Question

Use the you-attitude to create a reader-friendly tone in this memo. Also remove any emotionally charged words, phrases, or sentences.

To:                   Gary Gardner, Manager, Personnel Department

From:               Donald Smith, Manager, Payroll Processing Department

Subject:           INCORRECT PAYROLL CHECKS

Date:               July 10, 2020

I have been painstakingly reviewing the payroll "errors" in the computer files.

I insist, contrary to what you insinuated in the company meeting last Friday (July 3), the majority of these "errors" were made by YOUR clerks. I do not feel that my people should receive any blame for this. They are merely correctly copying incorrect time tickets that your people are submitting to us. Were you aware of that? I was. Am I supposed to have to check every payroll entry so our employees receive the correct amount on their checks? Am I expected to do all the work in this company?

I listened while you discussed requiring my computer operators to perform the very time-consuming task of comparing their computer entries against the time sheets that YOUR clerks are miscopying. That is ridiculous. I was outraged. But at that time I did not say a word because I wanted to research the data myself.

My people do not have time to correct the errors that are made by your people, and I adamantly refuse to hire new help for such work.

I demand that you tell your clerks to do a better job of reviewing their work before they send it to my computer-entry people. I have analyzed this problem, and I have decided that you do not know how to communicate with people very well. That's the real problem--at your department.

Answer 1

Hello Gary,

I am disappointed to notify you about the payroll errors in the files sent to us. Sorry to say this but contrary to what you felt in the last company meeting, the majority of these mistakes are from your side.

As we are only responsible to copy the time tickets that were sent from your people, we do not take any responsibility for the mistake committed in the entries. I have personally cross-checked that, those were the wrong entries that were sent from your employees.

Since, we are only involved in making the payrolls, verifying each entry cannot be done by our employees.

I heard you suggesting our computer operators to perform these checks and compare against the timesheets but that is too cumbersome to be taken by us.

Thus, my employees would be unable to correct all the errors committed from your side and neither are we planning to hire new people for that.

Hence, it would be better for both of us, if you ask your clerks to review the entries before sending them. I hope that you would comply with it and communicate this with your people well.