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Rags to riches to rags
Apr. 29th, 2010 08:00 pmLast night, I received my end-of-month e-mail notice that my pay statement was available. I logged on to the payroll system, crossing my fingers. Earlier this month, the secretary in Honors had asked for my personnel number to give me a little extra service pay. I was psyched about this, naturally, as it was totally unexpected. I figured to myself, that amount must be the difference between the $5000 they said they would pay English to borrow me, and the $4650/course that I actually get. I was hoping to see an extra $300 on my paycheck.
What I saw instead was an extra $5,000.
Was I excited about this? No. My first thought was, "oh, shit." Because it was obviously a mistake. What to do about the mistake? Keep it to myself and hope no one noticed? It was just possible it would slip by. Honors seems to have more money than they need, and English is in the midst of changing administrations. But I wouldn't be able to spend it. No, it would be like robbing a bank and waiting for months at my house for the police to come. And paying it back later would suck much more than correcting the error now.
So I emailed the Honors secretary last night at midnight. At 7:58 this morning she replied and said it was correct, that it was what the Honors director had instructed her to do, and that I should check with my payroll person if I had questions.
Could it be? Was this the universe rewarding me for all my toil? Did Honors just have extra money and decide to pay me and English too?
No. I emailed Judith, our super-fabulous payroll secretary, who said no, that money should have been paid to the English department, as I thought. She told me she would have caught the error in June, when she wondered where the money from Honors was, so I did the right thing.
But oh, for those moments, to think what it would be like to have $5000 extra every month . . . oh wow. It's much more money than I need. And yet, not enough to do anything really extravagant, so I suppose even then I would be dissatisfied. But for now, I'll try to make it by on my regular pay.
What I saw instead was an extra $5,000.
Was I excited about this? No. My first thought was, "oh, shit." Because it was obviously a mistake. What to do about the mistake? Keep it to myself and hope no one noticed? It was just possible it would slip by. Honors seems to have more money than they need, and English is in the midst of changing administrations. But I wouldn't be able to spend it. No, it would be like robbing a bank and waiting for months at my house for the police to come. And paying it back later would suck much more than correcting the error now.
So I emailed the Honors secretary last night at midnight. At 7:58 this morning she replied and said it was correct, that it was what the Honors director had instructed her to do, and that I should check with my payroll person if I had questions.
Could it be? Was this the universe rewarding me for all my toil? Did Honors just have extra money and decide to pay me and English too?
No. I emailed Judith, our super-fabulous payroll secretary, who said no, that money should have been paid to the English department, as I thought. She told me she would have caught the error in June, when she wondered where the money from Honors was, so I did the right thing.
But oh, for those moments, to think what it would be like to have $5000 extra every month . . . oh wow. It's much more money than I need. And yet, not enough to do anything really extravagant, so I suppose even then I would be dissatisfied. But for now, I'll try to make it by on my regular pay.