Christmas Arrived Early :)

[Coronita]

Christmas unexpectedly arrived a few days earlier for me.

Back in July, my company announced that they were going to do an extra 401k match until the end of the year as a way of saying thanks to everyone.

However, overachiever savers like me were already done with our maximum 401k match back in June, because i typically frontload my 401k match for the first half of the year so the second half I can have a bigger take home check for the summer and winter holidays.

I asked if people like me would receive the extra 401k match, they said no. HR said the payroll system isn’t intelligent enough, and can’t make a 401k match contribution into a pay period if the employee didn’t make a 401k contribution into that pay period. So essentially, for the rest of the year I wasn’t going to get the extra 401k match.

I made a big stink about this because at any other employer, it doesn’t matter how/when you make your 401k contributions, if you made the maximum contributions to qualify for the entire year’s match, you got the match even for the pay periods you weren’t contributing anything to…I mentioned that this unfairly punishes overachieving savers, and it’s a wrong message to send to people just starting out.

Well, it apparently went to the CFO who agreed with me. My company calculated how much I was eligible to get with the extra match for the rest of the year, and they offered to give me a lump sum “incentive” bonus paid at the last pay period of this year. It would be a lump sum that is taxable though. Something is better than nothing, so I took the offer.

Well, today I got the lump sum amount as an extra bonus for the missed extra 401k match

…But while I was looking at the paystub (which I rarely look at), I noticed another thing…Since July, the ADP system WAS giving me the matching 401k contribution even though I already maxed out. So HR is wrong.

I got all of my extra match since July and also got an “incentive” bonus for Christmas.

So I guess the old saying is true: squeaky wheel gets the oil..and sometimes a little more…lol… It’s not my job to correct HR and explain to them how our payroll system works…Not my problem, heh heh.

Happy Holidays!

[scaredyclassic]

Pay stubs can be mysterious. So many codes. Even HR can’t figure it out.

Meow wolf covers these issues

[teaboy]

#humblebrag

..but easy on the humble, pls. 🙂

Merry Xmas, all!
tb

[Coronita]

[quote=teaboy]#humblebrag

..but easy on the humble, pls. 🙂

Merry Xmas, all!
tb[/quote]

After all the shit my company put some of us through, it’s not the monetary amount that matters. It’s just the feeling that I got something more from them that they normally didn’t offer.

Finally, I indirectly reimbursed for all the new smartphones I bought my staff out of my own pocket because my company at some time was so damn cheap that they didn’t want mobile engineers to have the latest phones to do their work, and after months of jumping through red tape and trying to justify roughly a drop in the bucket $6000 for a company so that people could do their work, I got hit with a bunch of paperwork about a “cell phone policy” and how part of the phone would be reimbursed but part of it was on the employee, and there was stipend for the cell phone plan, but we didn’t need a plan just a unlocked phone to run software. The amount of the cell phone plan stipend + half the reimbursement cost of the phone was more than just a phone without a plan, but oh no, they didn’t understand that so I had to fill out a bunch of other justification for this and that…And months later still no movement.

Finally I got fed up with it and just bought everyone a phone. My staff was happy, because they got a new shiny new phone. It wasn’t attached to the company, and it was attached to me on a honor system “loan”. And the honor system deal was, if you leave this company and I’m still here, you need to return the phone back to me. But if I leave the company before you do, you can keep the phone and there’s no strings attached to the company and this phone and it’s not considered company property, since I will never seek reimbursement from the company….You know, small things that builds staff loyalty, so that if you do end up leaving a company and need to build a new team, you’ll have a much better success poaching people from your old team…

Of course, when my boss found out about it, instead of say thanks for taking care of this that was frustrating the entire mobile team for months and keeping up work morale, the conversation went like:

Boss: “You’re making the company look bad..”

Me: “Ooh really???? And how am I doing that?”

Boss: “You’re making the company look like it’s cheap…”

Me: “Ooh really??? Ya think?”

Boss: “We don’t have an equipment policy to allow mobile engineers have a company provided phone beyond the standard cell phone plan based on a usage/need basis”…

Me: “Ooh really? The company doesn’t ask server engineers to bring their own servers to do their job, why is the company asking my mobile engineers to bring their own phones so they can do their job???”

Never had an equipment plan purchase problem afterwards, including all the MacBook Pro M1 Max we’re getting now, minus one fun discussion around that too.

IT department wanted to get us a MacBook Pro M1Max with a 16″ display with 32GB…
My engineers didn’t want to lug around a 16″ display and since it was going to be connected to a monitor most of the time, it’s useless and they opted for a 14″ display but wanted 64 GB of ram instead so that they could run virtualize better and do multi-compiles easier….

I got into another argument over that…..

Because although 16″ display + 32GB costs exactly the same as 14′ display + 64GB….
64Gb was considered “wasting money”…
But 16″ display instead of 14” was not…..
Had to jump through hoops with that too by finally put that on my p-card and said “oops, I made a mistake with the order of 12 machines….too bad I can’t cancel all the orders now because they are being built….”

Frustrating most of the senior management telling me what to do, have no clue about mobile…except one boss’s boss, who gets it and fortunately I get along with him so far, otherwise I probably would have been pipped an fired a long time ago, lol. The CEO knows more about mobile this his staff, and ideally working with him directly probably would be 10x easier…He actually gets it. And I haven’t had a problem recently with funding directly asking him for it with boss’s boss. It was interesting most everyone else is afraid to talk to him. But perhaps they are afraid he’ll call them out on their bullshit, which is exactly what happened in the last meeting. lol. It was the funniest thing. These people put this like 32 page powerpoint presentation that would have lasted 2 hours, and 15 minutes into it, he basically said he has ADHD and can’t stand meetings that last longer than 45 minutes and told told them redo it. I took 15 minutes, and unofficial cleared for funding. Go figure.

Thanks Piggs for being my shrink…I need one to deal with this shit, but it’s much cheaper this way….

[plm]

401Ks are so overly complicated. Being a max out saver myself, my understanding is that most companies offer the true up but that is calculated at the end of year and paid beginning of next year. For me the matching contribution stopped but the non matching contribution continued.

Also Christmas might have came twice for you as well as early. For me the 401k contribution applies to bonuses as well as salary so the true up should take that into account so you should get a true up of your bonus as well. Merry Christmas!

[Coronita]

[quote=plm]401Ks are so overly complicated. Being a max out saver myself, my understanding is that most companies offer the true up but that is calculated at the end of year and paid beginning of next year. For me the matching contribution stopped but the non matching contribution continued.

Also Christmas might have came twice for you as well as early. For me the 401k contribution applies to bonuses as well as salary so the true up should take that into account so you should get a true up of your bonus as well. Merry Christmas![/quote]

Whelp. You are correct. That’s what the discrepancy was. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the match was more than what should have been on my base salary…I thought company does a 5% match on the base and an extra prorated 5% match starting July. But the amount on my paystub for 2021 is higher than that and couldn’t figure it out…

So it also seems like they did a match on the retention bonus they paid us employees in San Diego when they decided to close the SD office and have everyone here permanently work remote….

I guess they were afraid in 2020 people would just quit so they handed out 25% retention bonuses to get people to stay until Feb 2021, and paid them out end of Feb….We thought they would ask us to transition stuff over to a Florida staff, pay them a lot less, and then get rid of us..but it didn’t happen with this COVID economy since finding people was such a pain in the ass in general.everywhere…

So the 401k match appeared to apply to the retention bonus paid in Feb 2021 and also the the extra bonus I got in December. a match for a lump sum paid match. Ha ha..

I really should pay closer attention to the pay stub….lol…My last company was a startup and towards the last 4 months and the employer withheld the 401k but didn’t deposit the amount into our accounts for 2 months. I was the first person to notice it and called them out on it….Made sure they paid it, then I stopped contributing to 401k and shortly after quit the company….They ran out of money shortly after.

Merry Christmas everyone !!!

[scaredyclassic]

For 2022, spring for real therapy.

I’m seeing 2 therapists…actually helping me. (Marriage and solo). Should’ve done this years ago.

[Escoguy]

[quote=scaredyclassic]For 2022, spring for real therapy.

I’m seeing 2 therapists…actually helping me. (Marriage and solo). Should’ve done this years ago.[/quote]

Thanks for sharing. I think I should take this up too:

Once I realized that I was at risk of bombarding my work colleagues with “my thoughts and feelings” and it would waste their time and mine.

Therapy may be more efficient as it keeps the day focused,

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=Escoguy][quote=scaredyclassic]For 2022, spring for real therapy.

I’m seeing 2 therapists…actually helping me. (Marriage and solo). Should’ve done this years ago.[/quote]

Thanks for sharing. I think I should take this up too:

Once I realized that I was at risk of bombarding my work colleagues with “my thoughts and feelings” and it would waste their time and mine.

Therapy may be more efficient as it keeps the day focused,[/quote]

I’m surprised at how much insight I gain thru what seems like a pretty obvious process.

[Coronita]

You don’t need therapy when it comes to work. You just need some piece of office equipment, a baseball bat, and 45 minutes drive to remote location….then you throw the office equipment down the hill and at the bottom beat the crap out of it with a bat….

Just like in the movies…

Try it… Works really well.

[scaredyclassic]

I’ve seen some middle aged lawyers just kind of implode from mental issues.

I actually feel more able to keep working. I was in a bit of an emotional tailspin.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I’ve seen some middle aged lawyers just kind of implode from mental issues.

I actually feel more able to keep working. I was in a bit of an emotional tailspin.[/quote]

I get annoyed each time the company I work for executes their “exit strategy” and gets acquired….

Great for shareholders, terrible if you were hoping to build something that lasts.

I never bitch about things to my coworkers because you never know when it come back around and bite you in the ass…

You guys should totally play the game Grand Mafia. Teaches you real life work politics survival skills.

You have to know which factions to please , what to say, and when to throw someone under the bus to survive in the game, lol.

[svelte]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I’ve seen some middle aged lawyers just kind of implode from mental issues.

I actually feel more able to keep working. I was in a bit of an emotional tailspin.[/quote]

I can imagine. My best friend growing up had set a course on being a lawyer. Laid the foundation since middle school. Got into Berkeley and drowned at Stinson Beach in Marin County his sophomore year. Man that woke me up.

Because of him I’ve often thought about being a lawyer but am glad I never did because I think the stress would kill me. I really do.

Back to my friend. Don’t coddle your children. Let them stub their toe early in life. I’m convinced he was too sheltered at home and when he broke free from his parents he ran amok.

[svelte]

[quote=scaredyclassic]For 2022, spring for real therapy.

I’m seeing 2 therapists…actually helping me. (Marriage and solo). Should’ve done this years ago.[/quote]

Good for you. I’ve gotten in mental quagmires from time to time and worked them out on my own. Probably not a good thing…I’ve had friends who sought help and that is probably the better course.

I’ve been reading a lot about the traits of highly intelligent people. One of them is that they tend to overanalyze things and that leads to mental traps. Let an impartial third party help you avoid those.

Addendum: Vitamin B3. Since I’ve started taking that, I think it has helped me avoid mental traps. We’ve had several very serious situations happen lately that would ordinarily sent me into a tailspin and that hasn’t happened. I think that is because of the B3. Look into it. You owe it to yourself.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=svelte][quote=scaredyclassic]For 2022, spring for real therapy.

I’m seeing 2 therapists…actually helping me. (Marriage and solo). Should’ve done this years ago.[/quote]

Good for you. I’ve gotten in mental quagmires from time to time and worked them out on my own. Probably not a good thing…I’ve had friends who sought help and that is probably the better course.

I’ve been reading a lot about the traits of highly intelligent people. One of them is that they tend to overanalyze things and that leads to mental traps. Let an impartial third party help you avoid those.

Addendum: Vitamin B3. Since I’ve started taking that, I think it has helped me avoid mental traps. We’ve had several very serious situations happen lately that would ordinarily sent me into a tailspin and that hasn’t happened. I think that is because of the B3. Look into it. You owe it to yourself.[/quote]

I take a lot of pills. I’ll throw b3 in there, see what happens.

I believe in garlic and curcumin…for the body. But my mind…it’s…fucked up…

I’m on the fence about Zoloft tho. Very resistant to meds. Perhaps I want to hold on to my anxiety…

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