Sadly I did not get paid this week. I am on a temporary government contract. This temporary transition from my temp agency required my manager to do a lot of paperwork in order to keep me here. He was on the ball, sent everything in time and my first time sheet was sent to head office about 3 weeks ago. I realize that when people start jobs, the pay is delayed by two weeks.  Some joker at head office messed something up and had to resend a form back to us to fill again (I guess they aren’t allowed to use white out?). We scurried and courried it and I spoke with a woman who said this should not affect the timing of my pay. Well, it did. My pay is two days late and unless it comes in the mail when I get home today, my whole budget is being thrown out of whack.

The problem with the government is all that useless red tape ( you know there is a person out there and their only function is to datestamp papers), ridiculous amounts of paperwork and no one really being in charge to take responsibility for screw ups. My boss has been hounding his boss and the people responsible for cutting my cheque. I, in turn also decided to do my own pushing by emailing the department.  I wrote a nice but firm letter basically stating that slacking off on someone’s pay, at least in these economic times is cruel. People revolve their bill payments around their paycheques and forgetting to process someone’s paperwork for payment is something that they should be punished for. (can you tell I am bitter?)

My partner told me that where he works, if an employee’s pay doesnt come in, they get it the very next day. It becomes an urgent request at head office. If a person had their mortgage come out and had to incur some monetary penalties because the money wasn’t in the bank, the company will pay those fees. Now, that’s SMART! Maybe I should get a job there.

I’ve often been asked why I don’t work for the government. I am a temp who gets mainly government contracts because of my languages so the temp wage is pretty good.  When I give my answer, I divulge all the things that I have seen in my several years as a temp, that all the money, comfort, security and pension money in the world won’t get me to start working for them. The government is not a place for a rebellious person like me who likes to see constant change. It’s a great temp job, but a terrible carreer move, at least for someone like me. Funny, after I am done my “I’ll never work full time for the government” rant, most people see my point and shut up. In some ways, they  know I am right about many of the things I mention.

My biggest issue is that lack of responsibility, it’s always someone else’s fault or another department. People pawn off your inquiries to others and within a few days the email you sent has probably been sent to 10 people in 6 different departments. When you work for a privatized company and they fail to pay you (for whatever reason), you can go to the labour board. I had to do this once and within a week I had my money.

So, when you work for the government, what do you do when you don’t get paid?

I asked my boss and I was flabergasted at the answer. First you have to talk to your manager, then the manager talks to their boss, then that boss has 3 people ahead of them that need to know about it. (who, quite frankly have better things to do than to worry about what happens at payroll). It could take months before it gets escalated. Once it reaches the deputy minister, then I assume they slap someone on the wrist and maybe you’ll get your cheque because they want you to stop whining about it.

Now you know why I am a temp, i get paid weekly, they treat me like gold and personal service there is outstanding. I might not make the big bucks or have a fancy pension, but at least I get paid when I am supposed to.

*Stay tuned for some upcoming very frugal recipes* (What to eat when we don’t get paid!)