Employer overpaid. No payback + they find out = lose job?

November 28, 2007 7:54 PM

I got paid twice! YAY! ... Oh, wait. Do I risk losing my job if I don't tell my boss, and they find out later?

... Basically, last month's hours made a comeback and joined the ones on this month's pay advice, and I made a couple hundred pounds extra.
The employer is the IT division of an educational institution in the UK. No need to say I would love keeping it.

posted by anonymous to work & money (49 comments total)

Accounting will find out, and they'll just withhold the next pay check you were planning to get. So just let them know about it now and save yourself a 0 balance paycheck later.
posted by bigmusic at 8:00 PM on November 28, 2007

And if for some reason they don't correct the error right away, put it in savings and hold it, because eventually they will, probably when end of the fiscal year accounting comes around. This way, you've at least earned interest on it, not them.
posted by pupdog at 8:02 PM on November 28, 2007

Not only will you get the joy of repayment, but I can't imagine it being a pleasant experience trying to explain either to your boss or to the HR department why you thought it would be a grand idea to attempt to keep it. No financial gain, and big trust loss. Bad idea.
posted by LoraxGuy at 8:04 PM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

You might not lose your job. The most likely scenario is that they figure it out, then take it out of a later paycheck. Probably without telling you about it beforehand. So six months from now, when you are planning on using your paycheck to pay some bills, it turns out it's not there.

On preview, what everyone else already said.
posted by Quonab at 8:05 PM on November 28, 2007

If I were your boss, I would very seriously consider firing you. You are considering keeping money that belongs to the company, not you. This is often known as theft.
posted by oddman at 8:05 PM on November 28, 2007

Tell the accounts department today. You could act as if you just don't ever check your balance, or thought you got a Christmas bonus early, but you're only fooling yourself.
posted by holgate at 8:09 PM on November 28, 2007

The answer lies in the tags for your post: Overpaid (sweet) Job (need to keep it) Payback (or else your out of aforementioned job). More to the point: does stealing from an educational institution really fall into your ethical framework?
posted by pwally at 8:09 PM on November 28, 2007

theft blah blah cakes. they will most likely notice at some point, but it's a likely excuse for you to say you haven't noticed till you looked over your bank statements (if it's being wired to your account). of course you should return it immediately if they find out (and not sure the interest is worth it).
posted by barrakuda at 8:10 PM on November 28, 2007

The *only* possible option for you is to call the payroll department and say you think there may have been a mistake in your check, and you'd like to get it cleared up as soon as possible.

If it filters back to your boss, which it most likely will, you'll come out smelling like roses. Just call payroll.
posted by mediareport at 8:10 PM on November 28, 2007

Ask your boss if you got a bonus. I got an unexpected extra big check one time because The Co. decided to send some extra money my way and it showed up as extra hours for some bizarre tax reason, but they didn't tell me in advance.

If you didn't get a bonus, then you'll have to give it back but you'll at least get hours in two weeks for not getting shitcanned.
posted by Cyrano at 8:12 PM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I should have been clearer - I definitely think you should tell them, but if you don't see an immediate correction, and they don't as for a check, sock it into savings for when they finally do come looking for it.
posted by pupdog at 8:13 PM on November 28, 2007

Do I risk losing my job if I don't tell my boss, and they find out later?

Yes.
posted by tkolar at 8:15 PM on November 28, 2007

Thank your boss for the raise. This will get his attention. Then explain the situation and ask how you can return the money. The trust and attention you get for these actions will (can) be far more rewarding than keeping the check.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:18 PM on November 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

Yeah, just give it back. You not only risk losing your job, it's over a couple hundred pounds.
posted by cashman at 8:19 PM on November 28, 2007

BTW... it is possible that your back fucked up. In that case, they are just going to take the money back. They won't mind leaving you with a negative balance if you don't have enough money.
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:19 PM on November 28, 2007

Damn it. *Bank not Back

FYI... Spellcheck is only good when it comes to misspelled words.. whodathunkit?
posted by B(oYo)BIES at 8:21 PM on November 28, 2007

IANAL in the UK ... but it's generally illegal to accept money, cash checks, and/or bank transfers that you know to be in error and then fail to do anything about it.

There are plenty of stories of bank errors depositing huge sums of money into people's accounts, and then those people attempt to make cash withdrawals. They get caught and prosecuted, trust me.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:23 PM on November 28, 2007

Don't steal
Especially don't steal from the hand that feeds you
posted by caddis at 8:24 PM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

As tempting as I'm sure it is to keep it, you'd probably feel better if you just fess up and tell them you noticed the double payment. If you don't, a range of negative things could result, from a simply guilty conscience to a full-blown firing. Better safe than sorry, right?

And, who knows? They may appreciate your honesty and end up letting you keep it anyway. Hey, think positive! :)
posted by susiepie at 8:26 PM on November 28, 2007

Just say you save up your checks to deposit all at once and you thought it was an old check.
posted by rhizome at 8:28 PM on November 28, 2007

Tell them, no question about it.
posted by gnutron at 8:30 PM on November 28, 2007

I've worked in payroll.

Payroll will take it back if it was wrong. But if you tell them, they'll take it back when you're ready for it to get taken back, instead of you opening your paycheck stub one day and BING being short a couple hundred pounds. That would suck a lot, so I recommend calling them tomorrow.
posted by winna at 8:38 PM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Inform them immediately. End of story.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:51 PM on November 28, 2007

If you show them this card you may be able to at least get $200 out of the ordeal.

But seriously, like everyone else is saying you should tell someone about the error and have them correct it. Money is one thing that people always keep track of, so you're going to have to pay it back eventually even if you try to go the dishonest route.

There is a good MSN Money article about these sorts of things.

If I were your boss, I would very seriously consider firing you. You are considering keeping money that belongs to the company, not you. This is often known as theft.

Of course its up to the employer, but I don't agree with that or the others that suggest you would face severe penalties for not reporting the error. You could have missed the error through an honest mistake, and its not your job to report when payroll makes a mistake. You are legally obligated to pay back the money when they do ask for it back though. In most cases you would only be charged with theft if you refuse to give the money back. Similarly, if FedEx accidentally leaves a package at your door, you're not legally obligated to call them up and figure out what happened, but you are committing a crime if FedEx asks for the package back and you refuse.
posted by burnmp3s at 9:21 PM on November 28, 2007

...and its not your job to report when payroll makes a mistake.

Actually I think you'll find many employers disagree with that statement.
posted by tkolar at 9:28 PM on November 28, 2007

Of course its up to the employer, but I don't agree with that or the others that suggest you would face severe penalties for not reporting the error. You could have missed the error through an honest mistake, and its not your job to report when payroll makes a mistake.

No, but whatever is currently your job has a substantial chance of not being your job any more, either.

Echoing many others, give it back asap. If one of my staff had brought this error to my attention, the amount of character I thought they had would be easily trebled. If they didn't, I'd think they were, at best, a dumbass, and at worst, looking for new employment.
posted by liquado at 9:37 PM on November 28, 2007

i once had a situation with an employer who overpaid me a significant amount on a regular paycheck when the accounting dept. incorrectly calculated the amount of a raise I received. i immediately brought it to their attention, but the accounting dept. refused to acknowledge their error. After several complaints, it was finally corrected 6 months later.

because i had brought it to their attention several times over the 6 months the company told me to keep it.

and if i was yr boss, my thoughts would be identical to liquado's.
posted by lester at 9:48 PM on November 28, 2007

They will find out, and they will take it back when you need money the most. And, they'll probably can you for not speaking up.
posted by m3thod4 at 9:50 PM on November 28, 2007

I was overpaid in an internship, reported it and kept at payroll about it but they dragged their feet, eventually finished the internship and went on with my life. Of course I had forgotten all about the overpayment when they finally came months later to ask for their dough back and I was out to the tune of several hundred dollars.

Get it taken care of before you get used to having that dough in your bank account, because it'll look mighty empty without it, and even if they just fail to write you a paycheck some week, it'll probably be a paycheck you expected to get.
posted by crinklebat at 10:01 PM on November 28, 2007

The joy you get from having the extra money <>
Didn't your mom teach you not to take things that don't belong to you?
posted by 4ster at 10:18 PM on November 28, 2007

Well, crud, my smug, and rather self-righteous post got screwed up.

My point was that the joy you get from the extra money is less than the anxiety some poor payroll employee will likely experience until this is resolved.

Do the right thing.
posted by 4ster at 10:20 PM on November 28, 2007

I once thought I got paid too much by mistake. Turns out I got a bonus and the letter saying so was sitting in my manager's office collecting dust because he forgot to give it to me for a few months. I had to go ask him about it.

You should ask them what's up. If it is an error, give it back. It's not worth it.
posted by jeffamaphone at 10:42 PM on November 28, 2007

"Of course its up to the employer, but I don't agree with that or the others that suggest you would face severe penalties for not reporting the error. You could have missed the error through an honest mistake, and its not your job to report when payroll makes a mistake."

No, but whatever is currently your job has a substantial chance of not being your job any more, either.

Echoing many others, give it back asap. If one of my staff had brought this error to my attention, the amount of character I thought they had would be easily trebled. If they didn't, I'd think they were, at best, a dumbass, and at worst, looking for new employment.

Since the OP's original question was whether he could be fired over not telling his boss about this, let me clarify my findings:

I've never heard of anyone being fired for not reporting a payroll overpayment, both in my personal experiences and the cases I looked up on the internet. Even in cases where the employee actually spent the money, problems only occurred when the employee failed to allow the employer to take the same amount of money back.

As far as I can tell from researching it, it is at least very unlikely that someone would be fired for not reporting an overpayment. If there was really a "substantial chance" of losing one's job over a failure to report a payroll error, there would probably be at least one documented case where it actually happened.
posted by burnmp3s at 11:25 PM on November 28, 2007

Are you sure it is not a Christmas bonus? If not, give it back.
posted by chillmost at 12:19 AM on November 29, 2007

What would you do if they forgot to pay you one week? Give it back.
posted by davejay at 12:24 AM on November 29, 2007

Here's a news story of someone convicted of theft for spending an erroneous. I must have seen half-a-dozen stories on convictions for this sort of thing over the last couple of years.

As soon as your balance on that account goes below the amount you were erroneously overpaid, you have committed theft, even if you can still produce the money from elsewhere. So if you decide to hang onto it, better be really good with your account management, as you've already shown your dishonest intent by not reporting it.
posted by grouse at 12:27 AM on November 29, 2007

They will notice eventually. You might be able to get away with "I didn't check my balance" to explain not reporting it for a while (and your employers won't be able to ask you bank about any transfers) but you'll repay it eventually.

Best case scenario, which is likely to pay out in most companies whether university or not, is that it will take them a few months to do the accounting and actually get around to asking for it back (even if you told them today) - so transfer it into a high interest account and at least make something legal from the principal.
posted by unsliced at 12:36 AM on November 29, 2007

I once got paid too much like this and when I rang the pay office they acknowledged the error but didn't do anything to fix it! They finally caught up about a year later, but by then I'd spent it, so they ended up having to take it back $20 a fortnight...

Actually, now that I think about it, it didn't work out too bad for me, did it!?! Free yearly loan from the company :)
posted by ranglin at 12:44 AM on November 29, 2007

Don't put it into a high-interest bank account without telling your employer as some have suggested. As soon as it leaves your account, the act of appropriation has taken place. If you haven't informed your employer, you have demonstrated dishonest intent. That plus the other factors involved = theft.
posted by grouse at 1:08 AM on November 29, 2007

Yes, you can get fired (at least in the US, for posterity's sake). Especially if your work record is not pristine. This is exact thing happened to a guy at a former job, and it was considered a serious breach of conduct / trust to the management at this particular company.

Nothing in life is free. Tell them they overpaid you and arrange to have the funds withdrawn.
posted by Medieval Maven at 3:48 AM on November 29, 2007

I do know someone who was fired over this, although it was the payroll person not the employee who received overpayment. She set-up a repayment plan after realizing her mistake, and never notified any supervisors. But when everything came to light, the overpaid employee was written up, and his boss certainly thought less of him from then on.

If you were in the US, I'd also say you're taking a risk with your income tax. You'd be paying taxes on these earnings with your 2007 return, but then you may lose the money in 2008 if you wait for them to make the correction. Not sure how the UK tax system works though.
posted by saffry at 4:37 AM on November 29, 2007

You* should keep the money. You most likely won't be fired even if/when they find out -- provided you're willing to lie about your awareness of the overpayment. Since you seem to have no problem with stealing money, I'm guessing having to lie won't pose an ethical dilemma for you.

*This advice applies to you -- anonymous -- specifically. This advice does not apply to the vast majority of people who do not keep money that doesn't belong to them.
posted by pardonyou? at 6:59 AM on November 29, 2007 [1 favorite]

Another thought.

Some companies have traditionally paid with a one or two week delay between time billed and check written.

Advances in Technology allow for this time to be shortened.

In December, I will be getting an extra weeks paycheck as my company adjusts to a shorter delay.

I am quite bad at remembering such changes or paying attention to such memos. If my manager had forgotten to send out the notice, I might not have known.

Talk to your manager. It may be your money.
Honesty is rarely a bad policy.
posted by Seamus at 7:54 AM on November 29, 2007

The morally right thing to do is to send an e-mail to payroll noting a possible error and print out a copy for yourself and take home. I certainly don't think you have any moral obligation to hound payroll or involve your supervisor; as long as you put them on notice you've done the right thing.

In terms of your risk, I can say that I as a boss wouldn't fire someone who neglected to send such an e-mail if I thought it probable that the employee didn't notice the difference or suspect a problem. The magnitude of the discrepancy would be important, but probably just as important whether your compensation is ordinarily fixed or variable, and also whether or not you have direct deposit. People whose compensation varies often don't make a careful reconciliation, and people who don't have to go through the exercise of endorsing and depositing their paycheck often don't monitor their net pay carefully, or even at all.

As noted above, though, if you did something like specially segregate the money without notifying payroll, that would be an instant firing offense, because it shows that you were consciously aware of an overpayment and chose to do nothing...
posted by MattD at 8:29 AM on November 29, 2007

I bet your company handbook has something to say about it as well.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:53 AM on November 29, 2007

It's extremely likely that they'll find the error. You will look so much better having pointed it out to them.
posted by theora55 at 10:42 AM on November 29, 2007

They will almost certainly notice and take it back eventually. You should talk to your boss about it; at the very least you will look honest.
posted by Count Ziggurat at 10:49 AM on November 29, 2007

A counter datum:

When I worked for the US Census, I got paid twice for every hour I worked. The second checks started coming about a month into the job, always three days after my regular paycheck was mailed, and they were from a month earlier. That made a job that nominally paid $13 an hour (which was insanely good to my broke writer ass) pay $26 an hour, which was beyond belief. I used it to get out of debt. No one ever caught the error, no one ever asked me about it. I still have no idea how it happened (though my guess is that it was because I did pre-census work, then did regular census work, so my hours were submittted to two different payrolls).

If your employer is anything like the US government, you may be well served to never "notice" the error. Though I will say that I was likely aided by the fact that the census position was temporary, and that there was an institutional encouragement to graft (I was threatened with being fired for not turning in enough hours, because I was getting through my rolls about four times as fast as any of the other folks in my crew. So I was told to keep doing the same number, but to travel slower and to do more check-up visits to places that I would have normally referred to my supervisor).
posted by klangklangston at 10:53 AM on November 29, 2007

My husband works in payroll and says that it will most likely get spotted. He says it happens all the time though and sometimes people will call up and notify them, while a lot of people claim ignorance and say that they didn't realise they had it and it has already been spent (even if the error was caught one day later!)

He says his (large) company will not fire anyone or take it from any future paycheques but will send a letter asking the person to send a cheque for the amount in. A lot of people say they can't afford it and end up paying like £10 a month for 20 years.

Long story short, you may get away with it and you may not but ultimately, it will probably be easier for you and it will make you look better if you notify your company of the error.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:29 AM on November 29, 2007