What started as a step back became a growth hack. When it came time to brand my service, I knew exactly what I was good at, where there was a gap, and what people would pay for. 

There is something that payroll administrators can do to mitigate the Big Check Suckerpunch. It’s not shady and doesn’t expose the departing employee to risk.

We’ve all been there. You dust off the old resume and break out in a cold sweat. You write what you think you’re supposed to. Two days or minutes later, the rejection comes. Or your boss tells you you haven’t demonstrated the skills yet. Not because you’re underqualified. Because you’re too specific and you’re expecting people to see the same depth behind the words as you do.

Companies don’t reward you for masking dysfunction. They rely on it. They reward the person patching it up with even more responsibilities. Not the kind that come with a promotion, but responsibilities that come with with more fire drills and more late nights. 

Riddle me this: What responsibility is sometimes handled by senior finance and other times by entry-level HR? What function manages a budget of millions but often gets assigned to the person with the lowest hourly rate? 

Choosing payroll software is like tasting wine with the label on the inside: all polish up front and, too often, regret on the back end. By the time you know what’s inside, you’re already seeing double. Picking the best tool is about knowing in advance what “best” means for your working style. The settings you skip during setup are the ones that bite. 

“Everything is broken and I hate it here.” Have you ever worked at one of those places where the work-arounds become the job? Onboarding someone new isn’t about learning your product or roadmap. It’s about learning where the landmines are, how to use The Beast and navigate the playbook.

Employers have discretion about what's covered in their HRA plan, which is what makes them so useful. The company decides the annual limit, as well as specifications like whether to cover deductible expenses, post-deductible expenses, and/or over-the-counter expenses and services.