From the Institute

     Today's post would be categorized as a had a bad day story. Everyone has these from time to time, and when they happen, you want to document every frustrating detail so you can tell the story for purposes of sympathy, but you end up just taking all the laughs you can get out of it. This incident happened in 1981 – and I wrote it all out. People ask when I became interested in personal storytelling – I guess I always have been – it is just within the last twenty years or so that there have been more outlets provided for the urges to tell – especially the had a bad day stories.

        January 22, 1981 – day one into a brand new pay period. My husband worked his last day at the medical library at Roswell Park Memorial Institute. He had just received a fellowship through the education department to pursue his studies in immunology and thus resigned his position at the library. I too work at RPMI as a research assistant in the immunology department and have been employed there for over three years.

         February 10, 1981 – a check from RPMI arrived in the mail. Hubby thought it was his vacation pay for the library, but when he opened the envelope, he found a check for much more money than what his unused vacation pay would have amounted to – it was only a part-time job! Upon further inspection of the check, it was made out to me! It was my severance pay with all of my accumulated vacation time reduced to zero hours on the stub!

         February 11, 1981 – I meekly approached my boss and asked if I had been let go. He said no and assured me that if he were to fire me he would first let me have the chance to say all the nasty things I would love to say to him. So it was official - my severance pay was a mix-up due to the Hubs leaving his job at the library. To straighten it all out, we had to then begin the arduous task of shuffling between payroll and personnel.

       Door #1 – Payroll. We explained the situation to the woman at the window. She said she thought that there had been a mix-up, but she put the check through anyway! Then we found out, because that day was payday, my currant paycheck totaled an amount for what I would clear for one day's work! Hubby had worked at the library one day in this pay period; his wife worked two weeks – and she got paid for one day and I guess worked nine days for free!

        Door #2 – Personnel 1 – after hearing our whole story, we were shuffled into the next room.

        Door #3 – Personnel 2 – in this room were three women who sat at desks and stared accusingly at each other as my husband and I told our story. There was a fourth woman who sat off in another room within hearing distance who ducked behind a stack of insurance forms so as not to be seen. After hearing our whole story, the woman with the most insolent glare asked us our name and then proceeded with the following monologue:

        “I took care of this termination, and I know it wasn't my mistake. You better go back to payroll and get it taken care of. It's Mary's mistake. I know it.”

         With that she was expecting us to leave the room. But we did not budge. She got out of her chair and walked over to a file cabinet.

         “I know it is not my mistake.” And she walked to another file cabinet.

         “It was Mary in payroll.” She pulled out two files, opened one, went to her desk, sat down, picked up the phone, and before she dialed, she said,

         “Okay, so it was my mistake.”

         She had sent my employee number over to payroll instead of my husband's. It was official. I had been terminated! All those days I had worked since January 22^nd? According to RPMI, I had not been there.

         Then there were two of the women on the phones. I would be reinstated as of January 23^rd. Hubs would be sent his severance check.

         Was there something else that needed to be taken care of?

         Well, how about taking back my severance check and returning to me all my vacation hours?

         More glares. Was I crazy? Give back a check?

        They called payroll.

         Yes, payroll can take back the severance check.

        Was there something else?

        How about the rest of my current paycheck?

        Oh dear, that was going to be a problem. In order to give me any money, RPMI, from what I could understand, would have to take out a loan. This was a big deal. They would have to go over Mary's head to ask for a “loaner” check.

        Perhaps this is why I work in a lab and not with money. I could not comprehend how I could return a check and at the same time could not be given a check for one third of the amount of money of the returned check without them taking out a special loan to do it. The rest of the day I asked people I passed if 3X was bigger than 1X – and they all said yes it was.

         Door #4 – personnel – the final word came down that I was to return my severance check to Mary at payroll and then ask for a man named Fred who would give me the rest of my current paycheck.

        Door #1 – payroll – Mary accepted the return of my severance check. And then we asked for Fred. But Fred was not in. We returned to our respective labs.

        Back at work, I got a call to phone Sandy in payroll. I called and left a message. She did not call back. The next day, Thursday, was a State holiday, and the next Monday was a holiday too. I did not even try to call her back again until the next Wednesday. Sandy was still not in. Another woman familiar with our story, however, told me the loaner check was at payroll, and I should call Mary.

        Mary said she could only give out checks every other week, and this was the in-between week. I asked if there would be two checks waiting for the me next week, and she replied that I would be paid the next week. I was not appreciating her attitude.

        At this point the secretaries in the immunology department were feeling for my frustrations and offered to take over trying to get my check from payroll.

        February 19, 1981 – Thursday – one of the immunology secretaries, Janet, walked over to payroll and asked Mary for my loaner check. Mary told her that there was no such check, and she said I had understood that from our phone conversations! Janet was not appreciating Mary's attitude.

        Another secretary, Cheryl, called the ever elusive Sandy and actually got to talk to her! Sandy said she would call back. But she did not. Cheryl called again at 3:00. Sandy was gone, and would not be back until the next Monday! It was Thursday afternoon and Sandy would be gone until Monday, and they were begrudging me my paycheck?

        Cheryl then called Fred.

        He too, was gone for the day.

        February 20, 1981 – Friday – Cheryl called and actually talked to Fred. He said he was more than familiar with our affair. Fred swore that he told Mary to put my loaner check through the computer the week before. But. He did not tell her to do it “as soon as possible.” As a result, the check had not been put through yet! Fred said he would tell Mary to do it immediately, and I should have my check by Monday.....or Tuesday. Neither Cheryl nor Janet believed any of Fred's excuses, but they did think that I would have my paycheck by.....Wednesday at the latest.

         At this point in time, my paycheck is still in limbo. I am anxious to see my vacation time returned. Lord only knows if I am still covered by health insurance while all this is getting straightened out. The effort it would take to find out if I have health insurance would probably make me ill and I'll have even more troubles trying to collect. I'll be patient, but until things are certain again, like receiving regular paychecks with familiar info on the stubs, I'm wondering if I should have taken my boss's advice when I showed him the severance check, “Hey! Take the money and run!” or Cheryl's sage words, “Denise you should have kept your maiden name.”

        Written in February 1981, edited in January 2009 and again today. From what I can recall, everything did get straightened out eventually.

309 20151105 From the Institute