One of my staff got paid her back pay today. The amount was about php39,000, about 3x the minimum wage.

Her backpay consisted of one month of wages. She had been with us for 3 years before resigning to get married. The backpay is released two months after the exit interview.

This morning, the agency emailed us. Apparently old staff was harassing and threatening them days before her backpay was released.

In Tagalog, the staff was telling the agency to be careful. “Make sure you give me every cent of my salary. Do not cheat me. I demand a complete breakdown of my backpay.”

The funny thing was, the backpay given to her was correct, irrelevant of her threat. Backpay is attendance + incentive so it’s pretty hard to cheat.

Since she’s been with us for 3 years, and have actually gotten rich with us all that time — she was paid well above the minimum wage — I don’t know why she is so paranoid. She has never been cheated on. Her salary is always paid on time. And she got more than her fair share.

So I feel that her defensiveness and paranoia are unfounded.

In fact, I am insulted that she would even think that we or the agency will cheat her from money earned. We have never cheated anyone, and we aren’t ready to cheat anyone now.

The more I think about it, the angrier I get.

“Why are you bothered?” Husband asks me. “That’s how they are. They don’t have utang ng loob. Even after 3 years of getting the right pay, they still feel that you will cheat them.”

For someone who values her integrity and reputation, I am insulted when someone questions it. I am even more insulted because her full backpay was deposited even before I knew that she was harassing our agency!

I hope that when she sees her backpay, she will feel foolish. She will feel stupid for ever doubting us. But knowing her, she will feel as if she deserved every penny and how she owes us nothing.

That’s fine — I don’t think she will ever get that same level of compensation in any other company. Good luck to her and your career.

“I’d still hire her though,” husband said. “Even with an attitude like that, she is still useful.”

I won’t.

And that’s how I deal with people who are ungrateful and defensive. Since I cannot change them, I will simply not hire them ever again.

How about you? What will you do in my shoes?