So annoyed!

[mommax3]

We are still waiting on our October bonus.....you know, the one that was supposed to go in October 1st 8O . DH called down to Randolph today to verify that they received his signed contract. They said that they had it, and he asked when the money would be disbursed, and the woman on the other end said that they had a huge stack of contracts sitting there, but if we didn't hear anything in TWO WEEKS to call back.

DH is leaving in a week to take a board review course. He hasn't registered for it because we were counting on the money from the bonus to pay for it. Now he will have to pay a 10% late fee when he registers on-site, and he may end up having to pay for it with a credit card.

Our opinion of the Air Force has fallen so far in the years since residency....it is unbelievable. I hope I haven't discouraged anyone with this venting, but there aren't many people in real life that I can blow off steam to about this because they don't understand the ins and outs of military medicine.

Sally

[DCJenn]

Sally-

I completely feel your pain. It's not just the AF right now apparently because we're in the exact same situation. Plus the dipwads lost the paperwork for the Boards reimbursement. Again.

Any you know what really steams me is that 99% of the time it's the civilians who are contract employees who don't give a rat's ass because they function under the illusion that we're all just raking in the money and "probably don't need it anyway" (a direct quote overheard by my husband). Seriously, not ONE of our payroll problems has been solved (or even helped) by ANY of the civilians in ANY of the three different payroll offices we've had to deal with. Once we can get through the peons to someone with some military knowledge who actually knows what forms need to be filled out, etc., everything has been fine.

So....my task for next week before I leave is to go to Walter Reed and track down who the people are, find out exactly what they think they need, what they think they are missing, where the contract is....and then quite possibly- have my head explode in the lobby.

Jenn

[houseelf]

Sally & Jenn,

I'm sorry about your frustration, but this sort of thing happens to some degree outside the military. Lately, DH is going to all sorts of conferences which we pay first and then submit receipts to the program. Expenses for hotel rooms, airline tickets, restaurant tabs, and taxis are sitting on our credit card and the program is taking its own sweet time to pay us back while we incur the interest. VERY frustrating.

Kelly

Kelly,
We have had the exact same problem. Fortunately, the airfare is paid for in advance by the university. We have had repeated problems with delays in processing paperwork, lost paperwork, etc....and those expenses sitting on credit cards. It is really frustrating.

[mommax3]

I know how annoying that is you guys.....we have to submit all that stuff for reimbursement, too.....but this bonus is part of his salary that we depend on each month......it is thousands of dollars.....and our cushion for the entire year......so it goes without saying that things are looking very bleak at our house right now. If it was reimbursment that I was talking about, I probably (depending on my mood ) wouldn't be complaining as much.

BUT......I hope you guys get reimbursed soon! There is nothing worse than feeling you are being financially held hostage by an entity that has no name or face.

Sally

Yes, the bonus definitely sounds different than a conference reimbursement! I can't imagine waiting for that much money!

The conference stuff is just annoying because it happens so often....Eric has been traveling about once a month. So, once we *finally* get reimbursed for the previous charges, he has already racked up at least another $500 that we have to carry for a least a month (or at least more than one credit card cycle).

[peggyfromwastate]

One good thing about all these posts I've read about the fiascos of military pay is that I have had very low expectations and so far they have given us all our travel pay much earlier than expected and we've been paid *almost* correctly since day 1. (Can it ever be perfect? Nooooo.) We were paid the cost of living for yakima, Wa (needless to say, that is much much less over there than in the Bethesda area) for about 6 weeks. Still haven't seen that money, but we'll work on that after DH finishes his anatomy exam!

But I am thankful for all the stories nonetheless. They continue to keep my expectations low, so when my fears are realized, perhaps I won't flip out as severely as otherwise!

Sally, I'm really sorry about your bonus, though.

And Jenn, honestly, aren't you guys making "way more than you need" anyway? JUST KIDDING!

Peggy

[Rapunzel]

Sally, I know you probably don't want to mention specifics for your husband's salary but from what Jon has told me when he starts getting this bonus (ie post-residency) it will be $30,000+ every year in one lump sum. That is quite a huge chunk of money for the AF to be dragging their feet on - I'd be pretty hacked off myself. Don't you have any recourse - after all your husband does have a contract with the AF and they are under obligation to fulfill it legally aren't they? I could see how this situation could screw up a family's financial situation (ie mortgage payments, bills, med school debt payments, groceries, etc) for a very long time.... (Not to mention the potential for many of the above situations to cause credit headaches).

Jennifer

[Rapunzel]

As a tangent to this conversation, I'll add that our experience with the Air Force and their pay office has been less than stellar to-date. In short their pay office managed to screw up my husband's pay over the course of two years causing us to have severe financial problems at one point as a direct result. The infuriating part for us was that there is no one accountable for mistakes and there is not a clear line of authority and delianation as to who is in charge of exactly what within the department (or if their is they don't release names). It is virtually impossible to find out what person incorrectly filled out or incorrectly filed various forms! If a major company the size of the Air Force functioned this way towards its employees I really think they would be under investigation - or at the very least it would face the unionization of its employees.

Jennifer

[mommax3]

This lump sum (not ever near as much as you think because of the taxes taken off the top before you ever see it, btw ) is paid upon the receipt of a signed contract by the physician saying that they will be working for the military for the next year. This year, the contracts were not available until much later than usual (you have to find them online and print them out, sign it, and have some other people at your base sign it) and DH heard that it was due to quibbling at the congressional level about the military budget & how the monies would be allocated. He also heard that the OB/GYN bonus (which is one of the higher ones) was almost DECREASED, so if getting the amount we expect/count on means we have to wait a little longer, I guess I can live with that. So it is hard to even know who to be mad at......I guess this goes along with working for the government. Additionally, they used to be able to fax the signed contract back to Randolph so that it could be put into the system, but now they have to mail it.......so now some poor slobs at Randolph have stacks and stacks of contracts to put into the system, with a bunch of angry doctors breathing down their necks. Once it is in the system, it takes (usually) two days for it to show up in our bank account.

It really is screwing things up for us......we are re-activating our old checking account so that we can use the line of credit attached to it, and if our credit cards weren't maxed before, they certainly will be by the end of this month!

DH is incredibly stressed about it so I am trying to stay (outwardly) calm since he has oral boards in two weeks and doesn't need me freaking out. It will be resolved one way or another........it is out of our hands, that's for sure!!!!

Sally

[DCJenn]

Rick's contract went in today and they told him to expect the bonus "way before" two months. I'm expecting it by the end of November at this rate.

Jennifer- there are a few different bonuses- there's one that comes from finishing residency, one for finishing internship, one for after internship if you go to a staff job, plus the one for speciality pay. We got the bonus for finishing internship in the pay, the bonus for finishing residency and the bonus for specialty pay. We won't get the staff pay for a few more years yet...


jenn

[Rapunzel]

Jennifer, do you mean a bonus for finishing residency and then a bonus for finishing fellowship (rather than internship)? Because no one in the Air Force ever mentioned to Jon that he would recieve a bonus upon completing his internship (which finished about 16 months ago)! Did you really mean to say internship? If so, was Jon supposed to request this when he submitted his paperwork to the AF that he completed his intern year?

Jennifer

[mommax3]

What I recall is that DH's regular pay went up after internship, moreso than it went up after subsequent years of residency. It wasn't a lump sum bonus, as I recall.

After all my complaining, the bonus went in this morning. Thank God!

[DCJenn]

Sally- Whew hew- you just got your paycheck for the year!! (not that you don't deserve a substantially higher salary as the SAHM!)

As for the raise after internship, according to Rick it's technically considered a bonus but it's included in their monthly pay like BAH and BAS.

Jennifer, check Jon's stubs, he should have received a NOTICABLE increase in pay at the end of internship year. You may not have noticed if you thought it was a part of the BAH increase from moving to Boston.

Jenn

After all my complaining, the bonus went in this morning. Thank God!

Yeah!!! I'm glad that you have one less stress to deal with!