Subliminal Messaging with Paychecks
The paycheck is a sacred thing. It is, in many cases, the goal of our employment, making the dollar to provide shelter, food and the occasional widget or night out. The paycheck is not something that any employer with a wish to retain talent should mess with.

I had a boss once who's paychecks were so rubbery that the staff would literally sprint for the bank to cash them before they bounced. It was not unusual for a few of the staff to get their pay and a few others to not quite get it and have to suffer bounce fees.

In my current job, I am scheduled to get paid on the 5th and 20th via direct deposit into my account. The only problem is that the paycheck didn't make it in there on Monday the 5th or Tuesday the 6th. It finally wandered in this morning.

And I have an awful lot of money riding on top of this check. I bought the truck this weekend with cash from my account and wrote a check to P for the other half on the expectation that my paycheck would we smiling patiently and waiting for me to crack it open on Monday morning. But it wasn't there. And then it wasn't there again.

If it hadn't shown up today then I would have to raise holy hell and find out where the trouble was.

But its here today and I can breathe a sigh of relief mostly. The message a late paycheck sends to an employee is the get-your-resume-tuned-up message which is kind of crazy because the PR side of the company is going freaking gangbusters right now. Six days into the new year and we are well ahead of last year's coverage pace. Good stuff but there's always the sneaking suspicion that the "sales" interview the other day wasn't for sales but for PR. I read the want ads looking for the ad to replace me alot more often when there are hiccups in the flow like the last couple of days. But all's mostly well now with the not so minor exception of my stupid health provider continuing to take a LARGE chunk of my income to cover P when she's been removed from the policy so that's gotta be dealt with post haste. Think more than 10% of my take home pay going to cover her, think its been cancelled and I still had to pay the second payment last month and now they want to steal another chunk of my money? Oh no, those fuckers are gonna get a wake up call. Steal my money at your own peril and they would be lucky if they don't have an office within driving distance because I am one of those people that will go into the office to get the shit taken care of. Bad mojo to take Johnny Huh's money, Johnny be packing heat.

But for now, I'm safer and securer until something else comes along and I have to scramble to cover my assets.