THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 20, 1995 TAG: 9501190171
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
It's ironic, don't you think, that City Manager Jim Rein scheduled April Fool's Day as the start-up date for his new pay plan for municipal employees.
The change from semi-monthly pay periods to biweekly pay periods has created a stir that has confused city employees, the public and even some members of the City Council.
The new pay schedule seems simple enough at first glance: Instead of issuing checks twice a month - which results in slight variations in the length of the pay period, depending on the length of the month - the city would issue checks every two weeks.
It doesn't take a degree in mathematics to figure out that, over a year's time, there are two more pay periods under the new system than under the old. Since there had been no provision for an across-the-board increase in city employees' salaries, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone that the amount of each of the 26 checks would be less than the amount of each of the 24.
But it did.
When employees responded favorably to the plan in surveys last year, they apparently hadn't thought very carefully about how the change would affect their personal finances. When they realized that some adjustments would have to be made, they got nervous and began to raise Cain.
Some council members tried to lay the blame for the confusion at the feet of Mr. Rein, saying he had not informed the council of the full repercussions of the change. Mr. Rein reminded them that the council had known about the plan well in advance and had raised no objections to it.
Better communications could have prevented this whole misunderstanding, but it wasn't the manager's communications with the council that broke down, it was his communications with the people who work for him. by CNB