I need the advice/ideas of someone in HR/Accounting/Administration or a lawyer

[ArchE_Cat]

My 3-year anniversary at my job came earlier this year. Upon my anniversary date a member of the accounting/hr staff gave me two weeks worth of paid leave. 3 months go by and I decide to cash it in but I'm told that I can't use it. I should have never received paid leave since I'm not full time. It amazes me that a company could so easily make a $1000 plus mistake, and not catch it for 3 months. So, they tell me the leave has been taken away.

A couple days ago I get my latest pay stub and there is about two weeks worth of hours on that check that shouldn't be there. Guess what? It adds up to exactly the amount of leave that was taken away. So, I decided to check with HR/accounting to confirm my pay stub is correct. Again, they inform me that they made yet another $1000+ mistake. Now they want me to write them a check for the overpaid amount. Any suggestions or thoughts?

I know for sure I'll be sending an email to my boss/company owner to advise him of the two $1000+ mistakes his HR staff has made, because I know he has no idea.

To add fuel to fire I'm done at this place in a few weeks. Let's just say that some of the people there have been royal dicks about all this. So, I'm not wanting advice really, just ideas on how to be a real pain in butt while still maintaining some level of professionalism.

[mcmwcat]

Find answer here

[sonofdaxjones]

Clearly an opportunity to create one of hundreds of "OT" postings over on Wabash. 

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[Dr. Funke]

Clearly an opportunity to create one of hundreds of "OT" postings over on Wabash. 

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don't forget paintless dent-removal.

[steve dave]

Moral of the story:  If you get a bunch of money you shouldn't have, put it into an interest bearing account for 12 months and if they haven't asked for it back by then it's yours.  Speaking up is like telling the blackjack dealer that you had 22 instead of the 21 the moron paid you for.  Either way though, the boss should make it right if he's not a complete douche. 

[Pete]

Clearly an opportunity to create one of hundreds of "OT" postings over on Wabash. 

If you need a:

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It's like Angie's List.

[ArchE_Cat]

Moral of the story:  If you get a bunch of money you shouldn't have put it into an interest bearing account for 12 months and if they haven't asked for it back by then it's yours.  Speaking up is like telling the blackjack dealer that you had 22 instead of the 21 the moron paid you for.  Either way though, the boss should make it right if he's not a complete douche. 

They shouldn't be asking for me to write them a check back. Especially, in dealing with deductions like taxes. They are just asking so the boss doesn't find out, because it's not going to fix the bookkeeping errors they created. These people messing up have only been w/ the company for a few months, the boss won't like this news coming from a 3 year vet who helped him build up his company.

[Oklahoma_Cat]

Shouldn't have been a dumbass.

Someone messes up and gives you extra money, take it and run.  Honesty is only the best policy if you're 5. 

[Pete]

Moral of the story:  If you get a bunch of money you shouldn't have put it into an interest bearing account for 12 months and if they haven't asked for it back by then it's yours.  Speaking up is like telling the blackjack dealer that you had 22 instead of the 21 the moron paid you for.  Either way though, the boss should make it right if he's not a complete douche. 

They shouldn't be asking for me to write them a check back. Especially, in dealing with deductions like taxes. They are just asking so the boss doesn't find out, because it's not going to fix the bookkeeping errors they created. These people messing up have only been w/ the company for a few months, the boss won't like this news coming from a 3 year vet who helped him build up his company.

Meh, that won't do anything.

You should take a gun to work on the last day.  Don't shoot anybody, just storm through the front door waving the gun and yelling "It's my last day to work here, and it's your last day alive".....then like yell "psyche!" or something...you know, to break the tension.

Or, burn that &@#%ing place to the ground.  You want to get someone's attention, you burn their house or business down.  Works like almost 100% of the time.

[pissclams]

my advice? don't steal. 
unless you're that guy who hasn't made a mistake in his job I wouldn't report anything to your company owner either.  crap happens.  move on and take the high road, there's no reason to burn any bridges unless you're nearing retirement age.

[AzCat]

Ethically the question is, of course, whether or not they're correct in their interpretations.  Are they right that you shouldn't have been granted the leave in the first place?  If so they definitely shouldn't have paid you for it.

When I left a Fortune 100 business a few years back they kept paying me as if I was still working there.  Upon receipt of the first check I called the lead HR rep for the division in which I'd worked and informed her of the situation to which she replied, "You know, it really isn't worth my time to do the paperwork and put this through the system.  It would cost far more to ask you to return the money than to let you keep it.  As far as I'm concerned it's money we owed you.  If the checks don't stop by January call me back and I'll look into it."  It was August at the time and they did pay me through October.  Nice going away present that.   

[CatsNChiefs]

If it made it into the system then person A thought it was all right and person B didn't.  So find person A and tell them to grow a sack and honor their word.  Otherwise mail them a steel box of 100,000 pennies postage due after you leave.  Burning bridges is fun.

[ArchE_Cat]

my advice? don't steal. 
unless you're that guy who hasn't made a mistake in his job I wouldn't report anything to your company owner either.  crap happens.  move on and take the high road, there's no reason to burn any bridges unless you're nearing retirement age.

Obviously I'm not going to try to keep it because I already told them about the error. "Crap happens," isn't a good excuse from HR people who just advised you to down size your company, all while making the same careless $1000+ mistake over and over again. It's not a big company at all, well under 100 people. He needs to know what's going on in his company.

I don't care about burning bridges because I'm head into an entirely different field.

[ArchE_Cat]

Ethically the question is, of course, whether or not they're correct in their interpretations.  Are they right that you shouldn't have been granted the leave in the first place?  If so they definitely shouldn't have paid you for it.

See, that's the thing. Someone had to have approval and manually enter the leave into the system. I tried to let them know I didn't think it was right when it first showed up, but was ignored. By our policies I was suppose to use up my paid leave before taking any unpaid leave. Well, I'm part time so that leave would have been used up long before three months went by. So, by policy I should not get the leave I'm part time, but it did get approved. Also, by policy I should have just used the leave up, but I didn't because I was trying to do the right thing and let them know it was an error.

[AzCat]

Ethically the question is, of course, whether or not they're correct in their interpretations.  Are they right that you shouldn't have been granted the leave in the first place?  If so they definitely shouldn't have paid you for it.

See, that's the thing. Someone had to have approval and manually enter the leave into the system. I tried to let them know I didn't think it was right when it first showed up, but was ignored. By our policies I was suppose to use up my paid leave before taking any unpaid leave. Well, I'm part time so that leave would have been used up long before three months went by. So, by policy I should not get the leave I'm part time, but it did get approved. Also, by policy I should have just used the leave up, but I didn't because I was trying to do the right thing and let them know it was an error.

So the crux of the issue is that you're annoyed at having to clean up someone else's mess.  Welcome to the real world and the 5% of all individuals who actually make things work/happen.

[pissclams]

Ethically the question is, of course, whether or not they're correct in their interpretations.  Are they right that you shouldn't have been granted the leave in the first place?  If so they definitely shouldn't have paid you for it.

See, that's the thing. Someone had to have approval and manually enter the leave into the system. I tried to let them know I didn't think it was right when it first showed up, but was ignored. By our policies I was suppose to use up my paid leave before taking any unpaid leave. Well, I'm part time so that leave would have been used up long before three months went by. So, by policy I should not get the leave I'm part time, but it did get approved. Also, by policy I should have just used the leave up, but I didn't because I was trying to do the right thing and let them know it was an error.

So the crux of the issue is that you're annoyed at having to clean up someone else's mess.  Welcome to the real world and the 5% of all individuals who actually make things work/happen.

qfmft
what the hell is the big deal 

[Pete]

Ethically the question is, of course, whether or not they're correct in their interpretations.  Are they right that you shouldn't have been granted the leave in the first place?  If so they definitely shouldn't have paid you for it.

See, that's the thing. Someone had to have approval and manually enter the leave into the system. I tried to let them know I didn't think it was right when it first showed up, but was ignored. By our policies I was suppose to use up my paid leave before taking any unpaid leave. Well, I'm part time so that leave would have been used up long before three months went by. So, by policy I should not get the leave I'm part time, but it did get approved. Also, by policy I should have just used the leave up, but I didn't because I was trying to do the right thing and let them know it was an error.

So the crux of the issue is that you're annoyed at having to clean up someone else's mess.  Welcome to the real world and the 5% of all individuals who actually make things work/happen.

qfmft
what the hell is the big deal 

Honestly, I'd still go with the gun thing. 

[kcpurple]

Can't believe I am actually making my first post regarding this, but I would be concerned about what your W-2 looks like next January.  Are you going to owe taxes, FICA, etc on the extra money that you gave them back?  (If they were able to mess this up, I would expect them to mess up the W-2 as well)  I'm sure it could be fixed with a fair amount of effort, but I would want a letter from the President explaining what happened to tuck into the '08 tax files.