Workplace Myths

Make sure you understand your Employers’ policies on first payroll, holds, and/or amount of time it takes to change a direct deposit for upcoming payroll. We live in a fast or instant expectation world, but that does not mean expectation and reality are working under the same time frame.

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If your employer does a pre-note verification, that could be 3-7 days before a deposit is made based on the results of the per-note. A pre-note is where a small sum of generally $0.01 - $0.03 is sent through to see if the account is open and accepts deposits. If the account is closed or has restrictions, that information comes back to payroll. It’s when Payroll, Accounting, or HR will reach out to let you know and request a different account.

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Your employer does not get any more information on your account other than if the account is open, closed, or account doesn’t accept deposits. This is important to understand. An employer develops policies based on how they process their side of the transactions to ensure you are being paid on payday. So, if your employer lets you know they need 3-5 days’ notice prior to payroll processing, it’s because they want to ensure no bounce-backs happen. This means your funds are sent electronically to your account, if your account is closed, those funds must come back to issue your paycheck. This is not ideal for you or your employer.

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Back to the topic, when does my direct deposit hit my account, ask your financial institution how they process ACH files. ACH stands for Automated Clearing House and governed by Nacha rules for these files to be processed in batches (large groups). This means the bank would not individually process only your debits or credits, they are processed in large batches for all account holders. These processes are heavily regulated.

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Example: 1 deposit batch could have hundreds of account holders in it and it may take 2 hours to process that batch. Which means you might not see your deposit in your account until 7a.

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Financial institutions (banks, servicers, or credit unions) make their money off fees and charges. They know it’s human nature to try to ‘scheme the system’. Scheduling auto pays on the day or before a deposit hits. The rule of using banking accounts is simple, you can use the available funds in the accounts. Not the fund on hold. Not the funds not received yet. The transactions going out of your account will always be processed before any deposits going into your account.

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TIP: Don’t fall for the marketing BS about you deserve to get your direct deposit early line. Financial institutions cannot ‘pay’ you earlier than when the pay date is, but they will risk it to allow a portion or all the funds to post early and be available to use – some with fee for that privilege or know that they can earn more fees from it. To be clear this is your financial institution offering this service, not your employer.

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An employer just processes your payroll and sends it through a financial process out of their control. As a customer, it’s important that you understand the process and how your bank account works to avoid controllable fees and charges. Especially if you live paycheck to paycheck or are trying to manage inflation costs; those extra fees make the situation worse. Employees living paycheck to paycheck are in all wage demographics, but it’s considerably more difficult on those working minimum wage jobs in times of high inflation.

 

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Myth – Venting & Not Venting

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A myth that needs to stop. Venting and Slander and Defamation are not interchangeable, especially in the workplace. I’m not going to go into the legal end in this read, but I do want to make a clear point to those who cross the line.

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Venting is an act of expressing negative emotions like anger, sadness or frustration in an unfiltered way. Serving as an outlet to reduce stress or emotional pressure. Slander is defamation when an individual makes false and damaging statements about another person verbally to others.

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In the workplace, venting occurs. A project was stopped after hundreds of hours of work put into it. Manager had a stern conversation with you about an error made. The department head called out the wrong facts in a meeting. Announcement of no annual bonuses because sales goals weren’t met. Clients upset work done on their property and your group is being called out. These scenarios happen every day. At all levels in the workplace. From the Board of Directors to the entry level roles. We all get frustrated in the workplace and venting allows us to get it out and to move forward. The move forward is with focus on work, improvements and understanding.

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A repetitive ‘vent’ is no longer ‘venting’, it’s now a behavioral issue. The shift from temporary stress relief to chronic complaining, gossip, toxic negativity and/or policy violations is a serious one. It now becomes a reputation attack of the individual targeted and crosses into harassment of the person. It also drains the co-workers who are subjected to broken record being played and additional information that doesn’t ring true. When they shift into the shaming and conspiring phase it is now a toxic harassing workplace environment.

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Over many years I’ve heard all kinds of justification and use of words the speaker has no idea what they mean. In our country, states, cities, towns, and communities as a collective use words wrong. We use slang or popular phrases without thought or understanding the actual meaning or how to use. We are all on a word spectrum, it ranges from some education to highly educated, and what we heard and are influenced by.

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I’ve heard that more than once, sitting with employees that saying ‘smear’ or ‘smearing’ someone is okay because they deserve it. As if it was a given right and acceptable without consequences. In a reverse situation, it would be that same individual amped up and angrier and demanding.

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The ending point of this read is to not cross that line. Have self-awareness of what it would feel like to be if someone did that to you. Created lies about your character that were baseless.  I’ll address this website; some will say that I’m defaming and slandering individuals but I’m not because there is documented evidence to the contrary.

 

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Myth – Managers & Book of Requirements

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A myth that needs to stop. There is a belief that managers, once they have been bestowed the title of manager, have also been invisibly coronated somehow. That coronation involved a book of Dos and Don’ts, new language, and the removal of being a human being. I’m using manager to cover all roles in which they need to supervise workers or even processes. From the shift supervisor in a fast-food restaurant to senior management, including HR.

Perception from an individual’s viewpoint is different from a belief that the individual in a role over employees is required to hand over their human card and conform to individual beliefs. Companies don’t do a good job at selecting the best individual for that role or training them with critical skills they need to do the job flawlessly.

 

Let’s be clear, it’s on the individual themselves to educate themselves on what the role is, can they learn and adapt to what the role is, and be self-motivated to learn the skills needed to be successful. Because the extra money sounds wonderful when the animated little blue birds show up in your mind. Reality is that respect is earned.

Doesn’t a title automatically come with respect? No. It really doesn’t. Respect is an attitude of deference, admiration, or esteem. It’s about valuing and consideration of something or someone, by treating them with courtesy, care and appropriate attention. So, in practice it’s about acknowledging another person’s worth and treating them as you would like to be treated. It’s how the individual presents themselves.

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Over the years I’ve lost count on how many people I’ve shocked to explain what respect means. I’m not sure what happened to the word from the years of the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin’s singing about it to present day, but we need to get back to the basic and true meaning of it.

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So, if Frank has always been a jerk. Giving him a manager title does not remove his unpleasant personality and instantly turn him into a ‘perfect’ manager fully upskilled with outstanding communication and leadership abilities. Frank personality gets worse, because he’s under a false assumption that everyone should know what to do without any effort or action on his part. He has no idea how to speak with others and do the additional duties he’s got.

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Everyone believes they would do a manager’s job better than them. The majority have failed badly. The reason is that it takes self-work to learn and fully understand those skills in action, then additional skills on how to navigate with multiple personalities under them.

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Actions, tone, and words are what employees respond to. Someone screaming at them is a result of an insecure manager with no training on necessary skills.

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The ending point of this read. Have some empathy with a new manager. Yes, they need to follow the policies and procedures. Yes, they need to learn and improve. Yes, they should be able to speak and behave as fully functional managers each of us has built up in our minds. But the title does not coronate the holder with necessary skills. It’s not an excuse for wrongdoing, poor communication skills. Managers are developed.

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Myth – Saying You're HR & HR

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. Human Resources is a fascinating department with diverse personnel and components. Everyone believes they are an expert, because they know the surface stuff, what ‘words’ mean, law myths, jokes, the meme, or how to fill out a form. These folks will always state that they are HR, but they aren’t. These folks cause more compliance issues and employee chaos by giving uneducated opinions that cause problems.

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True HR professionals know the roots of laws and regulations. Know how to adapt and build in various industries. Can explain the ‘why’ of best practices. Have been mentored by employment attorneys. Taken additional classes and courses to build up skills. Bottomline, they know their stuff from the bottom up.

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Fake HR like to say they are ‘HR’. Like to brag about doing unprofessional actions like digging in personnel records, looking up wage information to gossip with others, and admitting to other illegal actions they’ve done. These folks ironically cause a lot of compliance issues with incorrectly completely forms or following procedures. They will google and latch on to the first clump of words that comes up, but not notice the important part of what state they are in.

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HR

Sammie, a new manager at a large theme park, was required to participate in a 6-week training. A few years down the line (from that training) she was an HR expert and Branch Manager. She had no idea that there was a major difference in following NYC (New York City) rules from NYS (New York State), when her location was NYS. Googled everything. 95% of her I9s were incorrectly completed with incorrect identification. The list of transgressions was lengthy. The large organization she received training at gave her a great base, but it was their base for the state she was in. She honestly didn’t know that state employment laws and regulations differed or how the Federal and State ones worked. Sammie is on the right path to HR.

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Fake HR

Christie presents that standard version of fake HR. Unlike Sammie who had some training and understood what confidential information means. She was a basic administrative assistant that had to provide information to true HR personnel. On her first day, she bragged about going in employee files to snoop around. During Sexual Harassment training made sexual jokes and comments throughout. She then removed documents from an employee’s electronic file, literally downloaded them. Christie didn’t realize that her actions were visibly tracked and recorded. Individuals like her tend to have the choppiest work history and bold stories about what happened.

They cause friction in organizations and are the first to point fingers at others for their errors. I want to be clear; there are great HR personnel that don’t have a degree or certification and know their stuff. Christie is on the path to charges and lawsuit with employer. 

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Myth - Job Description is Literal

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. Job descriptions are not and will never be a literal checklist of each and every task or duty an employee needs to complete. A job description purpose is to clearly define the scope of the role, duties, and expectations. It's a foundational tool used for hiring qualified candidates and managing an employee's performance. Duties and tasks are grouped; this provides the scope of expected work.

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A job description is not a checklist that delineates each step of a duty; that would be found in a process or procedure. Those tools give a detailed accounting of the task breakdown. An employee or candidate can ask specifics on the tasks and they would be answered using the existing processes and procedures in place. 

 

The line 'other duties as assigned' is standard and means; additional and/or occasional added duties in alignment with your role. It has to make sense. This also provides flexibility if jobs change slightly or consideration for a job adjustment with the role itself. There isn't a pay differential for taking on additional or occasional work if it is within the association of the role.

 

Example: Oil Rig Driller who supervises the rigs operations and safety, may be asked to help on a derrickman's task. Or Administrative Assistant I is asked to do some additional duties for a level II or III.

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Myth - Co-Worker Out & Additional Duties

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. Asking for your co-worker's salary when they are out sick and having to do more work or 'double' the work to get the work done for that day. Employee's get paid to do their work duties. If you work on a crew of four, and a co-worker is out sick, your crew would still do the same work, The work didn't change.

 

The distribution of the work and how much less overall work schedule for that day is impacted. But the actual work didn't change. The production schedule was affected and still needs to be done. No one likes to work short-handed, but it happens. How do you think your co-workers feel when you are out?

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If this was an issue where the workload was unmanageable, then that is a completely different subject. At a landscape company employees were loudly voice complaints to their managers that fell on deaf ears, until a handful called HR on the matter. In this case, there was a serious problem with production schedule, routes, and equipment problems. Within a few days all of that was fixed. 

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The main issue was the managers heard complaining, not specifics. The employees thought the complaining would help and it didn't. Always bring solutions when there is a problem, it helps. Also, don't let issues fester if they are impacting the ability to meet production requirements. 

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Myth - Fake it Till You Make It

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. The concept of 'fake it till you make it' is ridiculous. I said it. I mean it. If you want to do well in any role, learn it from the bottom up. Ask the questions and learn from those scenarios as they come up and the answers. Become the subject matter expert. 

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Be honest that you are new and you want to get the right answer for them. That will win you points, when you keep your words and get back to them with it. Quick or wrong answers cause problems. In situations were someone is angry that they have to make another call, this is your opportunity to shine. Be honest and given them the correct answer of what you can or cannot do to resolve the issue. 

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I have never seen 'the fake it till you make it' concept work. I have witnessed over and over again the rise of fakers in the workplace. Fakers who don't know their job. Can't effectively do their role. Waste time in meetings faking knowledge. Don't waste anyone's time faking it, those that do the work and have to fix a faker's work, aren't fooled. 

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Subject matter experts got that way from education, training, critical thinking, and effective problem solving of the discipline. If you want to be successful learn it. 

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Myth - Escalating Anger

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. If you are confront either in person or on the phone with an angry individual, raising your voice is not the method to resolve it. 

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Let's talk about it. An angry person got that way well before your contact with them. You just happen to be there for eruption of frustration. It's not personal, specially towards you - so don't take it personal. The approach of immediately being rude or yelling back at them (or even a loved ones) will not help the situation. It will elevate your stress level and breed hostility.

 

Congratulations, you have activated the Ballistic Seething Seeing Red Protocol. If this is in a call center environment, you have just created a series of call backs to you co-workers with stops in escalations and your call will be pulled for quality control audit. If this is in an office setting, everyone heard your response and how you handled it, not winning an approval points. If in the field, the scene was most like captured on no less than three phones and you are a possible candidate for going viral. 

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Then appropriate way to handle it is - be quiet and listen. Once they finish their vent, they will be quiet. At that moment, in a calm voice, repeat back what the issue is. Not blaming. Not the frustration. Not the sarcasm. What the issue is and where the breakdown that cause the issue happened. That's it. You are calm and unaffected. Your calm helps them calm. Your ability to focus on the problem gives them confidence in your ability to handle this situation.

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It works - Every single time. At the end of the day, why are you giving your peace away? The person angry, just wants resolution or an honest answer. It's not worth the time or energy to add to a situation to extend it - when you can simply end it with the answer. 

 

Call center environment challenging and yes, some human beings are assholes. Do give those human beings the power to get under your calm. I'll repeat, do not give those human beings the power over you for you to lose your calm. Be the person with the socially correct manners. Don't lower yourself down to their level. Take care of the issue and move on.   

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Myth - I Can Do My Manager's Job

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A myth and false understanding that needs to stop. Employees are critical of good managers and highly ruthless with bad managers. Most have strong opinions and beliefs they can easily do a better job than their manager or another manager they see often. It's one thing to say it, but quite another to actually perform all the duties a manager is responsible for. The snapshot you see is like the iceberg analogy, you aren't seeing the whole picture.

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The ‘I’m Better’ Calculation: Assumptions + Transgressions = I can do that role. This math is similar to getting a wrong answer off the internet and acting on it. 

 

Bad managers struggle more and have obvious flaws, but unless you have all the skills and experience to be a manager and do the work, most will fail. Self-reflection won't happen. Blame will happen; directed at the company, fellow managers, or direct reports. 

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Good managers are tricky, those that judge they can do a better job, assume the calm demeanor for 'not working' It's an easy assumption, except its complete wrong. When you have an arsenal of experience, skills, education, and subject matter knowledge you can do volumes of work in a calm manner. ​

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Before you calculate the 'I'm Better', develop your skills in managing others and become the subject matter expert to do the hard work. Accept responsibility for your actions, words, assumptions, and failure. Take those lessons and grow the skills. ​​​​​​​

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