Strange ReTales: Employees Behaving Badly: Three Month’s Pay
“WHAT?”
Not every tale from the archives of Strange ReTales is of Employees Behaving Badly.
No, sometimes there are tales of Customers Behaving Badly.
And sometimes there are tales of Bosses Behaving Badly.
This is one of those. My boss-at-the-time, particularly.
In one particular instance, I had a salesperson who began to show a lack of interest in their job.
So much so that they stopped showing up to work altogether.
They also weren’t answering their phone when I called to see if they were coming in to work.
After conferring with Human Resources and my District Manager I left the required number of voicemails on their phone and after the allotted time period passed I submitted the termination paperwork (coded as “job abandonment” for you HR policy nerds out there) to my District Manager.
Time passed, and I’ll fill readers in on a vital part of the store’s day-to-day: someone, usually but not always my assistant manager would walk down the mall to the mailboxes to pick up the store’s mail.
Payroll was direct deposited into people’s bank accounts and the paystubs were mailed from head office to the store.
There, pay stub envelopes would go into an inbox tray in the back office, and staff would root through them to find their own.
Very much like this one, as it happens.
No one, myself included, I’m sorry to say, noticed that our ex-employee was still receiving pay stubs to the store.
One day I finally noticed a stack of them.
Three months worth.
I called my District Manager. “Bill*” I exclaimed, “I sent you the termination paperwork three months ago. WHY IS SHE STILL GETTING PAID!?”
“Hold on,” he replied “I’ll call you back.”
He called me right back.
“Oh, [expletive deleted]!” he burst out, “I never sent in the paperwork you gave me to HR!”
He was pretty upset. Like, worried-for-his-job-upset.
Three month’s pay for not showing up to work is a pretty good severance package.
I certainly didn’t get a deal like that when I resigned.
Maybe instead of handing in a resignation letter I should have just stopped showing up…
*name changed to protect the embarrassed.
