The University of Memphis' budget reduction plan will soon takeanother step with the elimination of paper pay stubs.
Beginning in May, U of M employees will no longer receivepaycheck stubs, which will instead be posted on the Web.
Larry Mays, a heating, ventilation, and cooling technician forThe U of M Physical Plant and Planning, said he isn't happy aboutthe change or the way he found out about it.
"They're letting it out by word of mouth," Mays said. "I heardit coming down from Jim Hellums (vice president of Physical Plantand Planning) that it's a done deal.
"They've been preaching we're going to have better communicationfor the last five years, so why are they letting it out like this?They e-mail me about everything else."
Despite the rumors circulating, Business and Finance officialssaid it is not their intent to mislead employees.
Assistant Vice President of Finance David Zettergren said hisdepartment would release statements and information concerning thenew procedure before it goes into effect.
"We haven't implemented this yet, but it's coming down thepipe," Zettergren said. "Probably sometime next week there will bean e-mail that goes out."
Payroll officials said online-only viewing has yet to takecampus-wide effect, but it has been available for the last twoyears.
All University employees are required to have a checking orsavings account for payroll direct deposit, so the pay stubs arenot necessary for payment, only for personal records.
The online-only viewing may save paper, but some say it couldprovide an inconvenience to those who do not have access to acomputer.
"Everybody's complaining about it," Mays said. "You have peoplein grounds and the janitors who don't have access tocomputers."
Mays said his department has computers in their area, but othersin the Plant will have to use the ones in their training rooms andbe instructed on how to use the system.
"I see it taking each employee 10 minutes to look ateverything," Mays said. "And then you're going to have to print itout."
However, Zettergren said his department are making sure everyemployee will have access to a computer.
"We've identified with information systems that employees canuse the Tiger LAN labs or use the computers in the library,"Zettergren said.
There may still be complaints, however.
"I don't like my information being on the Internet," Mays said."You hear everyday about somebody stealing somebody'sidentification.
"I think it's just the government getting deeper in yourbusiness."
