Photo By Troy Miller | Acting Payroll Supervisor Reyna Sallinger and Executive Support Director George...... read more read more
For some people, it’s simply human nature to do something just because someone said not to. This also applies to anything that is locked. People feel the urge to find out what’s behind something secure, whether it’s a door, locker, vault, or chest. When they don’t understand why they can’t enter or why something is off-limits, rumors, myths, and misunderstandings spread quickly. In this article, we will explore what goes on behind the secure door of the Payroll Department (Code 614).
“For me, it was always that door. Everybody saw it, but nobody was allowed in. So what was the secret behind it?” asked Reyna Sallinger, Acting Payroll Supervisor for Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s (NNSY) Comptroller Department (Code 600) Payroll Division (Code 614). “We handle sensitive data, not only for Payroll but also for the Travel Department (Code 615), which shares our space. The door keeps people’s personal information safe.”
To address this issue, Payroll and Travel had set up customer service kiosks outside their work areas a couple of years ago which also improves customer service.
“Most of our customers come from the waterfront because they can’t access computers to print their Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) or their master time. We can do that for them right there,” said David Massey, a Code 614 Financial Technician. “We also help shipyard personnel with questions, pay issues, different types of leave, and more.”
Massey added, “Our six financial technicians are assigned specific departmental codes to manage payroll duties. This way, we provide consistent service and employees don’t have to explain their situations repeatedly. Each technician specializes in different payroll areas. If one of us is at the customer service kiosk and doesn’t know the answer, we can quickly go behind the locked door, find out the answers, and return with the correct information. We don’t give answers without checking first.”
Payroll personnel use a system called Defense Civilian Pay System (DCPS). This is the official pay system that connects with Supervisors’ Desk (SUPDESK), the program supervisors use to submit time for their teams. Once supervisors submit their time, Payroll checks for discrepancies and makes necessary changes. Then, the information goes to the Defense Finance Accounting Service (DFAS), which pays over 10,000 shipyard employees.
“One of our biggest challenges is getting supervisors to enter their team’s time accurately into SUPDESK every day. This ensures that employees get correct pay for their time worked,” said Sallinger. “In any given pay period, we track over 36,000 missing hours. Each week, my team runs a missing time report and contacts supervisors to check the status of those hours. If supervisors submitted their hours accurately each day, it would save us time contacting them, allowing us to better serve our customers, the shipyard employees.”
Payroll also processes several types of leave, including Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Paid Paternity Leave (PPL), Military Leave (ML), Workers Compensation leave, and the Student Loan Repayment Program (SLRP).
“We work closely with personnel to make sure that any requests for leave or time off are entered into the system. This way, employees can focus on their lives during their time off, without worrying about their pay or leave status,” said Code 614 Financial Technician Heather Crittenden. “We collaborate with Personnel Administrative Services (Code 1102) and Fleet Human Resource Outsourcing (FLTHRO) quite often. Employees submit their packages to Code 1102 and Fleet HRO, but they ultimately come to Payroll, where we process them in the DCPS program so they can use their leave in SUPDESK.”
During the longest federal government shutdown in American history, which lasted 43 days from October 1to November 12, 2025, the entire Payroll and Travel department teams worked hard to share pertinent information with employees. To do this, they held targeted meetings with first- and second-line supervisors to provide all the available information.
“There were times when we delivered the most current information to the general employees during the morning session, by the time of the afternoon session with the supervisors, the information had changed. That’s how frequently things changed during the shutdown,” said NNSY Executive Support (Code 1100) Director George Fitzgerald.
As the shutdown went on, and employees continued not getting paid, a 30-minute meeting on the waterfront expanded into larger town hall-type meetings several times a week withthe shipyard senior leaders, and FLTHRO and Payroll representatives. Each person provided the latest information on what the shipyard and community were doing to assist employees. Though the shutdown has ended, these meetings are continuing to be offered through the end of the year to help resolve pay, leave and other issues.
NNSY Industrial Operations Commanding Officer Captain Lawrence Brandon said, “The seven person Payroll team is working hard to ensure that over 10,000 employees get paid correctly and on time. I assure you that Payroll is doing an outstanding job of keeping everyone updated on the latest information regarding the shutdown and its impact on our pay and leave.”
To better serve their customers and gather information more quickly, Payroll is scanning thousands of hard copies to create a digital archive. This will save time in the long run and allow them to focus more on supporting shipyard employees.
| Date Taken: | 12.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.05.2025 14:53 |
| Story ID: | 552919 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 135 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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