Tales From The Day Program - Time Studies

I am not sure that I have written about this incident before, but I was looking though the Tales From The Day Program posts and thought I would add this to the collection.

When DC first started attending his day program, he split his time between two departments - 2 days  working in the greenhouse and 3 days in the "recreation/piecework" program.

After about a year (maybe less), I was told by the head of that program that there wasn't really enough in the piecework program (mostly making dog biscuits) to keep him busy. He was quick at making the dog biscuits and had a lot of down-time every day. She thought it would better suit him to just work in the green house 5 days a week.

So, he was transitioned over to the greenhouse 5 days a week, year round.

The pay he received in the piecework program was not an hourly rate, but "piecework rate". The rate of pay for him in the greenhouse was hourly, subminimum wage. 

(I have written about this - These were jobs created for the clients who can not go out into the mainstream workforce and hold a mainstream job. They were not taking jobs away from people who can earn minimum wage. If the job was not created for him, he would not have a job)

In layman's terms his hourly rate was determined by what they call time studies where they gauge his productiveness against someone doing the same job out in the mainstream and adjust accordingly.

Time Studies are mandatory and done, I believe, twice per year.

As I said, DC worked in the greenhouse 5 days a week, year-round . At some point, and for reasons I do not remember right now (but I do believe it was a budget thing to save money) - they decided to move all of the greenhouse workers into the Dog Biscuit department for the winter every year, which meant he would go back to his piecework rate for the winter. I did question this, being I was told a few years back that there was not enough for him to do there, but I was told it was busier than it had been back them.

Right before they were ready to move into the dog biscuit room in October, DC has a time study done in the greenhouse. 

A letter came home that DC's rate would be increased from 4.25 per hour to something like 6.00 per hour (I am making up these amounts because I don't remember them exactly, but I do remember, it being a bigger jump than usual and about that much).

Then they moved all or most of the Greenhouse workers into the dog biscuit making room and to the piecework rate - so he never really got to earn that increased rate before the move.

In April, they all transitioned back to the greenhouse. By that time, DC was due for another time study - even though he hadn't been in the greenhouse for 6 months.

As you may have guessed, his productivity was not where it has been in October after not being there for 6 months and his rate was reduced to close to (or maybe even below) what he was making before the October time study.

So, on paper for whoever they need to report these things to (I'm guessing the state) they have him and possibly others getting pretty decent rate increases, without ever actually being paid that hourly wage.

(DC MAY have gotten that rate for a week - I'm not sure he did, but if so, it was only one week)

Yes, we certainly met about this and yes, they are perfectly aware that I thought this was pretty shady. They agreed to adjust the timing of the time studies to more suit the times he was actually working in the Greenhouse but it was funny that his rate never increased that much again.

Listen ... this is not about the money. He earned very little each month, but it IS about not taking advantage of the people they are supposed to be serving.

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You may also want to visit: The page: Tales From The Day Program

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This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

Morning Drive Collection - Travel

 A Continuation from the last post: I will save up a few before posting going forward but both of these have to do with travel, so I am putting them out together.

All about travel and some random anxiety...

05-Morning Drive - Travel and Life Angst (Before Trip)

06 Morning Drive Star Trek Cruise 2025

Links to posts  mentioned in this video

2020 Cruise (as mentioned in this video) - Star Trek Cruise 2020

Nana Visitor post (as mentioned in this video) - Star Trek Missions NY (and a little bit Reading Rainbow)

Mustaches (as mentioned in this video) - Let DC Be DC

Chase Masterson - Be Kind Campaign (as mentioned in this video)

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In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism (or as I have to to realize - mine) to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

The "Morning Drive" Collection

 

From TakingStep.com:

"I thought that since this site has been somewhat abandoned as of late, I might try videos that, in my mind, may take less time to post.

Instead of talking to myself while driving to work (since no one else listens to me), I thought it might be helpful to me to imagine someone might be listening.

Anyway, these may be just random thoughts about me, about something that might be going on around me, an explanation about the way my mind works, maybe some DC, or just some off topic interests"

(The Thumbnails post very oddly here... I don't know why)

01–Morning Drive – Spreadsheet Anxiety – February 4, 2024

02-Morning Drive – Public Speaking – February 5, 2025

03-Morning Drive – Birthdays and being the center of attention.

This one kind of goes along with my previous public speaking video

04-Morning Drive – Snow Day – In Limbo

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In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

GT Independence. Ever Heard of Them?

This post is a continuation of a post I wrote on my main blog - Here

Let me warn you that  the original post is a LONG post, but the entire situation is so ridiculous, I felt the need to continue to document the incompetence here, as I know it is not over.

At the time I began writing this post (July 20, 2024) I had 232 emails to, from and about GT Independence. That count begins in early March 2024. I will update that total when I publish this post. I am going to wait to publish this until I have at least 3 weeks of no issues with GT (or if the post just becomes too long with the on-going issues).

Quick backstory - 

"Late December/early January I received a letter and then an email from GT Independence introducing themselves as our new Fiduciary Intermediary (FI). Basically, they run the payroll for any of the Department of Developmental Services clients who employ staff as support."

It has been all downhill from there.

(See Reviews - as of 8/3/2024 and wonder why anyone would even consider using them; but our state did. At the time I posted this link their rating on The Better Business Bureau was 2.18 Stars BBB . I don't know what it will be when I finally post this. - BBB Complaints. Yelp 2.0 Stars. I can't figure out how to link google reviews, but you can search them if you need to).

In reply to the last email I sent in the previous post (yes, they finally did reply and I am not sure if it was because I wrote the post and tagged them or what, but they replied)

*Emails below and through the end of this post have not been edited in any way other than the removal/replacement of names.*

Email From GT Independence - July 29, 2024

Good afternoon, 

 

The missing pay from both checks 07/12 and 07/19 will be processed today we apologize for the inconvenience if you have any more issues please reach back out to us

Email to GT Independence - (Wednesday) July 31, 2024

Thank you for the email, but it did say that the missing pay would be processed on Monday. As I have been told more than once that there is a second check run on Tuesdays, I assumed I would see the stub yesterday.

When will this be processed?

Email to GT Independence (Thursday) August 1, 2024

I see that the pay stubs for service dates 7/21-7/26/2024 have already been posted for tomorrow (8/2/2024).

They seem to be correct for those service dates.

What I still do not see, is the missing pay for *Social, that you said would be processed last Monday (29th) - see your emails below.

I also emailed you on the 31st when I did not see the time posted.

When can he expect to see the .75 (3/4 of an hour) paid out from check dates 7/12 and 7/19?

I have sent all of the screen shots more than once now, but I can send them again, if need be.

Email From GT Independence (Friday) August 2, 2024

Good morning,

I apologize for the late respond I was not in the office yesterday. I will reach out to payroll and see why *Social did not receive the 45min that were missing on his check. I still have the screenshots you sent me in your prior email so there is no need for you to send them again

 Hope you have a good day

So, again I will say that I understand that the recent back and forth is over only 3/4 of an hour. If you haven't read the original post, please understand that the shaving off of a quarter (or half) hour is a pattern (shady) and I wonder if they just normally rely on people either not noticing or just giving up after getting the "rounding down" explanation (or never getting a reply at all).

But, you see ... I probably would not have noticed it at all if they hadn't totally skipped ALL of the hours Social worked one week and half the hours he worked another week and then refused to pay him for hours he worked and I approved for over a month. Now that I know that the "errors" - either short pay, short mileage or no pay at all - happen almost each and every paycheck, I am certainly watching each week. They shot themselves in the foot by not paying what was owed to begin with.

I would advise everyone who was forced to use this service, to check every paystub against the total in the employer portal - every week!

Email to GT Independence August 6, 2024 

 I have been emailing about this issue since July 19th. I was told that Doug's missing pay would be paid put on July 29th. It was not.

As of this morning, it has still not been paid out.

Again, I understand that it is only 45 minutes, but if you add up all of the 1/4 hours that have been "rounded down" incorrectly on his paychecks (and I am sure other's as well) it could amount to a large sum of money.

Over and above the amount is the fact that people should be paid for what they work.

I don't know if you are waiting for me to just give up and stop asking, but given the almost weekly errors, I am not going to do that.

Please pay out the 45 minutes that is owed to him. When can he expect to receive that?

On August 8th I received a message from someone who read part one of this post (I removed their name).

I don’t know where you are located but the state of MD has officially stopped taking on new families with them and are encouraging those of us who can to switch.

Currently on hold with them for yet another issue. We are hoping to switch once my sons annual budget is fixed.

Unfortunately, I do not think we have the option to switch here. I hope she is able to. No one needs this much grief.

Anyway... I did not receive a reply to my last email but I noticed that the check stubs for 8/9/2024 were already posted in the portal (on 8/8/2024).

Email to GT Independence August 8, 2024

I noticed that the check stubs for 8/9/2024 have already been posted on the portal.

Not only have you not paid out the 45 minutes owed from check date 7/12 and 7/19 that you said would be paid out on the 29th and haven't been, but his pay is incorrect for this week as well.

Attached are the screenshots from the portal for service dates 7/28/2024 - 8/3/2024, which clearly shows that he worked 10.50 hours.

Attached is his paystub that reads he is only going to be paid for 10 hours.

Also attached is a report of his hours that I ran through my company's time clock that show the same hours as what is showing in the portal.

Once again: He worked those hours, I approved those hours, the portal rounds up or down automatically (as does my company's time clock) and there is no reason any one should go in and round up or down again.

When can he expect to receive the .50 (1/2 hour) for check dated 8/9/2024? And when can he expect to receive the 45 minutes (.75) from the previous errors that were supposed to be paid out on the 29th?

Email from GT Independence August 8, 2024

Good afternoon,

I sent all your information to someone from our payroll department so Social could be paid out they look at everything and I was told he was paid correctly. I asked for them to reach out to you so they could explain what is happening and keeps happening every week. I’m going to follow up with them now and ask them to give you a call or email you immediately. 

Email to GT Independence August 8, 2024

Why would you email me that he would be paid on the 29th for the previous weeks, if they are telling you he was paid correctly? 

Please give them my email or give me a way to contact them. 

I’d like to see how this is all being calculated because it is not being calculated correctly. 

Sent from my iPhone

Email from GT Independence August 8, 2024

I forward everything you sent me and was told it would be taken care of but then they reached out to me to inform me Social was paid out correctly. There is nothing I can do every time you send something we inform our department so you Social could be paid out. I am only telling you what was told to me we apologize for the inconvenience and will be reaching out to you

Side note: As I know that I can be the queen of the typo, these replies could at least use some punctuation. 

So as I might have said in one of the 3 posts, It was suggested by my caseworker to contact my legislator. That was done today. They want to speak with me tomorrow at some point.

I will be back after they enlighten me with the way our payroll is calculated. I have been doing payroll for over 32 years, but maybe this is the "new" math. I do not know.

(Edited to add)

Email from GT Independence - August 9, 2024

Good Morning

 I am reaching out regarding payments for Social on 7/12 and 7/19.  You had reached out to inform us that he had not been paid the proper amount but upon research, due to our rounding rules within the app, he has been paid correctly.  If you would like to send over your time clock sheet from 7/7 - 7/13 I can review.  Upon reviewing 6/30 - 7/6 it looks like 7/3 may be the date that is throwing off the count.  His time punched was 4:09pm - 6:06pm.  According to our rules 4:09 rounds to 4:15 and 6:06pm rounds to 6pm, which equals 1.75 hours.  We do not round off of the total hours, the punch in and out themselves will be rounded up/down.

 I hope this helps but please let me know if you need anything further.

Email to GT Independence - August 9, 2024

I do understand the 7 minute rule, but on the portal and on my time clock at work (and every other time clock I have worked with), it calculates the time worked. So what you are saying is that a person working from 4:09 Pm to 6:06 Pm (1 hour and 57 minutes) only receives 1.75 hours in pay? If this is true, the portal should show that. I understand the rounding procedure but the portal shows (and I approved) 2 hours - as does the time I ran though my office's timeclock.

This would mean that the time records in the portal will almost always show more than what the employee is  actually paid.  

If this is the case, the portal needs to reflect your "rounding" rules, so that the employer and the employees have an accurate record of what they worked and what they are being paid.

I guess that I am just a little bit confused  as to why  they use a portal (the record of the employees time - like a time clock) that already rounds up or down to the nearest quarter hour of actual time worked and then they go in round up or down (I have yet to see an UP) by the time punched.

I mean, back in the day when we had paper time cards and we had to manually figure out the hours, the rounding system was the way we did that, but now-a-days when we  have timeclocks and portals to calculate the time and also round it up or down to the nearest quarter, I don't see the point of then going back in and re-rounding by the punch time.

 

Almost 3 weeks later....

Email from GT Independence 8/26/2024

Hello,

I checked into the portal account and saw that it is rounding differently than the app and our processing system.  I am submitting an IT ticket so they can go in and fix the portal so there will be no confusion going forward!

I am guessing this means that they are going to fix the portal so it does not reflect them rounding down twice.

I do have to say that since my emails to GT have been cc'd to my legislator's staff, the issues (other then the rounding down of time that is already rounded down by the portal) - have been less frequent. 

I am sure I have just jinxed myself by putting that  in writing ...

We shall see. 

****

In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

GT Independence - "Don't Forget to Sign" (Not Part 2)

This post is just a little explanation regarding the "Don't Forget to Sign" emails that I was receiving from GT Independence and was told more than once that even though they were harassing me with emails about a missing signature, the problem was on their end. It probably will not make any sense unless you read the original post (which is long).

I did not include this in the original post about all of the issues with GT Independence only because the post was already much too long and I did not want to make it longer.

I do believe that they may just be missing a signature and I did try to explain this to them and my caseworker at the time but I couldn't make anyone understand what I meant. I also explained to my current caseworker, but as far as I know, she hasn't received any more notices from them, nor have I.

From the original post:

As I was still receiving the “You rescheduled your meeting” notices, I then began receiving “Don’t forget to sign your forms” emails.

Every few days I received an email telling me that I missed signing a form. It wouldn’t tell me what form or how to get to the form that I missed. It only told me to expect an email with the form and gave instructions on how to sign that form when the email arrived.

I had all of the old emails for my, Social and Driver’s forms and I could see that there were no forms that I had missed (or that could be signed) but I continued to receive the emails.

I emailed what is laughingly known as “Customer Service” and asked what form I had missed. It took days for them to reply but I was told that I hadn’t missed ANY forms. It must be someone on their end who did not sign a form! So why am I being harassed??

This is confusing and hard to follow but this is why I do believe that they are missing a signature.

If you remember from the original post, Social enrolled before I did because I did not receive the email I was supposed to have received to enroll.

The way GT has this set up, is that my son is considered THE EMPLOYER. I don't know how that works since he is not legally able to sign for or make decisions on his own, but that is another matter for another day.

When Social enrolled, DC hadn't enrolled as the employer.

Social completed his enrollment and I (DC) received the paperwork to sign. DC "signed" Social's paperwork and that was that.

The forms they send are electronic and the only the spots where there needs to be a signature are linked. You can't just randomly sign anywhere else.

Because I completed the enrollment for DC AFTER Social and I enrolled as the person controlling the account (I don't remember the proper title), when we received our enrollment forms, we received them twice. Once set for DC's "signature" and another set for mine - on one of the pages.

When Driver enrolled, we received the same two emails for my and DC's signature.

So when Social originally enrolled, there was no "me". GT wasn't aware of me, so they only asked for and received DC's signature.

When I started receiving the Don't Forget to Sign" emails, I looked at Social's forms and could see that they did not have the extra page that I had to sign myself for our own enrollment and Driver's.

So yes, I do believe that we are missing a signature, but each time they check on it, they tell me we're all set, but I can see on the forms I have in my files that we are not. The forms I have on file do not have the page I need to sign.

Unfortunately, the people answering the phones and emails about this sort of issue pay about as much attention as the people on the payroll side.

So I imagine that I or my caseworker will receive these notices every once in a while and I will try to explain and no one will listen.

So I am not going to worry about this right now.

Hopefully there won't be any issues down the line because of it.

The way things are going with this company, I suppose I should expect some other disaster around this issue at some point, but I can't think about that right now.

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In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

More Tales From the Day Program - Missed Meetings and Staffing Changes

I had a meeting scheduled with DC’s program, to go over the particulars about moving him into the new department and to go over how he has been doing there since the move. (See Original Post Here)

My caseworker did show up as did I, but no one else. (Online meeting).

She called the program and was told that the department head was not in that day (if you’ve been here long enough you will know that this is not the first time this has happened).

Everyone else she tried went to voicemail.

We were able to have a quick meeting while we waited for someone to get back to us and finally gave up and will have to reschedule.

DC came home this afternoon with a memo stating that his “boss’s” last day with the program was the day before this scheduled meeting.

I had to take time off from work for this and no one could bother to let people know the meeting was cancelled?

I had emailed his boss that morning about another matter and thought it was odd that he hadn't gotten back to me. I had just heard from him a few days earlier. He was preparing for this meeting and had a question on some of DC's paperwork.

The letter gave a temporary contact email so I decided to forward the email I originally sent to his boss, to her and mentioned how I had to take time off work for this meeting that no one showed up for.

She apologized for the mishap and explained that his boss left so quickly that no one knew about the meeting that was scheduled... except that this person was cc'd on the meeting email AND The Zoom link for the meeting - but we won't go there.

So now after getting DC out of the awful situation he'd been in before he was moved to this department, we have another staff change.

That always goes well.

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More Tales From The Day Program

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In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time 

Tales from the Day Program - Update on the New Program

 

I had to drive DC and *Sally to their program today as their driver is on vacation.

While I was there I had to wait for his old department head, *Susan to bring me a check that I needed to sign for.

Details here:

"The Department of Labor had paid a visit there and they discovered that they were required to be paying federal minimum wage instead of state minimum. So they have a check for DC."

As I may or may not have mentioned, I noticed an immediate change in his anxiety levels since he found out that he would be leaving said program and even more-so now that he is completely out of said program.

He has also not felt the need to wear a mustache since that meeting (The Day Program: Ch-ch-ch-ch Changes).

While reading and signing for the sixty cent check, Susan tried to make small talk and told me how wonderful DC was doing in the new program and that she checks in on him all of the time. She asked if he was less anxious at home.

Now... my brain always tells me to let things go but my mouth doesn't always agree, but I did manage to hold my tongue and just answered "Yes" - not very nicely, I will admit.

I wanted to say that I really do not think this is something she should be feeling pride about.

If this was the intention (which was clear at the meeting) then someone should have spoken to me or suggested it months ago instead of  making his time in the old program unbearable for him.

Just sayin'...

More Tales From The Day Program

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In case you are new here: “I tell stories, most of the time; single individual stories about this or that. Some may be written with humor and some may come across as “Oh, look at the cute thing DC did or said” (he does crack me up at times) but my object is always to make people understand how his mind works, never to "make fun of him"

It is difficult to explain “his” autism to anyone without resorting to 1000 examples and 1000 stories. So I tell 1000 stories to make clear that there are other sides to autism than the characters seen in TV or movies."

This blog is used for shorter posts, off topic posts and also for longer Face book statuses. Please visit my official blog site at: Taking it a Step at a Time