Unpleasantness Revisited

I went into the bank to cash my most recent paycheck this morning. The teller told me the account did not have sufficient funds. Here we go again.

After a call to our HR person, I was finally able to cash the check, after which I took the money over to my credit union and made a deposit. It's a good thing I decided not to deposit my check directly. I think I'll be following this procedure for the foreseeable future.

I got home from that excursion and wrote a letter to the owner and president of the company. I'm not sure yet whether I'll send it in its present form, or maybe do a little editing and tone it down a bit.
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Dear Mr. Xxxxxxx:

I am writing today to express my extreme displeasure and grave concerns about the ongoing payroll difficulties the company has experienced in recent months.

On Thursday, January 26th, I received a phone call from my credit union stating that my paycheck had bounced. As a result, $70.00 in fees had been assessed and my account was more than $200.00 overdrawn. I spent more than two hours the following day gathering information, getting a new check, cashing that check, and depositing the money into my account. Not having access to a car at the time, I did all of this either by riding public transportation or walking. It should be mentioned here that it was snowing heavily that morning. This was not a small inconvenience for me.

I received my most recent paycheck last night at the call center. I took it into the bank this morning to cash it, only to be told that there were not sufficient funds in the account. I had to call [the HR person] from [the lobby of] the bank to get the issue resolved. That makes twice in less than three weeks that I have had problems with my paycheck.

This can not continue.

The company's employees deserve to be compensated fairly, promptly, and reliably for the work they do. When any employee deposits a paycheck, we need to know that we can pay our rent and buy our groceries. Most of us live paycheck to paycheck. We can't afford to wait a week to start paying our bills, just to be sure that our paycheck clears. We need to know that the money will be there.

The continuing failure of the company to address this issue seems indicative of a systematic problem in the process. I don't know who is responsible for executing or overseeing the process. I don't know what procedures or guidelines may be in place. I simply know that if an employee at the call center were screwing something this important up this badly for this long, we would have fired them by now.

The failure of the company to provide reliable compensation has already begun to cost the company employees. I am aware of an incident in recent months in which two new and promising young interviewers both resigned their jobs after their very first paycheck bounced. Our level of turnover is already high; we cannot afford to lose more employees because they feel the company doesn't care enough about them to pay them for their efforts.

In writing this letter, I am not interested in explanations, justifications, or excuses. I simply want to know that someone in the company knows what is going on and is genuinely concerned about fixing the problem. When interviewers come to me saying that they can't cash their checks, I want to feel like I can honestly tell them that someone is really trying to make things right.

In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that I hold no ill will toward you personally, nor toward any member of the [company] management team. But the company's failure to rectify this ongoing problem is intolerable. If the company is serious about recruiting and retaining quality employees, this issue cannot be allowed to go unresolved any further.

Sincerely yours,
[insert signature here]
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Well, any suggestions?