Wednesday, October 27, 2010

I said I wasn't going to blog about this, but I'm still irritated this morning, so I have to get it off my chest..


Yesterday, around 4:30 or so, I received the following email from my employer. The name of the company, and some other minor details have been altered..

Hello,

Welcome to the (my company) family and welcome to the (my company) Payroll services. On November 1, 2010, you will receive your first payroll (the word check was omitted). Please select the link below to activate your Online paystub account.

The website address: ***************
The company ID is ********
The login name is your first initial and your last name.

Your temporary password is the first letter of your first name and last name capitalized and the last 4 digits of your ss number.

(It should look like TV9999)

The 2010 Payroll schedule is also attached for your reference. If you have any difficulties accessing your account or have any questions regarding payroll, please give me a call and I will assist you.


Now, when Lovesha (not her real name) sent me that email, I read it carefully, and I was able to deduce two things. 1)My first paycheck is November 1, and 2)In the meantime I need to login to set up my account. So I went to set up my account, and for some reason it didn't work. I tried one more time, and again I was thwarted. I wanted to try a third time, but I figured I would get locked out of the system, so I decided to place a call to Ms. Lovesha.

Now granted, I am still new to this company, and this woman works in HR, so you'd think our conversation would be pleasant, warm and all that good stuff. Part of HR's job is to be that way and part of my job as a new employee is to defer to her wisdom and guidance. That's how these things are done. Here's how the conversation went

Me: Hi Lovesha, my name is Rashad, I'm a new employee, how are you?
Her: Uh..I'm fine
Me: I just got the email you sent about logging in, and I am problems logging in, can you help me out?
Her: What email is this exactly?
Me: The payroll email you sent?
Her: Why are you trying to login now, I clearly said you can't login until November 1st, didn't you read that?
Me: Well it wasn't very cl--
Her(interrupting once): Yeah it was very clear, I said November 1st, I just sent that information now, because I won't be at work around then
Me: Ok, I'm sorry I guess I didn't re--
Her (interrupting twice): Yeah again, it says November 1st, you just have to read carefully
Me: Ok Lovesha, sorry about that and take care
Her: You too

Now..because I am a new employee and I'm on a 90 day probationary period (as all new hires are) I had to bite my tongue and play nice, thus my deferential attitude. That same 90 day probationary period should prevent me from typing this email, but I just can't help myself. I digress..let's go over the list of things wrong shall we? This will be a picture in Highlights magazine, where you had to find the hidden pictures or something.

1) November 1st was mentioned, but my inability to login until then was not. Not anywhere in the damn email. If she wanted us to wait, there should have been a prepositional phrase like "At that time please select.." but there wasn't. She worded that email to imply that our paycheck and our login were two separate points.

2)It seems to me, if she could tell me that she was sending it early because she was going to be out of town, she could have put that sh*t in the damn email. Clearly its not classified info, so why not drop it in there as a friendly, yet informative anecdote?

3)Everyone in the office tried to login too, and I can vouch for the intelligence of at least 50% of the people in here, which means they were hoodwinked by this email as well. As a teacher, I was taught that if over half the class fails a test, its partly the students, but its mostly the teaching. But if 100% of the students failed, I need to be fired or re-trained at my job. Not only does the shoe fit here, but its molded on...

4)I can't stand when someone gets the best of me, and other outside factors deny me my due process, which was to get in her ass verbally. Some of you reading may be mature enough to let things like that go, but I am not--and if you've been reading my blog you know this. I was angry for a good two hours and then I let it go. But then this morning I saw an email from her, and she was STILL defiant about what she meant(as opposed to what was really written). Just admit defeat and wear the Scarlett "L" on your chest, like the rest of us do when we're wrong

Ok now I'll let it go and I'll end on a positive note. My lady is starting new job today, so if you pray, say a prayer for her, if not, just throw your fist on the screen or throw up the Roc sign or something.

2 comments:

Neil MacLean said...

that would have pissed me off. probationary period or not, I'm impressed b y your restraint.

Jazzbrew said...

I'm with sixfive on that... damn a probationary period. She would have gotten an earfull or at least hung up on.

Four Tops... I sang that tune at a friend's wedding a long time ago. Of course that was back when I had vocal chops. I'd make your ears bleed now.