Sigh

I have been meaning to post more, but it's been a busy week with lots of minor headaches.

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for direct deposit at my moonlighting job. Last week, I got the paystub, but somehow no $ showed up in my bank account. I gave it a few extra days becuase of the holiday, but nothing came of it. So, I went into the bank. I showed them the pay stub, it had the right account number on it, and several phone calls later, the bank manager had it figured out. For some reason, the hospital, despite being given a voided check, put a New Jersey routing number on the account instead of my actual routing number.

So, I called the hospital.

I explained that the wrong routing number had "somehow" been put on the account, the bank was returning the check, and could they please put the right routing number on it to fix future checks. Apparently, this was too much to take in, so I had to wait until the payroll person could get back to me.

The next day, the payroll person calls back. She says that she can't understand why the check didn't go into the account, that she looked up the routing number for Bank of America by my zip code (not New Jersey, btw) and it should have worked. At this point, I tell her that the routing number doesn't have to do with my physical address, it has to do with where the account was opened, and it matches the account number, not the bank branch I visit.

This is where it gets more stupid.

I tell her that the bank account was opened in Arizona, and she says that she's "not authorized to send paychecks to Arizona." I try to explain that when you do your banking with a major company, you don't have to change your account numbers when you move across the country, they stay the original number and routing number as when they were opened. I halfheartedly try to explain how things work electronically and there is no actual paycheck that goes to Arizona and then back here, and that the bottom line is that I just need the right routing number that matches my check put on the account.

At this point, she says that she has to talk with corporate to see how she can get my check out to some bank in Arizona. I tell her that it's not "some bank", it's just Bank of America, with a different routing number than the local one. I mention how at my main hospital, I have direct deposit, and there was no issue with getting it set up. However, she is unwilling to type in the routing number on my check and is hung up on putting in a number by my current address.

At this point, I decide it would be more convenient to just deposit the check in person every two weeks rather than spending more time on this. So, finally she agrees to just continue mailing me my checks. Before she hangs up she says, "And it will be much quicker for me to just mail the check to you, rather than me mailing it to Arizona and them having to mail it back to you to be signed." ARGH!

I have a sinking feeling this income is going to be on both my 2008 and my 2009 W-2's, but I think I'd just rather take the tax hit twice than talk to her again.

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Then there's been the argumentative not-sick people fake coughing/wheezing and not understanding why I can't admit stable bronchitis, the people demanding IV antibiotics when they aren't appropriate based on their culture results, and of course, the "my doctor sent me here for an MRI" crowd.

I'm back to doing floor medicine for the next four weeks. I'm sure I'll be stir-crazy and wishing I was back in the ED by the end of it, but for now I'm looking forward to getting out of the department.