Well, it's been a funny old week...
Jul. 1st, 2022 09:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dizzojay So. here I am sitting here, and I've been signed off sick for a week with work-related anxiety.
A bit of backstory...
My role is reward and benefits, which is a career shift from my background which is well and truly based in payroll for over 30 years. I am supposed to 'support' on payroll, but my focus is on reward, because there is so much to do: job evaluations, benchmarking, benefits tables, reward strategies, communiction strategies, the list goes on...
When the HR Director told me three and half years ago she wanted me to take over the reward role, it was shortly before a new payroll system was implemented. I was really excited to get started in such an exciting and essential role.
The implementation of the payroll system was difficult and the new payroll was painful and clunky requiring an awful lot of manual input and manual intervention, which - in a payroll, where mistakes need to be kept to a minimum - is never a good thing. However, we were told there was lots of IT work going on behind the scenes to get all the different systems talking to each other, and all the remote managers would receive training to make sure the information they put in the system, and that we rely on, is accurate becuse at the time, it was a trainwreck.
Fast forward three years to this week ... nothing has changed.
The lead payroller and I are still fighting a tide of shit information and copy typing or copying and pasting over 1,000 lines of data each month.
We've had meeting after meeting, and it's all 'update on the IT: testing failed'. 'Let's have a list of error types', 'let's have a list of your processes for the IT guys to build in' ... it goes on and on and on...
I can't remember how many times I've said to our manegement team that I'm a ridiculously expensive data inputter, and every time that's been acknowledged, but it hasn't changed anything.
Anyway, this Tuesday was pay day, and I walked into the office to be greeted by a long and very blunt email from a lady who's pay was wrong. Nothing unusual there, unfortunately.
Then later in the morning we had a meeting where the error types were analysed - again - and we were asked to summarse a list of our processes within payroll.
Well, something snapped inside me, and I just lost it.
Some people were in the room and some were on Teams, but they all heard me! I yelled 'WE'VE DONE IT ALL BEFORE." Then three years of frustration and anger came pouring out - words and tears, I couldn't stop. There were a few F-bombs as well, not something I think I've ever done before in a business meeting. I totally lost control, 'WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE ... WE'VE DONE THIS ALL BEFORE... OVER AND OVER. IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS. THREE FUCKING YEARS. I CAN'T DO MY JOB BECAUSE 80% OF MY TIME IS TAKEN UP WITH THIS PAYROLL. IT'S A PISSING PAYROLL SYSTEM IT'S NOT THE MARS ROVER, HOW THE FUCK CAN IT TAKE THREE YEARS TO FAIL TO GET IT FIT FOR PURPOSE? IT'S FUCKING SOUL DESTROYING!
The whole diatribe ended with a full blown panic attack. It was, fair to say, the most interesting business meeting i've ever been involved in!
I have to caveat this with the fact that I love my job, except this payroll system. I love the company, the culture and the people I work with. My career plan is to stay in this job and with this company until I retire. And I have to say, my colleagues have been incredibly supportive with this episode, I really, honestly can't fault them.
I used the company's virtual GP service (which is, ironically, a benefit that I manage) yesterday, and they have referred me to the company's mental healtth support services who I think I'm going to speak to on Monday.
So, I'm signed off sick for a week with stress at work for this week and next week and hopefully now, this will be the catalyst to get something done about that poxy payroll!
In the meantime, I'm kicking my heels at home, and you might be hearing a bit more from me than usual. Sorry about that!
A bit of backstory...
My role is reward and benefits, which is a career shift from my background which is well and truly based in payroll for over 30 years. I am supposed to 'support' on payroll, but my focus is on reward, because there is so much to do: job evaluations, benchmarking, benefits tables, reward strategies, communiction strategies, the list goes on...
When the HR Director told me three and half years ago she wanted me to take over the reward role, it was shortly before a new payroll system was implemented. I was really excited to get started in such an exciting and essential role.
The implementation of the payroll system was difficult and the new payroll was painful and clunky requiring an awful lot of manual input and manual intervention, which - in a payroll, where mistakes need to be kept to a minimum - is never a good thing. However, we were told there was lots of IT work going on behind the scenes to get all the different systems talking to each other, and all the remote managers would receive training to make sure the information they put in the system, and that we rely on, is accurate becuse at the time, it was a trainwreck.
Fast forward three years to this week ... nothing has changed.
The lead payroller and I are still fighting a tide of shit information and copy typing or copying and pasting over 1,000 lines of data each month.
We've had meeting after meeting, and it's all 'update on the IT: testing failed'. 'Let's have a list of error types', 'let's have a list of your processes for the IT guys to build in' ... it goes on and on and on...
I can't remember how many times I've said to our manegement team that I'm a ridiculously expensive data inputter, and every time that's been acknowledged, but it hasn't changed anything.
Anyway, this Tuesday was pay day, and I walked into the office to be greeted by a long and very blunt email from a lady who's pay was wrong. Nothing unusual there, unfortunately.
Then later in the morning we had a meeting where the error types were analysed - again - and we were asked to summarse a list of our processes within payroll.
Well, something snapped inside me, and I just lost it.
Some people were in the room and some were on Teams, but they all heard me! I yelled 'WE'VE DONE IT ALL BEFORE." Then three years of frustration and anger came pouring out - words and tears, I couldn't stop. There were a few F-bombs as well, not something I think I've ever done before in a business meeting. I totally lost control, 'WE'VE HEARD IT ALL BEFORE ... WE'VE DONE THIS ALL BEFORE... OVER AND OVER. IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS. THREE FUCKING YEARS. I CAN'T DO MY JOB BECAUSE 80% OF MY TIME IS TAKEN UP WITH THIS PAYROLL. IT'S A PISSING PAYROLL SYSTEM IT'S NOT THE MARS ROVER, HOW THE FUCK CAN IT TAKE THREE YEARS TO FAIL TO GET IT FIT FOR PURPOSE? IT'S FUCKING SOUL DESTROYING!
The whole diatribe ended with a full blown panic attack. It was, fair to say, the most interesting business meeting i've ever been involved in!
I have to caveat this with the fact that I love my job, except this payroll system. I love the company, the culture and the people I work with. My career plan is to stay in this job and with this company until I retire. And I have to say, my colleagues have been incredibly supportive with this episode, I really, honestly can't fault them.
I used the company's virtual GP service (which is, ironically, a benefit that I manage) yesterday, and they have referred me to the company's mental healtth support services who I think I'm going to speak to on Monday.
So, I'm signed off sick for a week with stress at work for this week and next week and hopefully now, this will be the catalyst to get something done about that poxy payroll!
In the meantime, I'm kicking my heels at home, and you might be hearing a bit more from me than usual. Sorry about that!
no subject
Date: 2022-07-01 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-07-23 08:28 pm (UTC)A few weeks away from that Godforsaken payroll has done me the world of good. I have some counselling sessions coming up where I've asked if I can work through some coping mechanisms for when I go back into payroll. I know this really has shaken up the business, but even if things are going to change it's not going to happen overnight. Hopefully it won't take another three years!