"People at this site just do not understand how benefits work. We saw this with health insurance and

Yesterday's post about an employee who totaled their car on company time , and the resulting confusion hotel colon in barcelona over auto benefits, prompted a familiar criticism of Gannett Blog readers. Anonymous@1:21 p.m. wrote :
"People at this site just do not understand how benefits work. We saw this with health insurance and COBRA , when people tried to claim COBRA was no different from having no insurance. We saw this with retirement funds, when people had no idea how to transfer their money. And now we see it with mileage. Do any of you ever research anything, or do you just post your beliefs and hope they're right?"
quality inn orlando To be sure, they've got a tough job dealing with complex, constantly shifting federal and state regulations. Throw in last year's HR reorganization and staff cuts , plus Corporate's quality inn orlando outsourcing of benefits management to ill-equipped outside companies, and no wonder you've got a mess. A few examples:
In June, an HR representative gave Indianapolis quality inn orlando Star employees incorrect information about when their medical coverage would end, and when COBRA would kick in. The result: a lot more stress hotel colon in barcelona at an already stressful time.
"I took a buyout quality inn orlando from the Indy Star and here's the reality: The terms were great, two weeks pay and healthcare hotel colon in barcelona for every year worked. However, when we started asking questions, they either didn't hotel colon in barcelona know the answers, gave us false information or ignored us. HR did very little to help us out, and now, a colleague whose health insurance ran out last month is STILL trying to get new insurance in place. quality inn orlando HR says we can't go to them, we have to go to Corporate. Corporate jacks us around, says they'll get back to you, etc."
I had my own bad experience over COBRA. In January 2009, I got a letter from my health insurance provider -- Kaiser Permanente -- telling quality inn orlando me my coverage had ended, quality inn orlando after the fact, and four months before quality inn orlando it was due to run out. After many phone calls, I found out what happened: Corporate had canceled its contract with Kaiser, but failed to notify quality inn orlando me. Eventually, I was able to arrange for a new policy, but not before two nerve-wracking weeks without coverage.
Good luck getting hotel colon in barcelona timely answers and accurate information: Corporate quality inn orlando long ago outsourced benefits management quality inn orlando to companies that seem understaffed to deal with the large number of GCI workers getting laid off or retiring. That's quality inn orlando why many employees turn to this site for answers. Pensions appear to be a particular hotel colon in barcelona problem.
For years now, we've been hearing about delays in pension paperwork; too-slow delivery of pension payouts, and incorrect estimates of account values. This has been more than a simple inconvenience for out-of-work employees who've needed quality inn orlando to tap their accounts to make mortgage payments hotel colon in barcelona and cover other critical expenses.
Perhaps the worst episode of benefits misinformation came on the watch of Corporate's HR chief herself, Roxanne Horning . Heading into a mass layoff after it froze the pension plan , Corporate sent retirement account quality inn orlando statements to 26,000 employees. An untold number of those contained quality inn orlando an error , Horning later admitted in a June letter to employees.
"I am sorry to report," she wrote, "that the personalized retirement statement you received this past week contained an error caused by a data glitch. Your actual quality inn orlando benefit is larger than the one previously shown."
What's your HR benefits story? Please quality inn orlando post your replies in the comments section, below . To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com] ; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
The difference, hotel colon in barcelona of course, is those people are named and have to own up to their mistakes. The people who post here have no repercussions, and they do not hesitate to run in and post erroneous information. As we say yesterday, they don t hesitate to post the same erroneous information again and again. Someone out there actually believes that if you rent, then you can t claim the mileage deduction. If you don t know what you re talking about, then don t post.
9:36 Here s another, major difference: hotel colon in barcelona They must own up to their mistakes because it is their job, and they re paid to get it right. Also, following your logic, if HR reps don t know what they re talking about, shouldn t they, too, remain silent?
HR professionals you rock! You will always be positioned as stupid and inept on this site because that s what people do here. But day in and day out you help thousands of people. Do you make mistakes? Sure. Last time I checked every newspaper in America had correction columns because guess what, people make mistakes. But you all are held to a higher level. You have to be perfect, at least on this blog. A fan of HR and proud of it!!!
10:14 And that is why I wrote: They ve got a tough job dealing with complex, constantly shifting federal and state regulations. Throw in last year s HR reorganization and staff cuts, plus Corporate s outsourcing of benefits management to ill-equipped outside companies, and no wonder you ve got a mess. (And applause quality inn orlando to one particular HR professional and long-time Gannett Blog supporter. You know who you are!)
Hey, 9:36, you are wrong. quality inn orlando I had numerous talks with my CPA about this, and he told me flat out I do not qualify to take the difference in mileage between what the IRS says I should get and what Gannett paid me as a deduction. hotel colon in barcelona Maybe the law is different in your state, but my CPA is big-time, has written numerous books, and has many franchises, so he knows what he s talking about. So call my textbook-writing CPA an idiot, not me.
I have worked with some great HR folks during my time in Gannett. I ve also worked with some who are absolutely terrible. There s no way to make an across the board statement on this. Some suck and some are great. But, in either case, the company puts them in a bad position by having such employee-unfriendly policies.
quality inn orlando Wow, can t believe 9:36 continues to spew the same incorrect information time and time again when it comes to mileage, and even hijacks another quality inn orlando comments section because of his/her/its inability to admit defeat. Also, it s not about whether you can rent or not to claim mileage at tax time. The point it, there are simply other factors involved when it comes to claiming mileage on you taxes than just driving x miles, get x dollars. Ah, well. I d wager some of the HR problems also come down to the fact that it appeared to be one of the earliest departments hit by the downsizing, before the downsizing even really hit its nadir - the consolidation (cannibalizing) of HR folk into representatives at larger sites.
This is nothing new. I worked at Indianapolis, and I ve been trying to get pension paperwork straightened out for over a year. Maybe that s the new plan for keeping Gannett solvent -- give everyone the runaround until they just give up.
When I was laid off a few months ago, the HR person was nice and friendly, but not very helpful. She kept answering my questions with, You ll have to call the Gannett Benefits Center next week, of course, AFTER I was no longer working there and had no options. Calling the benefits center usually resulted in loooong quality inn orlando waits, being transferred several times and answering ID questions, only to find out I was missing hotel colon in barcelona some small but vital piece of information that sent me back to start the process all over again. Frustrating! I went to my broker at Schwab to see about rolling over my 401K and pittance of a pension directly into my existing Schwab account. hotel colon in barcelona He was astounded at the amount of paper work involved and how complicated it all was I received a letter-size envelope with 1/4 stack of papers inside for the pension! (How much money is Gannett spending mailing these huge packets of info?!!) hotel colon in barcelona After calling the benefits center quality inn orlando together, quality inn orlando I was missing a PIN, which had to be sent to my home email. hotel colon in barcelona quality inn orlando So, an hour and a half later, I had accomplished nothing and had to restart quality inn orlando the process again. My broker remarked that the only people quality inn orlando benefitting from all this is the lawyers, as usual. It is unbelievable how bureaucratic the whole process is. Gannett is so anxious to get rid of us and then mires us in red tape and BS. It is way too complicated for those of us without hotel colon in barcelona MBAs and law degrees.
THANK YOU, 1:20 pm. I should quality inn orlando have reiterated the part about other factors involved . For me, renting instead of having a mortgage (that I could use to meet the deductions threshold, counting the loss on mileage) was the key issue.
Gannett HR folks at the two papers where I worked were great. The new Gannett Benefits center is a mess. I retired in 2010. Then Gannett switched to the new center quality inn orlando at the start of 2011. They killed direct payments from bank accounts for health insurance, began to double bill me for COBRA. They sent letters threatening health insurance cancelation over payments I had made weeks earlier. One rep finally confided hotel colon in barcelona no one would be dropped quality inn orlando as they could not manage to track payments. The new center seems to be staffed with decent folks who are in way over their heads, and with a software / computer system that is lacking. Another example hotel colon in barcelona of centralizing quality inn orlando functions to save money and failing hotel colon in barcelona to provide the service.
Just reading through and have to say early on this year I spoke with Gannett Benefits Center and was perplexed with their supposed hotel colon in barcelona help. Ultimately hotel colon in barcelona all was straightened out. I have to say that in the three times I have called since they have been great, solving my problems on the first try. Mostly it s stuff I just didn t understand and a little help and coaching worke