My contracting company has a whole bunch of benefit options that we can pick. It's quite nice, really, and one of them is the Dependent Care Savings Account. An employee can have money withheld before taxes in order to pay for daycare. Neat.
I am trying to get everything set up for before and after school care for Alex. That involves far too many forms (which they keep sending me even though I filled them out), immunization records, etc. Of course, they insist on being paid, so I emailed my boss and asked how I use this snazzy benefit that I signed up for when I completed the open enrollment process. Many, many emails were traded. Here is the synopsis:
Me: I signed up for the Dependent Care Savings Account when I completed open enrollment for benefits. How do I set up the payments so my daycare can get paid?
Boss: We don't have that benefit for contractors.
Me: Umm, I signed up for it during open enrollment.
Boss: I'll ask HR if we have that benefit.
HR: Yes, we have that benefit.
Boss: HR says that we have that benefit.
Me: Yes, I know that we have that benefit. I signed up for it during open enrollment. How do I ***use*** the benefit.
Boss: HR - how does he use the benefit?
HR: He has to sign up for the benefit before he can use it.
OK, deep breath. If you start beating people the State will take away your kid. My manager claims to have managed over 700 contractors himself during the time that he has worked for this company. Since there are more than one resource managers, I would assume that the HR people have dealt with thousands. I refuse to believe that I am the only person to ever ask how to use this benefit. Eventually I was able to find a Website for the third party that administers the accounts. I don't have all of the information at work that I need to create an account so I will do it later. In the mean time I am finding my happy place. Where did I leave it?
I am trying to get everything set up for before and after school care for Alex. That involves far too many forms (which they keep sending me even though I filled them out), immunization records, etc. Of course, they insist on being paid, so I emailed my boss and asked how I use this snazzy benefit that I signed up for when I completed the open enrollment process. Many, many emails were traded. Here is the synopsis:
Me: I signed up for the Dependent Care Savings Account when I completed open enrollment for benefits. How do I set up the payments so my daycare can get paid?
Boss: We don't have that benefit for contractors.
Me: Umm, I signed up for it during open enrollment.
Boss: I'll ask HR if we have that benefit.
HR: Yes, we have that benefit.
Boss: HR says that we have that benefit.
Me: Yes, I know that we have that benefit. I signed up for it during open enrollment. How do I ***use*** the benefit.
Boss: HR - how does he use the benefit?
HR: He has to sign up for the benefit before he can use it.
OK, deep breath. If you start beating people the State will take away your kid. My manager claims to have managed over 700 contractors himself during the time that he has worked for this company. Since there are more than one resource managers, I would assume that the HR people have dealt with thousands. I refuse to believe that I am the only person to ever ask how to use this benefit. Eventually I was able to find a Website for the third party that administers the accounts. I don't have all of the information at work that I need to create an account so I will do it later. In the mean time I am finding my happy place. Where did I leave it?
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