County of Maui always holds one of my paychecks?? (live, law)

[DoubleDee]

I do payroll. Where I work now we pay bi- (every other) weekly. Payday is Friday for the two-week period ending the preceeding Sunday, so if you started work this past Monday, May 3rd, you would receive your first check on Friday, May 28, for your hours worked from the 3rd through the 23rd. And yes, this is three weeks after you started.

Why a whole week to process payroll? Well, the supervisors have to review their employees' time and send it to me and that takes one-two days. Then, depending upon the speed of the payroll system and the number of people who will be paid, it easily takes a couple more days to process the payoll so a week (five days) is not unreasonable, especially when you consider your check or direct deposit is available to you first thing Friday morning.

As far as "holding back" a week, I've never done that. I don't consider my four days' processing time "holding back," although I know it's often called that.

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

Another thing is I purposely didn't start work until the beginning of this last pay period. I spent 2 weeks not working because I didn't want to start in the middle of a pay period and cause a big inconvenience to them and create problems for my dept (people in payroll get really upset over that stuff). If I had started a week earlier, I would probably be getting paid now after only 3 weeks.

I've never gotten upset, really or otherwise, if an employee starts work in the middle of a pay period. It makes no difference to me if your first check is for one day or 10 days or something in between.

Hope this explanation helped.

Aloha.

[Calico Salsa]

Originally Posted by winkosmosis

If that really is more prevalent here than I thought, why aren't Hawaiians embarassed? From posts here it seems like something people are proud of.

Maybe that would change if we stopped calling it "island time" and started calling it what it is, "third world".

OK, so why do people keep wanting to move here, then they want it to be just like where they came from?

It's a big job to explain where there aren't the highest skilled employees in every category. We could summarize it as... not enough of that kind of work, not enough of that kind of employees, it doesn't pay enough here to live here, the island is driven by service based economy.

I think the slower pace is something many of us enjoy. We don't all need snappy service, fast traffic, here's-your-purchase-thank-you-and-goodbye kind of transactions. Some of us don't mind waiting a little longer at the post office, because someone ahead of you is chatting for a whole minute or two with the gal behind the counter. Some of us don't mind taking longer over a dinner meal, or waiting our turn for the better guy at Radio Shack, who helped us the last time.

Really, it's not a big plot about your paycheck. It's not big inefficiencies, or embarrassing statewide attitudes, it's just how it works for the kind of job you took.

You are in your own kind of adjustment period. You'll either slow down and start to enjoy it, or you'll go crazy and have to go back to the mainland. But since you spent all that time and money to get here, give it a good try...you just might come to love it!

[Balad1]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. I agree 100%.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by Calico Salsa

OK, so why do people keep wanting to move here, then they want it to be just like where they came from?

It's a big job to explain where there aren't the highest skilled employees in every category. We could summarize it as... not enough of that kind of work, not enough of that kind of employees, it doesn't pay enough here to live here, the island is driven by service based economy.

I think the slower pace is something many of us enjoy. We don't all need snappy service, fast traffic, here's-your-purchase-thank-you-and-goodbye kind of transactions. Some of us don't mind waiting a little longer at the post office, because someone ahead of you is chatting for a whole minute or two with the gal behind the counter. Some of us don't mind taking longer over a dinner meal, or waiting our turn for the better guy at Radio Shack, who helped us the last time.

Really, it's not a big plot about your paycheck. It's not big inefficiencies, or embarrassing statewide attitudes, it's just how it works for the kind of job you took.

You are in your own kind of adjustment period. You'll either slow down and start to enjoy it, or you'll go crazy and have to go back to the mainland. But since you spent all that time and money to get here, give it a good try...you just might come to love it!

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't been inconvenienced by any kind of laidbackness. I'm not even sure where that exists. Anyway, that's not what I'm complaining about. I'm complaining about inefficiency and slowness in the county government.

People on this forum have said it takes a long time to get utilities connected and things like that, which is what I would consider third world and unnacceptable... But I haven't experienced that. It sounds like BS to me.

[winkosmosis]

BTW, after the 2 weeks it took to get my network connection set up, another whole week went by and the MIS guys didn't pick up my laptop to install their Novell crap on it...

I've learned that there's a feud between them and the GIS dept. We and MIS are both under the Dept of Management. MIS botched a Panasonic Toughbook order one time, which lead the dept to let us order our own equipment. The higher up folks at MIS are still pissy about that and threaten to not service our computers etc. They'll intentionally drag their feet when they need to do work for us. WTF? If I was in charge, those guys would be out looking for jobs at the hotels.

[Balad1]

People are trying to help and you're being an ass.

Good luck, you're on you're own and have a nice day.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by Balad1

People are trying to help and you're being an ass.

Good luck, you're on you're own and have a nice day.

Help me do what? All I see is people making claims that Hawaiians are lazy, but in their own words like "island time" and "the way it is". I call BS, I haven't seen inefficiency anywhere else but work.

[winkosmosis]

And how exactly am I being an ass? It's being an ass to explain to Calico Salsa that I haven't experienced what he's talking about and I'm referring to something else?

[Calico Salsa]

Hmmm, I guess I was reading your reply to md as your own comment about how we should be embarrassed in general, not just about your county IT problems. It seemed as though you were taking an isolated problem and starting to apply a broad brush of judgment into the pace of life here.

I apologize, I don't think you're an ass at all, I do think you are blowing things out of proportion. I very respectfully suggest you it won't help you to adjust, make friends, or get faster service if you start suggesting that Hawaiians should be embarrassed about anything until you learn more about where you have come to. Maybe that one guy in IT should be embarrassed, or the manager of the two departments, but hardly all Hawaii residents.

Really, I understand you are frustrated, and that you are learning a lot of the office politics and problems of where you are newly working. You've gone through a lot of uprooting and change and you are probably running on short energy and cash.

But seriously, what you are talking about isn't so different from anywhere. Office politics and inefficiencies are everywhere. People take old hurts and make them into future problems for everyone to follow. Let's not do that here, which is why I'm apologizing, OK?

Maybe what you can do is figure out how to bridge that old feud. Imagine how great it would be for everyone if you could bring some resolution and get the folks talking to each other again. Find a solution. Be a hero.

By the way, I'm a 'she', not a 'he'.

Have a good weekend, I hope you get out and enjoy the island beauty.

[winkosmosis]

Originally Posted by Calico Salsa

Hmmm, I guess I was reading your reply to md as your own comment about how we should be embarrassed in general, not just about your county IT problems. It seemed as though you were taking an isolated problem and starting to apply a broad brush of judgment into the pace of life here.

I apologize, I don't think you're an ass at all, I do think you are blowing things out of proportion. I very respectfully suggest you it won't help you to adjust, make friends, or get faster service if you start suggesting that Hawaiians should be embarrassed about anything until you learn more about where you have come to. Maybe that one guy in IT should be embarrassed, or the manager of the two departments, but hardly all Hawaii residents.

Really, I understand you are frustrated, and that you are learning a lot of the office politics and problems of where you are newly working. You've gone through a lot of uprooting and change and you are probably running on short energy and cash.

But seriously, what you are talking about isn't so different from anywhere. Office politics and inefficiencies are everywhere. People take old hurts and make them into future problems for everyone to follow. Let's not do that here, which is why I'm apologizing, OK?

Maybe what you can do is figure out how to bridge that old feud. Imagine how great it would be for everyone if you could bring some resolution and get the folks talking to each other again. Find a solution. Be a hero.

By the way, I'm a 'she', not a 'he'.

Have a good weekend, I hope you get out and enjoy the island beauty.

No, what I was saying was that if it REALLY is true that Hawaiians are slow, lazy, and inefficient, it's something to be embarassed about not glossed over with euphamisms like "island time". In my experience so far Hawaiians AREN'T slow, lazy, and inefficient. I haven't seen any sign of island time. I think you used an example of waiting in line because people are talking... I think I've seen that a couple times but I don't mind at all. That's just called being friendly and decent, and it happens in Texas and everywhere else too. If that's what you guys are referring to as slowness of pace and whatnot, that's great. All it means is Hawaii is just like everywhere but the most hectic cities like New York and Chicago.

When I see posts like that guy wanting to move to Lahaina saying that Maui is "more laid back", my first reaction is that it's insulting. It seems like a kind of mild tourist-imperialism. Like "The natives of this land are lazy and sleep in hammocks all day".

That's what a lot of Americans think about Trinidad and the rest of the Caribbean... It's laid back and easygoing, ganja smoking. No, we were just like people anywhere else. And yet it's true that the governments over there are all inefficient, ineffective, and corrupt which is pretty common in the 3rd world.