Did you ever work with someone who wouldn't cash their paychecks? I did. He almost got fired over it

[NNN0LHI]

I worked with a German immigrant (Tool and Die Maker) who got pissed off one day at management for some reason or another and stopped cashing his paychecks. It screwed up the payroll system for the company. The checks are void after 60 days so the company would have to keep reissuing new checks every 60 days into perpetuity. They couldn't issue him a W-2 Form or nothing until he cashed the checks. It was a real mess.

Labor Relations came down to the plant floor with the union committeeman and his boss and all hell broke loose because this guy refused to cash his payroll checks. He showed them the checks. His tool box (a tall roller cabinet type toolbox) was full of them. Years worth of paychecks.

No one knew what to do. They concluded that were going to have to fire the guy if he wouldn't cash his checks. He finally broke down and started cashing his checks after the area manager apologized to him for pissing him off years earlier.

Neither of them could remember exactly what started the whole dust up so it was kind of a general kind of apology.

Don

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. WOW what did he survive on?

[NNN0LHI]

3. I heard his wife had money n/t

[blogslut]

2. Yikes

That is almost brilliant in a passive-aggressive sort of way. Never occurred to me how not cashing check would mess with a company.

[1monster]

14. In Florida, all the employers have to do is to send a check to the

state unclaimed assets office and issue a W2 anyway. My stepson forgot to pick up a pay check one week, and even though he continued working there for several years after, instead of issuing him a new check, they sent the money to the unclaimed assets office. It took quite some doing to get that pay check sent to him about three or four years later when he found out about it though a published list of unclaimed assets.

[Bunny]

4. Wow. I've heard of stubborn, but that really takes the cake!

:crazy:

[POAS]

5. Yep. I've seen it twice actually

Once was a co-worker that had a stack of checks uncashed in his locker (he also had a joint ownership in a small single engine plane and was a recreational pilot while driving a towmotor for a day job).

The other guy was an owner of a small tool & die shop that was doing work for the company I worked for. He had about $250,000 in uncashed checks by the time accounting cornered him on our shop floor while he was making a delivery.

[karlrschneider]

6. I don't understand why this would be a problem to anybody except him...

Why would the company care? They've already expensed the funds and issuing a W2 has nothing to do with whether he cashed them or not. Also why would they be required to re-issue an uncashed check? That makes no sense. I think there must be a lot more to this story...

[NNN0LHI]

11. It was driving some accountant in Dearborn Michigan out of their mind

The bean counters are the ones who raised all the hell about it and brought it to the attention of management at my plant.

I didn't quite understand it all but even the union guy acted like cashing his check was mandatory.

Don

[karlrschneider]

17. I think they need some new bean counters.

I've run a (small) company for 35 years and something like that wouldn't even be any problem at all if it happened.
So you just keep the check amounts in a running account, it's just one number out of hundreds...or thousands.
Operate as if you don't still 'have' the funds and carry them forward (on paper). I'm just a mediocre accountant but I know that much. There's no reason why it should have any effect on the company. Anyway that reminds me...I
have a check made out to me in 1948 from Carter Oil Company for $0.01 (yep, one cent)...it's in my scrapbook.
I think that company eventually became a part of Exxon/Mobil. The check doesn't have a "void after" on it...maybe
I ought to cash it. :D :rofl:

[sandnsea]

22. Aw, donate it somewhere

The check I mean, not the penny. There should always be reminders of how things used to be.

I did not realize you were such an ooold coot - I'm always nicer to curmudgeons. :)

[karlrschneider]

23. I'm the Parliamentarian of the local Old Phart Club.

:D

Maybe I'll endorse it over to the RNC, it'll cost them 20 or 30 cents to process it.
:rofl:

[MazeRat7]

7. Damn, there is so much wrong with that story I don't know where to begin...

in an interesting, character study kind of way wrong.... What a great story.....

Thanks for sharing it. :thumbsup:

[razors edge]

8. I once

left a company who had a 401K program that shared company profits at a small percentage equally with all employees. I never joined.

They issued me a check for around ten dollars that I threw away since I didn't want to deal with it on my taxes.

Three years later they tracked me down and complained I was screwing up their books.

As Betty White said in the movie Lake Placid, "Incomplete records haunt me so." :sarcasm:

Edit:sp

[jedr]

9. Had a friend who was a very good butcher/meat manager;

Was sought after by many stores and landed a deal with a store with a good salary and would match whatever he put into his 401k. He had a side business that made good money , so he put his entire paycheck into his 401k.........they fired him!:crazy:

[dmallind]

10. Ermmm...how?

Limit for a 401K is about $15K a year even now isn't it?

[jedr]

13. Don't remember the particulars but;

May not have been a true 401k and this was 15 yrs ago give or take., Anyway ,He ended up suing them for age discrimination and won. Some people aways land on their feet.

[A Simple Game]

16. Wish I could afford to find out first hand.

I don't believe there is a limit on how much you can put in a 401K. There is a limit on how much you can put in that is untaxed.

[madrchsod]

12. there was a guy in my town that had a very good job

but lived in what can only be described as living in the 19th century.he`d cash a only few of his checks each year but after 20 some years the company had to have his daughter convince him to cash his all his checks...
i wish i had a check to keep...

[Gman]

15. LOL! That's a good job action!

Kudos to this guy for being able to stick this one out.

[Cerridwen]

18. Er, pay him in cash?

Less all taxes, of course. With a receipt showing taxes paid, with his signature, one for company records one for his.

I like what he did and I understand how it upset the "bean counters" but it was a relatively easy fix.

[sandnsea]

19. My son used to collect checks

Not that many of course, but he would have up to ten checks or so at a time before he put them in the bank. He had more checks than most people have bills in their wallet. Of course, he has a girlfriend and has moved out now, so he's got no checks and no cash either. :rofl:

[donco6]

20. We require direct deposit. n/t

[doc03]

21. I knew a couple guys that wouldn't cash their

checks and every few months the company would send them a letter asking them to cash them. One of them died and left several hundred thousand to the company.

[TheCowsCameHome]

24. I worked with an old-timer in the 60's

that didn't cash his paychecks until our employer got after him every now and then. He worked as a bail-bondsman on the outside so he wasn't hurting for money, but what his point was nobody could figure out.

Ironically, he was an real old-time Irish immigrant named Patty Fahey and he had a slew of kids. He used to say kiddingly (?)that he could buy and sell everyone in the room.

Funny that this came thread came up on St. Patricks Day.

[Pavulon]

25. Egos

that is a funny story. No, in most places you are issued the check. If you do not cash it, it is void and is reissued at the discretion of the company. I have worked in union and non union shops and am pretty sure this would cause you a major problem in either.

Most companies would just "fix the glitch", aka fire you.

[Speck Tater]

26. I worked with a guy who NEVER DID cash any of his pay checks.

Every payday he would go around the plant selling raffle tickets to his paycheck. He made more in raffle ticket sales than his paycheck, and the lucky winner got an extra paycheck that week.

[riverdeep]

27. Ha! For a while that was me.

But not to that extreme. I got paid every two weeks, and budgeted things very carefully so that a single check would (usually) cover two months of expenses. I didn't care much for going to the bank unless I had to, so I went about every two months. After about a year of this, my supervisor said the company accountant was getting pissed off because I was creating extra work for him. I started cashing them every month from then on. This was in stark contrast to my co-workers who would often cash their check on their lunch hour on pay day because they were living literally paycheck to paycheck. Any little disruption in their income would start a downward spiral some of them never would recover from.

The thing that gets me is, when this goes on for years, isn't the company getting the benefit of interest? If so, how is this hurting them?

[karlrschneider]

29. That's not any reason to piss off an accountant. It's no different from a receivable

that's way past due (on the other side of the ledger, obviously)

[ThomWV]

28. My Father Had About A Years Worth Piled Up Once

I was stunned ...