Payroll Director Sherma Bennet has been with Children’s Aid since 1991 and has worked through several emergencies.

While many staff in central services are working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the payroll team continues to come into the office to process checks to ensure staff are paid.

“This kind of disaster isn’t really new to payroll,” she said. “We always processed payroll through thick and thin – through 9/11, through Sandy, through other disasters, we’ve always managed to still process payroll checks correctly and timely for each employee because this is important to us.”

Sherma and her colleagues – Dana Alvarez, Seeta Chatarpal, and Taniesha Williams – are rotating their hours to ensure there is someone in the office at all times. Sherma takes three trains to get to Children’s Aid headquarters and Taniesha, who is also caring for children at home, travels to the office three days a week.

“We’re all binding together to do what we need to do to get the job done,” she said. “We try not to miss a beat.”

Sherma and her team are in constant communication with departments to make sure they have all the information they need to ensure staff are paid.

“We as a department don’t normally get an opportunity to let Children’s Aid employees know that we really do work extremely hard at getting them paid,” Sherma said. “People get paid and they often have no idea how it’s done or what it takes to get it done at especially challenging times, but we push and we push to make sure it gets done.”

When asked a follow-up question for this story, Sherma – true to form – responded:

“At the moment, we are really trying to get the payroll processed. A lot of folks are working remotely and it is somewhat difficult to get the information we need. If it is ok with you, I will try to get that information to you by Wednesday – hopefully it is not too late. So sorry about the delay. Please be well.”