A payroll error of the ages has come to light, and for once there were no true victims – apart from a fellow who no doubt would have used his superhuman agility and strength to retrieve his earnings…
We’ve all done it. “I saw a great film the other day – it had, um… er… hmmm… what’s his name in it”.
The very moment you need to recall an actor’s name it escapes from your mind. It’s in your brain 99% of the time… just not when you need it.
There are techniques to improve this. Mnemonics are the key – little word plays and rhymes to help you remember; “i before e except after c” for example. Or “Spider-Man is Holland, The Night Manager man is Hollander.”
Unfortunately this isn’t particularly catchy. But it would have helped the payroll assistant at the management agency that for a while had both actors on the roster.
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Hollander explained on a US talk show how he’d been watching a friend performing in a theatre when he couldn’t help noticing he’d received an email detailing a seven-figure sum entering his account – “more money than I’d ever seen” he said. At Personnel Today we always turn our phones off when entering the hallowed territory of thespians, not because of etiquette, but because we’ve all given up on notifications about large sums of money being deposited in our accounts.
The huge sum was a box office bonus for his revered work in New Avengers – a production Hollander had had zero involvement with.
Paul Holcroft, managing director of HR consultancy Croner tries, not altogether convincingly, to make sense of the error: “When you think about how many staff in an organisation have similar names, the same surname, or even the exact same full name, it is easy to see how, without appropriate checks and balances in place, mix-ups like this can happen.”
At Personnel Today where sadly no box office bonuses have been paid, knowingly or unknowingly, there was some consternation at this.
“All staff should be allocated a unique employee number,” he says, probably cringing as he feels the need to spell out the basics. “That way it is not just a name that is being relied upon. Having more than one person checking it all before the magic button is pressed and payment is sent, is also a good idea. As the saying goes, prevention is always better than cure. But if it does happen, whilst an express contractual right is not needed to deduct the overpayment from future salary, having such a clause will make the position clearer.”
Given the ease with which this error was made, one would imagine that Tom Holland, the well known historian featured on The Rest is History podcast, must be rubbing his hands in anticipation.
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