What would you do if you got overpaid?

[BSNbeauty]

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. 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.

[amygarside]

i just hope everyone who could experience this would do the same thing as you did

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

I get it Brandon.... No one on this board is an angel . I'm willing to bet my pay check that someone on here has done something that is questionable. No sin is greater than another.

[armyicurn]

You did good. Money matters always come up to the surface regardless of good or bad intentions. Now that you did the right thing, you need to evaluate your coworkers. Do you trust them 112% after what they told you what to do with the extra money?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I worked in a place once where our time cards were actual cards, printed with our names and number of accrued hours of PTO (used for vaca, sick time, whatever) in the top edge. You could keep track of your accruals easily that way. Working full-time you accrued something like 7.8 hours every two weeks (great contract).

One of my friends took a look at her card one pay period and almost fainted-- it had 999 hours of PTO on it, almost six months of full-time work. What to do? Her paychecks were normal, just the PTO was erroneous. We all decided that they'd probably catch it sooner or later so we told her just to keep an eye on it. They never did. So after about a year she started taking it, a bit at a time, for an extra couple of days of a month or some vaca time here and there. When we quit we got pur PTO paid off at our rate of pay at the time of resignation, so a few years later she got a nice bonus when she moved away. None of us every begrudged it to her :)

[klone, MSN, RN]

No sin is greater than another.

Technically that's not true. There are venial sins and there are mortal sins.

[BlueDevil,DNP, DNP, RN]

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.

I deliberately removed your name from that post so as not to single you out, as you were not the only one make statements to the same point. I certainly have character flaws. For instance, I'm quite vain, probably arrogant, and I am guilty of being dismissive and some might say judgmental. However, I have never in my life, stolen anything from anyone, and I'll go to my grave being able to say so.

What I find more shocking than the thievery is the blatant disregard for the implications of the act. I don't see it as a "gray area." I see it as simple human decency. YMMV.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

Wow some people takes things WAY too seriously. Glad the OP did the right thing, but if I'm waking down the street and I find a dollar I am not going to scour the Earth looking for the person who lost it. Some may think less if me, and I'm a-ok with that. That doesn't mean I'll steal from my employer, co- workers, or divert drugs..

[muffylpn]

This has happened twice to me just recently last week. The first time the payroll person was so rude stating she did not make a mistake, I was wrong according to her. I told she could check it out and remove the money out of my next pay check. She never did-oh well. Last week when it happened they just thought it was so wonderful I was willing to tell them they overpaid me. They took the money back over the next two checks, so I would not be really short in my pay-I thought that was nice of them

[GM2RN]

Just so you know, many if not all direct deposit agreements give your employer authority without asking to debit funds such as if paid in error. If you keep funds that aren't yours and worse start spending you could be in a whole lotta trouble once HR makes a withdrawal from your checking account.

When I filled out my payroll deduction form, I crossed out the part allowing them to do this and wrote that I do not agree to them automatically deducting any overpayment. I also made a copy of it before I turned it in.

[GM2RN]

Technically that's not true. There are venial sins and there are mortal sins.

That depends on whether you believe what a particular religion teaches or the Bible.

[jtmarcy12, BSN, RN]

I too would have done the same thing!! When they finally would have caught up with the error they made,they would have questioned you and asked "didn't you know this was an usually amount for your check"? You would have no defense and your dishonesty would have shone through, so good for you, that you choose to be honest. If others were saying "keep quiet" you now will in the future question their honesty.

[KATRN78]

I have been paid for hours I did not work. I notify the agency by email if my shift is cut short. Then I do a follow up call. If they do not do their job correctly after I notify them twice, I am not going to nag them to do their job. This has happened twice.