Rou

Sometimes people baffle me. Ok, to be fair, I'm baffled by people more often then I like to admit. But I blame them because well... they are strange.

This story is not my own company but comes to me from an online colleague. His company is doing away with paychecks. Physical ones at least. All future payments will be direct deposit online. Now, this isn’t a surprise. It’s been announced for over a year and the company has gone to great lengths to make sure everything goes smoothly.

So now, as the deadline approaches, more and more people are becoming vocal about the issue. A quick poll of the employees discovered that about 500 of the 1500 employees don’t have a bank account to link up with the direct deposit.

I’m at a loss here. Even my poorest, most fiscally irresponsible friends have bank accounts. I’m not entirely certain how I would get by without one. No checks to pay bills? I guess they use money orders? And go to check cashing places every Friday?

And this isn’t exactly a ghetto company. It’s a software firm with an average salary in the 60-80K range.

I do have to hand it to this company though. They’re making the effort to get people signed up. They had ‘Banking Day’ with a few dozen local banks dropping by to set up accounts for people. A handful of signups. Didn’t even make a dent in the problem. The company announced afterward that if no account was specified by date required, the company would set up free savings accounts with the local bank in the name of the employee and it would be up to them to get their money from the bank.

Now, I’m not certain the legality of the push for direct deposit is, but that’s not really my point. According to my colleague, the union there is ok with it, even though many members are up in arms.

I just don’t know how someone in this day and age successfully gets through life without some form of savings to fall back on. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been really thankful to have a nest egg behind me, even if it’s not a huge one. And to do all of your bills out of cash? Insane. Most banks have free checking. USE IT!

I just don’t get it.