What would you do if you got overpaid?

Nurses General Nursing

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The night of pay, most of the staff look up their paystubs online. I looked mine up last night and noticed that I was over paid by 1500 dollars. For a moment I daydreamed about what I could do with the extra money.:cheeky: Ofcourse, I never had any real intention of not notifying payroll.

I showed my co-workers and to my surprise many of them advised me to not say anything. In fact, only one agreed that I was doing the right thing.

I thought things like this would be a no brainer but apparently not.

Well, I went to pay roll this am and got it taken care of. The lady working in payroll thanked me for my honestly and said eventually they do found out and it would not have looked good if I didn't say anything.

So morale of the story.... if you ever get over paid fess up. Although I don't think there is anything wrong with having a few short moments to fantasize about having money.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

You can take situational ethics far too far as well. It was legal in Germany to lock up and kill Jews, gays, mentally ill and pastors.

Morality is a way of life. I have told cashiers they charged me the wrong price, either over or under. I found a cheap item in my cart at the car once, that had been hidden by the large item that was too heavy to lift so just scanned in the cart. I took it back in and paid for it.

The dinky paste jewelry? You're right, not likely to find an owner. Don't think its the same thing though. I'd tend to put it on a pole or someplace obvious so it can be seen by whoever lost it.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
No, I'm not going to make time to drive across town to return a couple bucks change I got by mistake. If I notice as I get it, or before I get home, yes of course. But saying not driving 40 minutes to return a few bucks is the same as "stealing" is just childish.

I hate, hate, hate "moral absolutism" (google it, the stupidest philosophy ever). Nothing is so black and white, and what is right or wrong really can vary depending on the circumstances.

If Im walking down the street and find a box of Tiffanys diamond jewelry and there's no one around, yes, I would absolutely go out of my way to find a way to return it to the person who lost it. If I'm walking and find some dinky paste costume ring and there's no one near who could've dropped it, I would most likely keep walking or maybe (gasp) grab it and give it to my little niece.

The two scenarios are not the same. The ethics of any given situation are entirely relative to the circumstances surrounding said situations.

You could call, let the store know and ask them what they want you to do. It's not about moral absolutism; there's right and there's wrong. If you know you got something you shouldn't have and you keep it, yes, that is stealing.

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

I don't think its fair that some posters are implying that people who've kept trifling amounts are amoral criminals. C'mon.

I once got a five dollar bill instead of a single back from a gas station. I didn't realize until I got home. Sorry, I'm not about to drive across town to return a five dollar bill. Not going to happen.

I also once got a extra $10 from an ATM. And, nope, I didn't return it. Not even sure how one does that. It wasn't an ATM that was affiliated with any bank as far as I could tell. Was I supposed to mail it to some company? Spend 45 minutes on the phone trying to get a hold of someone to find out how to have it deducted from my account?

Life isn't a Leave it to Beaver episode. Who has time to spend a huge chunk of their day over such an irrelevant amount of money.

How does one do that? Are you quite serious? Why, one simply enters the bank affiliated with the ATM and tell them, or calls the 800 number on the machine. If the machine took $10 from you I'm sure you would find a way to get it, after all.

I'm quite honestly appalled. I don't really have the time, but I'd make time because it is the right thing to do. Keeping someone else's money is unfathomable to me. You know the cashier often has to make up the money out of his or her pocket, right? I could never fall asleep knowing I'd essentially taken bread out of someone's mouth, when I have so much. How can one justify that? I'm baffled, truly. If one of my children said this to me, I'd feel I had totally failed as a parent. I would expect them to return any amount greater than a penny. What a disheartening "reality." So sad.

#nohopeforthehumanrace

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

Sorry for serial posting. Completely disagree with the post that suggested this issue is in any way related to Nursing. This is a basic ethics issue, as in you are either an ethical individual or you are not. It is clear what the right answer to the question is. To do otherwise is unthinkable, regardless of whether or not the error might be discovered. Do some of you have no self respect? Do you have no intrinsic sense of right and wrong? Thou shalt not steal is not an old fashioned guideline for pity sake. I really do not understand the attitude that "the person/institution made the error so too bad so sad." Good grief, that kind of selfish amorality is just mind boggling. How does one even live with themselves? What a grotesquely sad, narcissistic way to view the world.

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and they collect the interest while you wait....

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

I was taught honesty and ethics from an early age. The five dollar bill you found may have been a below the poverty line level single mom's last money until payday or the Rx co-pay money a little old lady had saved so she could pick up her cardiac med at the drug store. It might also have been a ten year old's allowance.

If it were your five, would the return be optional? I think not.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

If I was overpaid, I'd notify Payroll ASAP and try not to spend it in the meantime...not so much consciously spending it as forgetting that it's not supposed to be there.

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If they'd been honest when they hired me that I'd work 10 hours a day and be paid for 8 I'd worry about that.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CVICU, CCU, and Neuro ICU.

When I was a staff nurse, I was overpaid twice. Both times I contacted payroll and was told, "Its more of a hassle to correct it than to let it go, so if you don't say anything I won't say anything." So, I didn't say anything and kept the money.

Then a few years later, after I left to do travel nursing, I received a settlement check int he mail from a class action lawsuit against the hospital for not paying their staff properly for overtime. The check was the equivalent of about two weeks pay.

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How does one do that? Are you quite serious? Why, one simply enters the bank affiliated with the ATM and tell them, or calls the 800 number on the machine. If the machine took $10 from you I'm sure you would find a way to get it, after all.

I'm quite honestly appalled. I don't really have the time, but I'd make time because it is the right thing to do. Keeping someone else's money is unfathomable to me. You know the cashier often has to make up the money out of his or her pocket, right? I could never fall asleep knowing I'd essentially taken bread out of someone's mouth, when I have so much. How can one justify that? I'm baffled, truly. If one of my children said this to me, I'd feel I had totally failed as a parent. I would expect them to return any amount greater than a penny. What a disheartening "reality." So sad.

#nohopeforthehumanrace

Well, first, I think you're being a little melodramatic. And, second, I think you misinterpreted what I said.

What I was commenting on was this notion (as I said in a different post) of "moral absolutism". That everything is black and white. That there is no gray and everything that is "bad" is just as "bad" as everything else that's "bad".

Believe it or not, I wasn't trying to justify anything. I fully understand that in not driving across town to return a $5 bill, I was being lazy and inconsiderate. Because I am a human being and sometimes I do things that (grab your smelling salts in case you get the vapors) aren't 100% moral.

And unless you're an android, I doubt very much that you (or anyone) can say otherwise about yourself. The protective veil of the Internet simply allows one to present one's self otherwise.

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I would not be able to live with myself if I had not returned the check/notified Payroll immediately. My dad taught us better than that, and his disappointment with the wrong response would have hurt me far more than going home with several dollars less.

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Some people are acting awfully righteous in here. Brandon thank you for attempting to explain yourself too bad nobody gets it!!

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