HR Cut Off. Again.
About a year ago I wrote about how our third party administrator accidentally terminated my dental coverage, which made for an inconvenient and annoying couple of days since my son was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed.
Today, in a similar situation my FSA debit card failed me at a very critical time: when I was trying to make a large deposit on my kid’s braces. Argh!
As maddening as this was, I’m glad I experienced it. It’s difficult to admit but as a busy HR person, it’s possible to become complacent so that others’ benefits issues go on a to-do list. Always at the top, but on a list nonetheless, whereas when the problem is my own, a fire gets lit under me in a very different way.
In addition, this situation is a good reminder that we offer benefits for strategic reasons, not just out of the goodness of our hearts, and if the benefits aren’t working, we’re hardly getting the return we expected. Our employees are disappointed and angry and no one wins.
So, FSA debit card, as much as I hate you right now, I also thank you for reminding me of these valuable lessons. Thank you for allowing me to experience just being a regular employee, a consumer. Thanks for helping me be a better and more compassionate HR person.
photo by stuartpilbrow
I had all sorts of trouble getting our large customer support phone help desk staff to understand the people who called about missing and late monthly retirement checks were often desperate.
Then our bank messed up and our checks were delayed. Believe me, our staff (and managers) didn’t want to hear what they had no problem telling those people that called – “just be patient…” It is hard when month after month you hear the same problems to take them as seriously as those that are in the midst of the problem. They wanted a fix to be the most important thing and it needed to be done immediately but that wasn’t how they wanted to work on the people that called (those answering the phones or the managers that didn’t address systemic improvements with any vigor).
Now on a personal financial planning matter, no-one shouldn’t have their finances in a state where a few days delay on your paycheck creates havoc – but I figured that wasn’t the right time for personal finance advice. It was easy for me to be patient, I knew my emergency fund would cover until the bank fixed things up.
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