Why can't I work for myself?

So, yeah.  Now that I'm not moving to England anytime soon, I might regret the whole premise of this blog.  On the upside, no one has come searching in the hopes of getting help with a similar move.  So, maybe we were crazy to even consider it in the first place.

One of the posts on my other blog said that I was putting in extra time at work in an attempt to pay back the advanced sick leave I had to take when I had Ramsay.  At the time of that post, he wasn't even two yet.  I have no idea how much time I owed at that point, but when Liam tried to kill himself June of last year I had to have another week of sick leave advanced to me.  I kind of wish my boss had refused to do it.  Yes, it would have meant that week would have been upaid, but at least I would have had a light at the end of the tunnel, instead of adding another 40 hours to my debt.

Last October, Liam and I decided that we'd had enough of this hanging over my head and sought out the information necessary to pay the debt back with cash money. 

Turns out, I could've asked for a bill at any time for any portion of the amount I owed.  I wish I had known this from the get go.  It would've made the situation a lot easier to handle.

Unfortunately, by the time we found this out, there was no way we would have been able to afford the balance due.  So, we decided to wait until we figured out how much our tax return would be at the beginning of this year.  Not only would waiting chip away 4 hours from the balance every 2 weeks.  But it would also give us the opportunity to save for the inevitable bill.

In the beginning of March we filed our tax return and got our refund.  So, I put in all the paperwork to request a bill. 

I didn't get a bill until the beginning of May.  As soon as I received it, I paid it.  Silly me, I thought that meant as soon as my check cleared my sick leave would be restored to a positive balance.  Oh boy, was I naive.  I've worked here for over 6 years, you would think I would have learned by now nothing is ever that easy.

At the end of June my sick leave balance still wasn't restored.  I called HR and spoke with someone who said she needed a copy of the spreadsheet I had created to determine the amount that I would need to be billed.  She had that within seconds.  Later that day I received an email from her saying that everything was fixed, have a nice life.

Yesterday I decided to look at my paycheck for the first time since June (hey, I'm paid salary, it's direct deposit, I have no need to look at every one).  My sick leave balance was KIND OF fixed.  And by KIND OF, I mean not at all.  I was still negative.  Granted, it wasn't nearly as negative as before, so something had been fixed, but I was still negative.

I was pissed.  I called the same person in HR and asked what the problem was.  Without looking into anything, she said it was because I hadn't paid it all back.  Arghhh!!  You can't be serious!  I'm an accountant for pete's sake.  I'm not under any delusions that accountants don't make mistakes, but I had had 3 other people in my office check my work before submitting the request for a bill, so I KNEW my math was right.

To say I got frustrated with her is an understatement.

After a lot of back an forth yesterday, I can now honestly tell you, my sick leave is POSITIVE.  I have lived for the last 4 years without taking a sick day for myself (while I was pregnant I didn't take any time off since I knew I would have to save it for after the baby was born). 

You don't know how happy this makes me.