Bad instructions have a funny way of becoming someone else’s problem.

One employee keeps asking for help with failed check deposits, only to be told to figure it out alone.

So she calls the bank herself, gives her real name, and accidentally triggers a much bigger problem for the entire company.

Let’s see how a dismissive answer brought every company payment to a screeching halt.

Figure It Out Yourself

I work in a satellite office for a larger parent company.

My position is middle ranking and one of my daily tasks is to process payments that the office receives.

I have my own credit card processing account, but I have to use my supervisor’s account for mobile check deposits.

Why don’t I have my own account?

I have no idea because I’m the one handling the money at this office–for years (yes, it’s been discussed but it always becomes a zero priority point).

Seems like a pretty basic problem to address. Will OP get their own account?

For the past month-ish, I kept getting error messages when trying to mobile deposit. I went to the accounting head to ask for help and was told to just go to the bank and deposit the checks myself.

I can’t do that because I don’t have access to my own vehicle, so the checks kept piling up.

I asked my supervisor and other staff in the office for help, but no one could help me.

Ugh. Nothing worse than an unanswered cry for help. How’s OP gonna proceed?

When I brought up the issue to the accounting head again, I was told to just deposit the checks myself (again, can’t) and “figure it out yourself.”

On the error message, the bank provides a phone number for you to call in when you’re in need of help.

I called it in the hopes of someone being able to help me and gave them my actual name.

Not the supervisor’s name, aka the one who actually is supposed to be depositing the checks and who the account belongs to.

I mean, that’s verging on fraud maybe?

The parent company’s account–for the main office, for the satellite offices, EVERYTHING–got flagged for fraud because of my call.

Everything ground to a halt, no one could use the petty cash checks, deposit checks, use their company credit cards. Nothing.

The accounting head was screaming mad (literally) about this and now having to deal with the issue themself, and I reminded them what I was told and that I was just “trying to figure it out myself.” 🙂

Ha! Well, I guess he got the last laugh, but… at what cost?

How do the comments feel about him holding the company to account?

One person says, noted.

Someone else says, not your fault but this is all wrong.

This poster says, I mean, yeah just figure it out?

Another poster says there are nefarious reasons for this.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who quiet quit, then quit for real, following a no-overtime mandate.

Someone else says, they’ve only dreamed…

After being told to handle the deposit issue herself, OP called the bank and honestly identified who she was.

The mismatch triggered a fraud flag that froze the company’s checks, credit cards, and petty cash until accounting had to sort it out.

“Figure it out yourself” became considerably less inspiring once accounting had to figure it out themselves.