Pay Stub Fiasco

I've been fortunate to have worked at some pretty great companies after graduating from college. I have had terrific bosses, and awesome friends who have become like family and were there for me during some very difficult times...especially when my mother was ill. In fact, 9 of my co-workers had rented a limo and came from Philadelphia to New York for my mother's funeral service. I was so moved and touched by that.

Several months later still healing from the loss of my mom, something very odd happened. Most companies have a direct deposit option for your paycheck and, for the sheer convenience of it, I enrolled in that plan. On this particular pay day, my manager gave me my pay stub and, I always opened it up just to ensure that my overtime was counted, etc. What I found that day when I pulled out the pay stub made my heart stop. There was over $800 missing from my paycheck!! What?!?!? I immediately called the bank to see if perhaps the entire amount was deposited and perhaps my company just made and error. Nope... over $800 missing.

Next, I went into my manager's office to see if she could shed some light on the missing funds. She had no clue and started to call our corporate office to see what was happening. All that was running through my head was, oh no! I have bills that get automatically paid and this money needs to be in my bank account!

After further inspection of the pay stub, there was a little notation that said "Boston Coach - Beth - Personal" Now, Boston Coach is the name of the limo service that we used to provide travel for our company's clients. So, then I thought, maybe there was a mistake and that the travel arrangements I set up for one of my clients was mistaken for my own personal travel. Then the light bulb came one. What had happened was this - when my 9 co-workers came to my mom's funeral, my manager meant to have the charge go to the office as a personal charge. However, our corporate office mistook the information and thought that I had used a limo for myself and thus deducted the $800 from my paycheck. Can you imagine -- your mom just died and now we're going to bill you $800 for it.

It took a few days to straighten out the whole mess (not to mention that the entire Finance Dept was on a company picnic the day this happened and I couldn't reach anybody to help me). Thankfully, none of the checks I had written had bounced.

Check those paystubs!