Payroll Horror Stories 2025
- Christine Stolpe CPP
- Oct 28
- 5 min read
Last year, I discovered that terrible and unfortunate occurrences in payroll was a popular topic for a blog post, especially when framed as a payroll horror story right around Halloween.
Therefore, please enjoy this year's publication of payroll horror stories, adapted from stories accumulated throughout my years in Payroll.
The Overtime Zombie
The office lights flickered just as the clock struck 11:59 p.m. on a Friday. Payroll had closed hours ago, or so everyone thought. But deep within the dimly lit HR suite, a lone figure hunched over a glowing monitor. His name was Gary, and he was the kind of employee who never clocked out—literally.
Gary had been “voluntarily” staying late all week, skipping punches, and manually logging his hours in a spreadsheet that mysteriously always added up to exactly 40. Management praised his “dedication.” Payroll, however, had started to notice… something strange. His timesheets didn’t match the system logs. His badge records showed he entered the building at all hours—nights, weekends, even a federal holiday.
When Payroll finally ran the report, Gary’s name appeared in every pay period for the past six months, even during his supposed vacation. “That’s impossible,” whispered Dana, the Payroll Manager, as her mouse hovered over his record.
The cursor froze.
The system glitched.
And then… his old, terminated employee ID appeared — active.
She blinked. The ID had been deactivated last year when Gary was laid off.
The lights went out.
From the darkness came the faint sound of typing
— slow, deliberate keystrokes echoing from the break room.
When security arrived, the computers showed no one logged in. But the payroll batch had been reopened, and a manual check entry was queued for approval:
Employee: Gary Thompson
Hours: 8.0 OT
Note: Worked beyond the grave.
By Monday morning, Dana had learned two things.
Always verify overtime eligibility and system access controls after terminations.
Never, ever underestimate the power of an unpaid hour to come back from the dead.
Because in payroll, no mistake stays buried forever.
The Phantom Paycheck
It started with a call no Payroll Manager wants to get.
“Hey, uh… I think I just got paid,” said the voice on the line. “But I left the company three months ago.”
Samantha froze. The name on the caller ID matched an employee she’d offboarded in July — separation processed, benefits terminated, W-2 queued for January. She opened the payroll system, half-expecting a mistake.
There it was: "Payment issued October 15th. Direct deposit successful."
Her fingers hovered above the keyboard. No way. She checked the master file. The status read “Inactive.” The account was locked. But the record had been reactivated — not by her, not by anyone on her team. The audit log simply read: “User: UNKNOWN.”
Samantha’s pulse quickened. She followed the money trail through the general ledger. The phantom payment had posted—cleanly, quietly, invisibly. It even reconciled. Whoever—or whatever—did it, knew payroll inside and out.
She called IT. They swore no one had accessed the system after hours.
HR denied touching the files. Finance hadn’t noticed a thing.
But every time she tried to delete the transaction, it reappeared.
Same amount.
Same date.
Same eerie note in the memo line: “Final Pay — Do Not Forget Me.”
The next morning, the system froze completely.
Samantha’s cursor blinked over an empty pay register, and then a single row appeared —
Name: S. Alvarez
Net Pay: $0.00
Status: Returned to Sender.
Her monitor went black.
When the system finally came back online, the transaction was gone… along with the backup file for that entire payroll week.
Now, Samantha double-checks every final payout, keeps hard copies of her audits, and runs a shadow register before every transmission.
Because in payroll, some payments never really end — they just wait for you to forget them.
The W-2 That Screamed
Every January, the payroll office transformed into chaos. Printers hissed like serpents, toner hung thick in the air, and every desk was buried in stacks of W-2s waiting to be verified, sealed, and sent. But this year felt… different.
When Lila printed the first batch, one form came out blank except for a single line of text where the name should have been: “Help me.”
She laughed nervously, assuming it was a formatting glitch. But when she checked the batch history, one record had no employee ID — no SSN, no address, no trace in the HRIS. Just an old employee number, long retired, belonging to someone who’d been gone for years.
Curious, she searched the archives. The file was ancient — a contractor who’d been misclassified a decade ago, audited, and quietly corrected. Lila shook her head. “Classic ghost in the system,” she muttered. She deleted the record and reran the file.
That night, she got a text from an unknown number:
“You corrected my classification… but not my taxes.”
Her stomach dropped. She raced back into the office, booted up the system, and watched in horror as the printer whirred back to life on its own. One page slid out — the same blank W-2. This time, it had numbers. Real wages. Real tax withheld.
The box totals matched an exact amount from her reconciliation file — one that had been off by $126.66 earlier that week.
As she stared, the form began reprinting itself — row after row, the same name appearing over and over, each one slightly darker, until the printer jammed.
In the morning, IT found her asleep at her desk, the lights still flickering.
A single form sat on top of the pile, crisp and perfect.
Name: [REDACTED]
Tax Year: 2015
Status: Reissued.
Now, every January, Lila runs one extra audit — for records that shouldn’t exist but somehow still balance.
Because in payroll, even the dead demand their corrected tax forms.
Tales from the Payroll Crypt
And there you have it — three true-ish tales from the dark side of the pay cycle.
Whether it’s an overtime zombie haunting your batch, a phantom paycheck sneaking through the ledger, or a long-forgotten W-2 crying out for reconciliation, every payroll professional knows one thing: our ghosts are made of data.
The best way to keep them quiet?
Stay vigilant.
Reconcile often.
And never ignore that little voice (or error message) that says, “Are you sure you want to continue?”
Now it’s your turn, brave payrollers — what’s your own Payroll Horror Story?
Share it in the comments below or join the conversation on LinkedIn this week using #passionforpayroll and #PayrollHorrorStories.
Who knows — your story might inspire next year’s spine-tingling feature!
Until then,
... may your gross always balance your net,
... and may no mystery check ever post without your approval.
🎃👻💀
Happy Payroll Halloween from Wages Creek!
Comments