And that’s how you do it, folks. In American society, it has become all too common for individuals, and organizations, not to accept responsibility for mistakes or errors even when the onus is clear. (I cannot speak with any real knowledge of this occurrence in other cultures, however, my travels abroad lead me to believe that this may also be the case elsewhere…). This is unfortunate because, where appropriate, admitting that you have erred is the fastest way to diffuse conflict. Once you have said, “It was my mistake,” you move the other party past the need to sort blame, and its associated anger, and towards redress.

Yesterday, I attempted to log in to my HR account with University B to check on the status of my leave, only to be greeted with an error message. The message stated that my current role is classified as a non-benefits eligible position in which leave does not accrue. Okay, that seems about right. However, what happened to the leave that I accrued during my two-and-a-half years of full-time work with University B? I hadn’t received a vacation payout, so where did it go? While the HR department is understaffed like most other departments at University B (and elsewhere in the country) the division representative responded to me fairly quickly and simply stated, “It must have been an oversight on our end. We will process this for the March 15th supplemental pay period.” It turns out that my change in status should have generated a vacation payout but, for whatever reason, it just didn’t happen. However, true to her word, this evening I received a pay advice from University B for March 15th.

So…yea. 99.00% of me wants to throw all of my vacation leave towards debt (approximately $3200.00) and allocate my regular part-time pay towards my March income that will be used for April. (Spoiler: It would bring my total debt below $80K). Thoughts?