Silly HR requirements, and how you solved them

[jimbogumbo]

One summer we needed a course for majors covered that only I could really teach, and we were asked (begged) by another department to offer a service course that they really needed covered. Again, I was the only one qualified. As Assistant Chair I was already obligated to teach one course at no extra pay, and I agreed to teach the other as an overload (a pittance compared to the one month of academic year pay otherwise due). HR said no. Couldn't have administrator teach overload in home department. I asked if I would be allowed to teach the service course if offered in another college. Told yes. So effectively they were okay with me teaching an overload for a course I was not qualified to teach. I asked if the course could be offered by service department, and me teach it. Yes, but they have no budget for it.

Solution. I was ready to take a break from administrative position for awhile anyway, so I resigned. My replacement cost more than I. I taught both courses. What would it have cost? Nothing plus pittance. What did it cost? Two months of my academic year salary, slight extra cost of new Assistant Chair, PLUS the MUCH larger cost of all my (unbudgeted) accumulated unused vacation pay.

We received a thank you for solving the problem from admin.

[AJ_Katz]

We received a thank you for solving the problem from admin.

Really?

I'd also be curious to know how long this whole process took.  I'm guessing the new assistant chair was an internal hire?

[mamselle]

Just pondering...maybe they saw your action of 'giving up' your admin role as an unselfish, sacrificial move to "take one for the team," and didn't realize that there were financial issues going on behind the scenes?

Sometimes upper admins don't seem to 'get' the tangled messes people deal with in the trenches, and just see everything positionally. if that were the case, they might not have realized you would have been given less pay by keeping your vaunted 'moving-up' position (in their eyes), nor that you were tired of being on the game and wanted out anyway.

Just...pondering...

M. 

[clean]

HR is its own critter.  They have rules and regulations from the university and the state. Then there are the rules and regulations that they dont know how to implement.

My own issue is this:
The STATE has a rule that says that (essentially for public school teachers, but we are covered) if you announce that you will not be returning in the Fall, that the STATE will not allow the university to pay its share of your health insurance. EVEN WHEN faculty are on a 9 month pay period and have their health care costs for the YEAR (including summer) deducted, the STATE will not pay its share, so IF you give your employer notice, they will tell you to come talk to them about COBRA to cover your health insurance costs. 

SOLUTION!  MY advice, and I have provided it often and it has been used by some of them, is to WAIT until AFTER 8/1 (the last summer paycheck, so that the state's contribution has been made) to submit your notice.

I tell everyone this:  "IF YOU are not looking out for YOU, then NO ONE IS!!"  The state will always do what it thinks is in its best interest, regardless what that means for you! 

(This is not unique to my current state!  I first encountered this when I worked at a university in South Carolina.  There it was worse!  A coworker gave notice in April that he would not be back in the Fall.  So they CANCELLED his Summer Classes (and cutting his expected salary), and told him to see them about COBRA (increasing his expenses) and not to forget, to Scrape the Parking Decal From His CAR!!  (and this was just part of the HR checklist!  IT was not personal, it was just following the checklist that had been developed years before!)


So, as much as you may WANT to give your employer the opportunity to advertise the position and find a replacement, that is not YOUR problem!  It is why your dean and chair get 'paid the big bucks'.   YOU didnt create the rules, you simply have to operate within them.   IF you are willing and able to pay the state's share of your annual expenses (summer health insurance), then give notice.  Otherwise, THEIR lack of an opportunity to find a replacement for you is a result of THEIR rules and poor planning.

AS I said, this is a state law here, so their hands are tied.  I m positive that it is not something that HR takes personally, and it is certainly NOT a surprise to THEM when it happens.  The poor reaction from the dean and chair because they think that YOU are to blame for them having to find a replacement is no longer your problem.  Remember, at that point, you dont work there anymore !  What are they going to do -- Fire You???

You can feel sorry for them, OR you can pay 3 months of COBRA payments so that YOU dont feel guilty!  Personally, I would feel more guilt by cutting my own pay because THEY (state legislature)  made stupid, shortsighted laws! 

[jimbogumbo]

We received a thank you for solving the problem from admin.

Really?

I'd also be curious to know how long this whole process took.  I'm guessing the new assistant chair was an internal hire?

They always are. Over 60+ years there has never been an outside Chair or Assistant Chair in this Department. Iw as recently replaced again (three stints), inside. Current replacement is a former VC. The one I mentioned was a former Chair in the Department, and former interim VC.

[lightning]

A lot of our staff (especially HR) tend to abandon their posts a few days before major holidays (without using vacation or sick days), thinking nobody will notice.

I once needed something done by HR before they left for Xmas break. This was for a time-senstivie search. I gave them plenty of notice. When I followed up, a few days before Xmas break, I was told that nobody was in the HR office until the new year.

The solution was to call the people above them, and to keep going until someone answered the phone, and ask them to take care of what HR was supposed to take care of. When they said it wasn't their job, I tell them it is their job if the people under them who are supposed to do it, are not around to do it.

The next morning, someone in HR showed up to their job and called me back. They were not happy, and I didn't care that they were not happy. This isn't the first time this has happened. I had to do the same thing just this last summer, when no one in HR would come in-person to their office to take care of a routine transaction (I'm almost sure most of them were not even in the city anymore), using COVID as the excuse, even though there were some tasks that could only be done in their physical office. There are some records that are only kept as paper records and a few legal processes that are only executed on paper. I contacted their bosses and insisted that they, HR's bosses, take care of my request. Sure enough, the next day, I got an email asking me when I want to come to HR's physical office. The person was not happy with me, and I didn't give a s**t.

To answer the OP, sometimes you can get around silly HR requirements, by making HR follow their own rules.

[jimbogumbo]

Well, that is exactly what I did as stated in the post. But, I did end up doing exactly what the University needed to be done, albeit at great financial cost to a budget strapped campus. The only reason I had agreed to the request in the first place was for the usual two reasons at my campus. To help students who really needed it, and to save the campus money.

[Stockmann]

Not exactly an HR requirement, but it fits - at my previous employer I wanted to apply for certain grant funding, and to do so I needed my institution to create an account on the funding agency's system (it had to be my institution who created the account, I couldn't create it myself on the agency's system) and the office in charge of doing that sort of thing told me I needed to prove to them that I worked for the institution - so basically I had to prove to my employer that they were my employer. Naively, I showed up with my university ID and my last pay stub. I was told I needed Document A (a piece of paper I'd never had). Long story short, I eventually descended into the dimly-lit HR abyss dungeon underworld basement and Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Illumination the demon in charge the HR dude said that Document A was no longer issued. The guy at the first office then told me I needed Document B (which I'd also never had). It turned out Document B wasn't applicable in my case. Eventually I met up with the office boss (not the useless dude I'd been dealing with) and we were able to locate a document that I had and they would accept.

[AvidReader]

(This is not unique to my current state!  I first encountered this when I worked at a university in South Carolina.  There it was worse!  A coworker gave notice in April that he would not be back in the Fall.  So they CANCELLED his Summer Classes (and cutting his expected salary), and told him to see them about COBRA (increasing his expenses) and not to forget, to Scrape the Parking Decal From His CAR!!  (and this was just part of the HR checklist!  IT was not personal, it was just following the checklist that had been developed years before!)

When I left my abysmal job last year, I was required to return (among other things) every textbook I had been given at the start of the year (including one discontinued during the year) and my expired parking permit.

AR.

[kaysixteen]

So what would have happened had you refused to give all these things back?   Or any of these things back?

[clean]

So what would have happened had you refused to give all these things back?   Or any of these things back?

The threat was that the last paycheck would be available in HR when you delivered the last of their items there

[Hibush]

Not exactly an HR requirement, but it fits - at my previous employer I wanted to apply for certain grant funding, and to do so I needed my institution to create an account on the funding agency's system (it had to be my institution who created the account, I couldn't create it myself on the agency's system) and the office in charge of doing that sort of thing told me I needed to prove to them that I worked for the institution - so basically I had to prove to my employer that they were my employer. Naively, I showed up with my university ID and my last pay stub. I was told I needed Document A (a piece of paper I'd never had). Long story short, I eventually descended into the dimly-lit HR abyss dungeon underworld basement and Phil, the Prince of Insufficient Illumination the demon in charge the HR dude said that Document A was no longer issued. The guy at the first office then told me I needed Document B (which I'd also never had). It turned out Document B wasn't applicable in my case. Eventually I met up with the office boss (not the useless dude I'd been dealing with) and we were able to locate a document that I had and they would accept.

This is exactly why some schools seem to get funded over and over, and others just don't have a lot of grant success. They are like the student who can't show up for the exam and wonder why theit GPA isn't higher.

[Mobius]

HR would never get involved in that at most places, so I find its involvement weird. HR just seems to be involved in making sure policies are followed when hiring and making sure benefits enrollment is taken care of. Overloads and budgets are a chair and dean-level issue.

[clean]

AT my prior job (over 20 years ago) we were encouraged to apply for some grant that would get us started in the embrionic world of online classes.  They wanted us to apply for a grant to be paid for the course design (so that they owned the class).  That was fine, but after we did the application part, they decided that they didnt have the money they expected and asked us to cut back on the labor charge.

The bottom line for me was that when HR got involved with it, they wanted the employee to pay the state's costs as well, as part of the grant... something like 1/3 of the promised stipend was being reallocated to state benefit costs.  I drew the line at Unemployment Insurance.  I told them that I would NOT pay for unemployment insurance as there was NO WAY i could collect, or ever become 'unemployed' from this assignment!  When they later came back and suggested that we THEN cut the pay amount as well, I told them "no, they had already cut the pay enough by making me pay the state's costs out of the promised stipend.  I would not work for less, so if they dont have the money they will have to find someone willing to work for what they were offering."    It went unfunded! 

Unemployment Insurance!?!  Indeed! 

[AvidReader]

So what would have happened had you refused to give all these things back?   Or any of these things back?

The threat was that the last paycheck would be available in HR when you delivered the last of their items there

Same here.

AR.