Bad timing

This week, HR at the college where I work has not been ~my best friend~

I was asked to stop by an ex-manager's office. When I did so, she told me that she had received a call from HR saying they had somehow overpaid me by a lot of hours several summers ago, and that as a result, their plan was now to just not pay me until they had recovered the full amount. 

Given that this occurred immediately following a crisis call from one of my kids, needing money - the timing was less than perfect, and I was very upset. I can't afford to do without any money coming in for several weeks.  I asked for an explanation of where, when & HOW IN HELL they could have messed up that badly without my noticing, and also that they make a more reasonable repayment arrangement ... manager was not able, at that time, to provide me with any of that in info.... did pass on that it was my responsibility to have noticed, and therefore they did not feel that it was unreasonable to be reasonable re: repayment.....  less than satisfactory, especially given that they're the ones that can't seem to manage to stop sending my pay stubs all over hell and gone!

Sometimes I get them mailed to my house. Sometimes, they send them to my actual mailbox at work. Sometimes they send them to whatever department they figure they should. I never know where they go, and have long since given up on running around looking for them.  I asked for the name of the person in HR that I should speak to, and was not given it - the manager said that she would go back to them and get more information, etc... something I would have preferred to do myself, but whatever...I was extremely upset and stressed, and did't push it.

So anyway ....turns out that the number of hours they'd overpaid was actually only half of what I was told, and it was at one of my lower paying jobs.... so it's really not as bad as it sounded. Plus, the manager went to bat for me, and forced them to spread it over several pay cheques - something they did not want to do - but since they are doing it, they wanted me to sign a contract agreeing to it.

So today, I stop by my ex office, and the paper I am to sign is there... in an unsealed envelope left with a coworker detailing the amount owing and the salary I was making and so on - all of it, of course NONE OF ANYONE'S BUSINESS. (Well, aside from the manager, myself, and HR)

The best part of the whole affair?

Today, I got an email ~inviting~ me to participate in a survey about how HR is doing .... do they provide timely information? respect confidentiality? etc etc etc...... Uh... you seriously want me to do this?

I did the survey, of course