u/Trick_Praline_6938

I’ve been working in payroll at a community college in California for about 5 years now, and I genuinely can’t tell anymore if I dislike payroll itself or if our processes are just extremely outdated.

We use Ellucian Banner as our ERP, but almost everything around it is hyper manual.

For example, all 300+ classified employees still submit paper timesheets every month. I have to physically gather them, print supporting docs, alphabetize everything, code them manually, and enter data into spreadsheets so it can eventually be uploaded into Banner.

Beyond that, basically everything else involves:

• pulling reports manually
• exporting data into Excel
• manipulating spreadsheets
• reconciling things by hand
• building workaround processes because systems don’t talk to each other

There’s very little automation.

Even small process improvements feel impossible because IT doesn’t view payroll workflow modernization as a high priority.

This is my first payroll job, so I honestly have no baseline for comparison.

Is this just how payroll is everywhere? Or is this unusually outdated/process-heavy?

Curious to hear from people in payroll, HRIS, finance, or higher ed specifically.

I have been having a rough…….well, month it seems.
I just feel like nothing matters. I hate my job (it is payroll). Sure it pays the bills but it is not at all the line of work I want and/or enjoy.

My fitness and health goals? What is the point. I don’t even like working out and eating healthy just stresses me out. Plus I will never look the way I want anyway.

All that is to say, do we “choose” happiness? Do I do work and fitness regardless because not wanting to is just a symptom of a larger problem?

For context, i am on antidepressants but seems that I am struggling a little rn for whatever reason.

I am not sure if this is a question? Or a vent? Just random stream of thought of an online stranger.

Hey all,

I’m a 34M working in payroll for a community college, and I’m in a bit of a career rut.

I’ve been in this role for 5 years. The pay is fine and the job is stable, but I’ve reached a point where I’m honestly completely burned out on the work and the systems we use.

The environment is very outdated. Every month I manually process around 300 paper timesheets—printing them, alphabetizing, coding them, and entering them into spreadsheets. Reporting is entirely Excel-based and heavily manual. For example, if someone wants a breakdown of an employee’s earnings by pay period, I have to extract and manipulate the data myself in Excel rather than pulling it from any system.

I’ve tried to push for more modern systems or process improvements, but leadership and IT aren’t interested in making changes right now. The payroll team is just 3 people supporting ~3,000 employees across 4 campuses, so most of the inefficiencies land directly on us.

At this point, I’m trying to figure out next steps:

• What industries or roles are actually realistic to transition into from payroll in a setup like this?

• Am I underestimating how transferable this experience is?

• Or is this just normal job frustration and I should expect similar inefficiencies anywhere I go?

Part of me feels like I should just push through and accept that every job has its share of outdated processes. But another part of me feels like I might be stuck in a system that isn’t going to change, and I should start planning an exit.

Would appreciate any perspective—especially from people who’ve moved out of payroll or administrative roles into something more modern or analytical.

TL;DR: 34M in payroll at a community college doing highly manual, outdated work (paper timesheets, Excel-heavy reporting). Burned out and unsure whether to pivot careers or accept that inefficiency is normal everywhere. Looking for advice on transferable paths out of payroll.

I (male 34) have struggled with my weight for a long time.

At my highest I was 316 and now I am at 235-45 (it fluctuates between those two)

But lately I am feeling so discouraged and like I can’t even see my goal anymore.

The gym doesn’t seem to be getting easier and my weight just seems to not want to change anymore.

Its like I don’t even know that I believe I can reach my fitness goals at this point.

I know I am probably just being over dramatic. But it feels pretty disheartening.

My gym’s classes typically have anywhere from 8-12 different movements/exercises each class every day and each day is a different grouping (eg lower body push one day, upper body pull another and so on) and scheduling changes week to week.

Some days it feels like it is just too much for an hr class.
The act of moving is nice of course. BUT it feels like I never get any better at any singular movement be we do it once and may not do it for another month or two.

Is this just a beginner struggle?

Or should I use the classes as supplementary exercises?

SUPER green on all this hahaha! 😂