The extra pay that I get for my tutoring programs is very complicated to actually get. I’m in charge of the tutoring program, which means that not only do I DO the tutoring, but I’m responsible for (among many, many other tasks) faxing the time sheets to the woman at our central office who signs them and sends them over the payroll department. Payroll then actually makes sure that the other tutors and I get the pay in our paychecks.
In this type of bureaucratic nightmare, things sometimes get messed up. Like this time.
I just looked at my next paycheck and it appears that one of my time sheets didn’t make it…somewhere. Either to the woman at central (even though I wrote her an email and she assured me that she had all 11 time sheets) or over to payroll. One of my time sheets did make it, so I am getting about $120 extra, but the other, bigger one, which should be netting me $157, is lost…somewhere.
But I’m not stressing. Not by a long shot.
Why?
Because that money is just gravy. I’m not depending on it. Which is a really, really nice feeling.
Ever since I started teaching I’ve been tutoring for extra money. But because my debt was much heavier and I had nothing saved, I depended on that tutoring money. I made spending decisions around it. I bought necessities based on the assumption that that money was coming in. So if that money didn’t end up coming in it would have been a disaster two years ago.
But not now.
Now, I’ll just wait until it shows up on the next check to make my extra car payment. No big deal. My bills will get paid on time. My credit card won’t carry a balance. The worst case scenario is that I’d pull from my savings, which I have. Everything is fine.
And that, my friends, is progress.
(I am slightly concerned, though, that one of the other 7 tutors might not get paid since a mistake was made on my check…I’m going to put out an email on Monday to make sure that everyone logs into their accounts to see if they have all their hours on their checks…but I have copies of all the time sheets, so worst case scenario is that the hours show up on the next check. Not ideal, but I did everything in my power to get my tutors paid, and I’ll be writing a STRONG email to payroll to fix this situation for next time.)
