Yes, it's been a while. Too long. And I'm FUCKING ANNOYED.

I swear to God, HR is going to cause me to lose my job.

We received an order from CA to pay a penalty due to late payment of wages.  HR received it, ran it thru our attorney, then her boss, who sent it to my boss.  My boss sent it to me with directions for mailing.  The order said no payroll deductions should be taken.  In my version of payroll English that means no benefits, no 401K, etc...  Taxes are not payroll deductions.  Taxes are taxes.  The last time I cut checks for this situation I was told specifically by CA DOL to take FICA and SDI only.  So when I cut these checks I did the same. 
I received a call from CA DOL - same gal I talked to back in November.  Why did I take payroll deductions?  I told her I didn't.  I took taxes.  She says that taxes are a payroll deduction.  WHAT?  This is not what you said last time around.  It states right on the order: $1,946.48 for additional wages accrued as a penalty and shall not be subject to payroll or other deductions.  Wages = take FICA.  Payroll Deductions is not taxes.  Then she says it's up to the employee to file.  Which tells me again that they're wages and FICA should be taken by, like, LAW.  I finally gave up arguing.  I told her to send the checks back to me and I'd get the correct ones turned around in three days from the time I receive the checks back.

I go over to tell my boss what's going on.  I'm clearly annoyed.  I walk into her office and tell her I'm not trusting HR on anything again and explain what happened.  I told her I never read the order because I thought it was like the other ones and I treated it as such.  If anything should be different, it should have been stated clearly.  I tell her how I'm going to resolve it - AP will cut the checks and we'll send them 1099s at the end of the year.  The last thing my boss said to me was that I should have paid closer attention.  I couldn't speak.  I just turned around and left.

As I returned to my desk, I notice that her boss is sitting in the office next to her.  I'm now wishing I'd reminded her that she was the one who sent it to me.  Everything about the order, in my world, says take taxes.  If she didn't want it processed thru payroll, then why send it to me?  Just because four other people should have caught it, that's no excuse for me not catching it.  I should have paid closer attention.

Damn it I'm pissed.  Forget taking anything at face value.  Forget trusting that I'm going to get the correct information from anyone, including my OWN BOSS.  I'll be questioning everything so my ass is covered.  It'll annoy the shit out of everyone, because I am experienced enough and know the rules so I shouldn't have to ask.  Well, clearly that's not the case.  I'm just another idiot in the string of idiots around here.

Grrrr....