Pros
Even though most payments were delayed, after several rounds of chasing the finance team I was eventually paid in the end
Cons
I worked for Valtech for about nine months. Almost every month, Valtech did not pay me on time. I started out by asking the finance team very politely if they could help, but after a few months they openly told me they just did not care if my pay was late. Every month I spent several days researching late payment legislation, debt collection options etc, also looking into other people and processes in Valtech that might help me get paid on time. As well as the time used up researching and responding to the situation, I was often stressed for weeks, anxious about whether I would even be paid or not, angry at what was happening and at the attitudes of the people I was talking to. I found the arrogance disappointing but also incredibly short sighted. A tremendous amount of my time, emotional health and mental energy was consumed by this. Although I tried to do good work, and still managed to in some ways, one of the end clients I was working with decided to terminate their engagement with Valtech. Of course I was only a small part of the work on that account, and my stress couldn’t have been been a major part of it. But I wondered how many other people might have been struggling to get paid as I was. I also wondered what the point of this was. Perhaps Valtech earned some interest by being slow to pay, maybe a fraction of a percent of my remuneration. Was that worth the damage it caused, the impact on the work, and ultimately - although there were other factors as well - my decision to leave for more stable income?
