Final contract paycheck: whose job is it to follow up?

June 11, 2021 12:54 PM

Hello, I recently ended a not-good contract with a not-terribly-together agency. For my final week of work, I submitted my timecard at the end of the day on Friday, as usual. Boss did not approve it - which they normally had. I assumed that the agency would follow up, since they'd also be out money. However, they didn't follow up. Today I had to email Boss and Their Boss and say "Hey, I submitted my timecard for approval a week ago, why didn't you approve it?"

I've been a contractor for a long time, and this is the first time I've run into this issue of not getting my final paycheck on time because Boss decided not to approve it until they were nagged / called on the carpet.

Should it have been my responsibility to follow up for this? Or should the agency have followed up for this? Never mind this particular team at the company, or even this particular agency, I'm trying to figure out what to do in the future, if something like this lack-of-approval ever happens again: should I leave it to the agency, or should I turn into Full Metal Nag?

posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien to Work & Money (2 answers total)

Best answer: I don't know whose responsibility it is technically but it doesn't really matter: I personally would never leave anything to chance where my getting paid is on the line. In this situation, as soon as I noticed the discrepancy, I'd have emailed the boss and copied the agency to get all eyes on getting it fixed ASAP. In my experience, the agency relies heavily on the timecard submitted by the employee/verified by the manager and wouldn't really think to personally chase down hours immediately unless prompted by some kind of unusual event or the next time they were auditing the books.
posted by anderjen at 1:16 PM on June 11, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you do not get paid, your state's Dept. of Labor will likely act on your behalf.
posted by theora55 at 7:11 AM on June 12, 2021