Is working in payroll hard?

If numbers are your thing, if you have a strong - and I do mean STRONG - attention to detail, if you can easily jump from one thing to another, then sure, payroll is easy. There’s a lot of moving pieces.

I began my career in payroll working for a company that sent us to corporate headquarters for two weeks of training. (I heard they no longer do this, which is too bad. It was top-notch training.) At the end of the two weeks, we had to pass a test in order to keep our jobs when we returned home.

I made a friend while I was there. She was a lot of fun, had the most vibrant personality and was creative as all get-out. She was just really crafty. She amazed me with pictures of different projects she’d completed, from needlepoint to paintings to ceramics, etc. She was just brilliant at it all!

But you know what she wasn’t brilliant at? Payroll.

She was really hard on herself for not doing well in the class. The night before our “final”, she was crying as she knew she wouldn’t pass. I reminded her how amazing she is at her crafts and how she brightened up every time she talked about them. I told her I could never in a million years do half of what she could do. So what if she doesn’t pass some stupid payroll test? It would just be the universe’s way of telling her she should be doing something different with her life.

No, she didn’t end up passing the test. Yes, she was terminated from the company when she got home. We lost touch, but I saw her on Etsy a couple of years ago and she seems to be doing really well for herself. Good for her!

So, is payroll hard? If numbers are your thing, if you have a strong - and I do mean STRONG - attention to detail, if you can easily jump from one thing to another, then sure, payroll is easy. There’s a lot of moving pieces. And don’t expect high compensation - it’s a rather thankless job. But for us weirdos, there’s a great sense of satisfaction you can gain by doing your job well.

I’ve been in payroll for 20 years and I love my job. But I’m also about to embark on a completely different career path. My version of a midlife crisis. But if I wasn’t taking advantage of this change, I could probably happily retire working in payroll.