TPO 12 　Conversation 2
　　Narrator
　　Listen to a conversation between a student and a Department Secretary.

　　Student
　　Hi. Miss Andrics.
　　
　　Secretary
　　Hi Bret, how are you?
　　
　　Student
　　I’m fine; except I have a question about my paycheck.
　　
　　Secretary
　　Sure. What’ up?
　　
　　Student
　　Well it’s already been several weeks at the end of the semester my check was supposed to go directly into my bank account but there haven’t been any deposits.
　　
　　Secretary
　　That’s odd.
　　
　　Student
　　Yea, I thought graduate teaching a system for automatically put on the payroll at the beginning of the semester.
　　
　　Secretary
　　They are. Let’s see did you complete all the forms for the payroll?
　　
　　Student
　　I filled in whatever they sent me, and I returned like the end of August.
　　
　　Secretary
　　Hum, well, you definitely should have been paid by now. At least two pay periods have passed since then
　　
　　Student
　　I asked the bank and they didn’t know anything. Who should I talk to about this, payroll?
　　
　　Secretary
　　I’m going to contact them for you. There was a problem in processing some of the graduate students’ payroll paper work. ‘Cause their computer program crashed after all the information was processed.
　　And some people’s information couldn’t be retrieved.
　　
　　Student
　　Hum. But why didn’t any one let me know?
　　
　　Secretary
　　I don’t know how they work over there, ‘cause they couldn’t even figure out whose information was missing. And this isn’t the first time, seems like something like this happens every semester.
　　
　　Student
　　So how do I find out if my information was lost?
　　
　　Secretary
　　I will contact them tomorrow morning to see if you’re in the system.But you’re probably not.
　　
　　Student
　　What then will let me to do?
　　
　　Secretary
　　Sorry but you will need to fill out those forms again and then I will fax them over the payroll office.
　　
　　Student
　　And then what… Well, what I really need to know is how long till I get the money, I’m already a month behind my bills and my tuitions due soon.
　　
　　Secretary
　　That’ll get you into the system the same day they receive your paper.
　　works. So if you do that tomorrow, you’ll get paid next Friday.
　　
　　Student
　　That’s a long time from now. Will that pay checking include all the
　　money I am owed?
　　
　　Secretary
　　It should. I will double check with the payroll department.
　　
　　Student
　　And another thing, Is there any way I could get paid sooner, I have
　　been teaching all these weeks…
　　
　　Secretary
　　I know that’s not fair but I don’t think they can do anything; all the
　　checks are computed automatically in the system. They can’t just
　　write checks.
　　
　　Student
　　But there is another one to make mistakes. They’ve never told me!
　　
　　Woman
　　I understand how you feel and if I were you, I’d be upset too. I’ll tell
　　you what: when I call them, I will explain the situation and ask them
　　if there is any way you can be paid sooner. But I have to tell you that
　　base on past experiences you shouldn’t count on it.
　　
　　Student
　　(Sigh) I understand thanks. I know it’s’ not your fault and that you’re
　　doing everything you can.
　　
　　Secretary
　　Well, what I CAN do is make sure that your first check for total amount
　　the university owes you.
　　
　　Student
　　That’ll be great! Thank you. I will be on campus about 10 tomorrow 　　 morning and I will come back to see you then.