Lost in the process
Life is full of mysteries, according to philosophers through the ages. Here’s a tiny mystery. Why can’t I see my pay slip on my computer?
First, the process. Payroll calculates the monies due to each employee, every fourteen days. Except for that strange short week that happens once a year, and causes confusion in the global banking system, but we’ll ignore the anomaly. Once the calculations are complete, a file is generated and transmitted to somewhere else (mysteries abound), and that action is enough to send money to my bank account. Briefly, but that’s not really a mystery.
Later on, a page is printed, folded, stuffed into an envelope and placed on my desk by one of the payroll elves. Showing your calculations, as the math teacher used to say. For those who are far off, the envelopes of calculations are delivered by courier to the workplace, where a substitute elf (a secretary) completes the distribution process. Imaginary money, real paperwork. Forget cheques: those are so last century.
When the annual requirement to provide government approved paperwork (call this the summation) comes around, those are produced and mailed, individually, to all employees. The cost of postage is just another note in the accounting process.
Contrast this with more modern institutions. Same old pay deposit, same old calculations, but the “work” is never printed. Instead, the employee who is alert enough to access a web page can visualize the paperwork. Net saving for the environment. Similarly, the government paperwork is handed out, with nary a postie in the process.
I wish I worked for an employer that understood modern technology.
