Communication issue at subbing parish, worth emailing DM?
  • Diapason84
    Posts: 152
    In late spring, I agreed to substitute for a local DM who would be on vacation across country for several weeks. I accepted the fee offered. Several weekend Masses would be divided between me and a couple other organists.

    I'd played at this parish within the past couple years for similar reasons, so two weeks before I was scheduled to start playing, I asked the parish business manager by email whether they still had my personal information on file for writing a check. After an initial response saying he'd "check on it," he went silent for two weeks, as did the parish secretary. Multiple calls and emails went unanswered.

    After playing a few Masses one weekend with no idea about the status of payments (and several more Masses to go), I called once again, and this time spoke to the business manager. He seemed abrupt and inconvenienced by my call and flatly stated that they had my information. He then said the secretary would call me later that day to confirm she'd mailed the check. As the day wore on, I received no call, so I called again to ask about the check status. The secretary picked up and said they'd "gotten all the emails, calls and texts" and the check would be mailed that week. And yes, the check has since arrived. N.B.: I never "texted" anyone about this, firstly because I had nobody's personal phone number, and second because I don't conduct business by text unless absolutely necessary.

    Is this worth bringing up to the DM in an email after I'm done with this assignment? I kept him out of the loop because I wanted him to enjoy his vacation as just that: a vacation. The issue was resolved and I'm invited there only a few times a year, and given some other issues with their music department, it's unlikely I'd agree to sub in the future anyway.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,663
    Yes.

    I don’t know why parish and diocesan staff think that paying people like musicians in a timely manner, communicating professionally in a timely manner, and sending the checks in a reasonable time frame is beneath them, but it is.

    I can’t say too much about my own experiences directly (not in the post anyway), but it sucks, and for some reason musicians are just supposed to deal with this all the time.
  • TCJ
    Posts: 1,059
    The DM could probably do more to make sure your payment is ready. When I get a sub, I speak directly to the business manager, show her the binder of substitute music, tell her where it will be and ask her to place the check inside the binder which the substitute will then find on the music rack of the organ when he arrives at the church.

    No mailing necessary. He gets it when he shows up. If he doesn't show up, he doesn't get it.
    Thanked by 1irishtenor
  • Ralph BednarzRalph Bednarz
    Posts: 504
    Interestingly, I’ve experienced a more authentic application of Christian values in the corporate secular workplace than within the institutional church. Much of business world thrives on Christianity as its SOP.
    Thanked by 2Roborgelmeister Liam
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 159
    Very unfortunate. The fact is, by simply answering your first email as soon as it was received, the office staff could have avoided repeat emails and calls. I highly doubt they're so busy that they had no time to answer you. It takes five minutes to look up info, write an email, and assure a much-needed musician that everything is good to go.

    Poor move on the part of several people in the office. They, not being part of the music ministry, do not understand that subs are hard to come by.

    Imagine how disapointed the priest, choir, cantor, and people assembled would have been, if there had been no musician present for Mass that weekend. They would gave complained. Music is important at Sunday Mass. And yet the staff did all they could to make the musician feel unwelcome. So unwelcome, actually, he decided not to sub there again.

    Tsk tsk.


    Thanked by 3irishtenor MatthewRoth Abbysmum
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,663
    @TCJ, maybe there’s a better way to do this but our ringers/subs can only get paid after, with everything submitted in some kind of report (I do a spreadsheet that does math for me in case I hired them more than once for whatever the rate is). :( it took almost two months to get someone a check for Holy Week (it got lost somehow and then getting it made again was a hassle — and no one told me in the meantime that it had been made).
  • Chant_Supremacist
    Posts: 334
    Someone in authority being a bulldog about getting people paid on time creates immense respect and goodwill. In a previous non-music contract my eastern european manager, who I thought was unpleasant to work with (terse, stubborn, kind of a walking stereotype), went on a warpath when he found out my pay was a week late. What do you know, turns out I liked him after all.

    On the reverse there's little in the work world that creates mistrust and resentment better than not caring about it. So it's always strange to me when people pick this route.
    Thanked by 2MatthewRoth davido
  • TCJ
    Posts: 1,059
    @MatthewRoth

    We fill out a disbursement form, but it is filled beforehand by me. I turn it in by hand to the business manager. I never rely upon putting it in her mailbox and leaving it there. Instead, I explain what it's for, when it happens, who gets what, and then I ask if she wants it immediately or in her box. If she says her box, I confirm that I have left it in the box. I usually check a few days later, too. I also tell the subs to contact me immediately if they do not find the check where I told them it would be.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,663
    Yeah, part of this is that we don't have an in-house person doing bookkeeping and anything else related to money at the moment, and I sincerely doubt that anyone understands that musicians need to be paid immediately or within a reasonable timeframe…and even if we did, as we did before March, I can't blame the person responsible for checks wanting to track as much as possible. I will have to ask around in order to solve this: paying people in a timely manner is a real problem.

    The secretary picked up and said they'd "gotten all the emails, calls and texts" and the check would be mailed that week. And yes, the check has since arrived. N.B.: I never "texted" anyone about this, firstly because I had nobody's personal phone number, and second because I don't conduct business by text unless absolutely necessary.


    also the griping and lies are annoying. I don't always have a lot of sympathy for folks like this this.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,669
    Some Catholic parishes still have office staff who behave like family members of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine, the telephone operator on "Laugh In": "We're the telephone company. We are not bound by city, state, or federal regulations. We are omnipotent. That’s ‘potent’ with an ‘omni’ in front of it."
    Thanked by 1davido
  • TLMlover
    Posts: 159
    One ringy dingy...
    Thanked by 1Liam
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