22 DOLLARS.. NO WAY!

This is a situation that bothered me for a long time, but it taught me some lessons about life. 

In 1985, my wife Elaine was recognized as an excellent analyst at the Social Security Administration (SSA) at Woodlawn, Maryland; therefore, she was a logical choice to work on a special project.

For years, SSA personnel were required to work overtime to address massive backlogs of benefit claims, as well as to make changes to computer programs because of new law emanating from Congress. At that time, overtime was paid by regular time rates to GS2's to Gs9's.  Employees at a higher level were paid at the GS9 level.

In the early years of the 1980's a change was made to begin to pay time and a half for overtime, just like Private Industry. A decision was made to find those who were paid the old rate for their overtime work in the past and give them money "to make them whole."

My wife traveled to Washington, DC for months to find the payment records for employees who were  paid the old way.  She told me that my record, as a GS14 indicated that my retro payment would be in the thousands of dollars.  I began to think about how my family could use that "windfall."

Sometime in the process a lawyer convinced SSA management that his office could do a more efficient job to do the retro payments. (At least I believe that.  It was probably a very lucrative operation.)

The retro checks were delivered in March 1986. My check was for $22. and not for thousands of dollars as I expected!

Along with the check was a pay stub with the phrase: "Any ?? call Mr B... (telephone number)"

I made the call and spoke to someone who took my name and address and said that someone would be contacting me.

A week later I received a nasty letter saying that if I ever try to contact that office again, legal action would be taken against me.

What the hell was going on?

I took the letter to my Division Director. He took the letter from me and said that he would look into the situation.  A week later I asked him what he had found out about the letter.  He said: "What letter?"

I asked the same of the Office Director. He also said: "What letter?"

Now I was boiling mad, but I didn't know what to do, so I took the situation as a life lesson on greed, deceit, and scare tactics. But the biggest lesson I learned was to always make a copy of questionable material.

I admitted defeat and took my never cashed $22 check and put it in my desk to remind me that life isn't always fair.

..............................................................................

Go and try to trust others; just be careful about it.