I've seen both. The most truly pathetic thing I have seen was the rush to the bank to cash the payroll checks because certain employees knew that the account only had enough to pay a certain number of employees. Have also seen an innocent bank failure that screwed a payroll cycle. Luckily the bank covered overdrafts for the day it hosed everyone[1].

When the company is innocent, its best if the employer shows the employees the cause of the failure and be really, really oversharing so us very angry workers aren't inclined to riot.

1) at this late date, I get the feeling because the town was small enough to call around and make sure people banking at other banks didn't overdraft either instead of covering them money-wise after the fact.