head, and made them lump the year and a half pay all together in one big check with a little extra to cover the fact that they kept NOT PAYING ME.

I really should have stood up for myself sooner, but I LOVED my job and my boss, and I was doing it for the job experience more than the paycheck anyway.  Still, there is something so frustrating when you are a college student and the "real" staff don't think you're worth a minute of their time.

[Lexophile]

Well, I finally roped General Manager into giving me SOME information, but he took a bullet for his incompetent assistant. He and I walked to Tammy's desk and asked her for her copy of the personnel action form. He was saying all the way there how great and organized she was. He asked her for it, and she said, "Sure!" and turned to one of her desk drawers. She pulled out a handful of routing envelopes and started opening them one by one and saying, "I know it was here somewhere ..." it took her a good fifteen minutes of us standing there waiting before she finally found the one that contained mine. She pulled it out, and pointed out that SHE didn't fill in the location code field - so she admitted that it was her mistake. GM walked upsatirs with me to talk to Tanya (lazy payroll lady), who was suddenly all smiles and help, and said that it was his fault. So Tammy made this huge mistake that could have caused a problem with my tax return, and GM said it was him and she didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist? Normally, I wouldn't make such a big deal about such things, I mean, he did take time out to walk me upstairs and handle it, but she is constantly forgetting to do things and making this kind of mistake. What else of mine has she messed up?

[Lisbeth]

Lesson learned: Go around Tammy in the future.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Redleo12, just out of curiosity, did you not notice the lack of change in taxes in your check back in February?  I understand the problem with corporate accounting departments though, my own corporate department is TERRIBLE at things like this - though I recognize that not all are bad!  I'm talking, one woman was charged for a full year of health insurance premiums for her dependent because the clerk 'forgot' to add her dependent in the previous year.  Also people have missed entire paychecks (paycheck-to-paycheck people, as they let us know too!) due to errors in our corporate payroll department...

sigh..

[artk2002]

So Tammy made this huge mistake that could have caused a problem with my tax return, and GM said it was him and she didn't get so much as a slap on the wrist?

I wouldn't be certain of that.  I'd be more upset if he disciplined her in your presence (we've had a thread on that topic before.)  Be glad that the GM got the problem solved and be profuse in your thanks.  And double- (and triple-) check everything that passes through Tammy!

[Lexophile]

Rdge -

I noticed that the pay code had not been changed because all of my expense checks were still going to the other office. When ia sked Tammy about it, she said she had changed the code and didn't know why payroll was sending them there. Back then, she was actually my supervisor (I'd rather not think about THAT dark time), so I could not question her too closely or she would get offended.

[ShadesOfGrey]

Rdge -

I noticed that the pay code had not been changed because all of my expense checks were still going to the other office. When ia sked Tammy about it, she said she had changed the code and didn't know why payroll was sending them there. Back then, she was actually my supervisor (I'd rather not think about THAT dark time), so I could not question her too closely or she would get offended.

Well, it must have been terrible to feel that you couldnt question a manager over an obvious mistake.  What about in your paycheck though-wouldn't taxes have been taken incorrectly out of that too? Wouldnt that have proven to her that she actually made a mistake and let you off the hook a bit for 'offending' her (and hopefully her supervisor would have listened at that point too!)?

[Lexophile]

ARRRGGHHH!

I made an appointment on Wednesday with the GM for this afternoon, and he had Tammy call to ask me if we could move it to 10 this morning. I accepted. So I walked down the hall to use the bathroom before going in to see him, and I pass a conference room where he is deep in discussion with two other people. I went to Tammy's desk and joked, "I'm beginning to think he doesn't like me!" She turned around and said, "You know, he asked me to get that conference room for him this morning from 10 to 10:30 and I remembered that he had something this morning."

Um, so, why didn't she say anything? I asked if he was going to be available at 10:30. She said, "Well, he asked for the conference room only until 10:30, so, yes. He should be available." Stood there and looked at me. "So, could you please put me on his schedule for 10:30, then?"

The look she gave me clearly said she didn't have time for my request. But she pulled up his Outlook schedule. "Oh." she said. "It looks like I never accepted the meeting request in the first place." So she accepted the meeting request and never schedule dme for 10:30. How do these people stay in a job? I have to go ambush him now instead of being there with a pre-appointed time.