Been overpaid, creative suggestions for ways to persuade work to keep it!

walwyn1978

Hi all, this comes under the heading of a 'nice problem to have'.

I've received my e-payslip telling me on the 30th I will be paid as usual, but the amount is wrong. From September 1st I've been working 0.5 rather than 1.0 to look after my little boy. This was all agreed with my boss. The payslip says I'm getting my normal salary, not the 0.5 salary. Clearly someone has not done the paperwork - either my boss or HR.

I work in FE for a medium sized education, skills and training provider, which in turn is attached to a local authority, although we are self-supporting we do use their HR services. As you'd expect in that line of work, there is no 'bonus' culture and as with many jobs my workload is more than my contracted hours. This month I have essentially been working full time as its a very busy time for us.

I'm not going to just keep it and say nothing - that would be morally and legally wrong. However, since I have consistently worked more hours than I get paid for for the last 7 years since doing the job, I wondered if there was a polite/persuasive/cheeky/amusing way of asking to keep some of it/all of it as a one off this month?

I should say that I'm fully expecting there to be not a lot of sympathy here for me ;)

Thoughts welcome.

sangie595

walwyn1978 wrote: »

Hi all, this comes under the heading of a 'nice problem to have'.

I've received my e-payslip telling me on the 30th I will be paid as usual, but the amount is wrong. From September 1st I've been working 0.5 rather than 1.0 to look after my little boy. This was all agreed with my boss. The payslip says I'm getting my normal salary, not the 0.5 salary. Clearly someone has not done the paperwork - either my boss or HR.

I work in FE for a medium sized education, skills and training provider, which in turn is attached to a local authority, although we are self-supporting we do use their HR services. As you'd expect in that line of work, there is no 'bonus' culture and as with many jobs my workload is more than my contracted hours. This month I have essentially been working full time as its a very busy time for us.

I'm not going to just keep it and say nothing - that would be morally and legally wrong. However, since I have consistently worked more hours than I get paid for for the last 7 years since doing the job, I wondered if there was a polite/persuasive/cheeky/amusing way of asking to keep some of it/all of it as a one off this month?

I should say that I'm fully expecting there to be not a lot of sympathy here for me ;)

Thoughts welcome.

When you worked more than the required hours, were you chained to your desk and refused permission to leave? Did anyone prevent you from walking out the minute you had finished your hours? No? then I am afraid that volunteering to work more than your contracted hours is a choice. If you don't like it, stop doing it.

You have agreed a half time post withy our employer. You have been paid too much. You know exactly what you must do.

That is not a lack of sympathy. It is simply the way it is. All additional hours are your choice (and hardly unique in this sector). They are not an excuse to be paid more than is due. They are a reason to stop putting in the extra hours.

getmore4less

if you don't cut back to your new 0.5 hours you will always end up with more work.

do your hours it is up to the employer to fill your other 0.5+your old free OT.

if they need you to do more negotiate payment.

agrinnall

getmore4less wrote: »

if you don't cut back to your new 0.5 hours you will always end up with more work.

Exactly this. I recently went from full time to 0.8 and I have deliberately done it by agreeing that my working days are Tuesday - Friday so that I can set an out of office on my email for Monday and not do any work on that day (other than by advance agreement to swap to another day off if necessary).

rach_k

You could try sending a nice thank you card/note, saying that you appreciate the gesture of giving you full pay this month in recognition of the many hours of unpaid overtime you've done over the last 7 years even though you have recently reduced your hours as agreed with [boss] on [date]. Send some biscuits if you're feeling particularly cheeky!

You'll be informing them in writing so you've done your bit and, you never know, they might be able to do something about it, even if it's allowing you to repay in instalments rather than just not paying you next month. Or you'll at least give them a laugh, and that's always a nice thing to do!

walwyn1978

Thanks all. Agree on needing to be more disciplined with hours, although it's a fact of many professions (including mine) that often your hours don't cover your workload. It wasn't a whinge about this, as I think anyone who works in education doesn't do it expecting to do your hours and your hours only, but what you've said makes sense.

Great idea Rach_K! :T

FBaby

Surely the all point of cutting down your hours was to have more time out of the office, so why continue to work the same hours? It makes no sense. Are you saying that you wish you hadn't gone down the PT route and therefore would like to be considered for FT work again?

Personally, not only I think you have no chance at all, because error on your payslip is different to an error on the budget. I also think that you are being very cheeky and that could go against you. Surely if you knew there was an issue with doing more hours and you had concerns that your workload wouldn't reduce after cutting down your hours, you would have brought it up much earlier than now.

I think you would gain much more respect if you informed your boss and HR immediately of their error and then discuss with your boss if there are any options for your to do extra paid hours if it can help the team.

SandC

Do be careful with this also as you have clearly requested part time hours but even jokingly requesting you keep the pay because you've basically worked full time hours for the month anyway would ring alarm bells in the minds of senior management.


If you're finding out yourself that the job can't be done in the hours you've requested you may find yourself back at square one. Certainly in private sector staff have to justify a reduction in hours against the business need and if this need isn't being met they may rethink the situation. You, of course, should be willing to be flexible but ultimately won't be doing yourself any favours by regularly working a full week.

Kynthia

At the moment it seems like your payroll record is wrong as you're not showing as 0.5 fte. This will be automatically corrected and backdated when tge date of your hours change is entered onto the system. There won't be any element of discretion to allow you to keep it. It may be different for smaller employers or those that do payroll in house but doubtful in your sector.

walwyn1978

Cheers all. Meant this as a fairly light hearted thread, but have done as suggested and emailed HR/boss with information. HR have confirmed what I thought - boss didn't submit change of hours paperwork, and that it will result in non payment of salary at some point to recover overpayment, which all makes sense.

walwyn1978

FBaby wrote: »

Surely the all point of cutting down your hours was to have more time out of the office, so why continue to work the same hours? It makes no sense. Are you saying that you wish you hadn't gone down the PT route and therefore would like to be considered for FT work again?

Personally, not only I think you have no chance at all, because error on your payslip is different to an error on the budget. I also think that you are being very cheeky and that could go against you. Surely if you knew there was an issue with doing more hours and you had concerns that your workload wouldn't reduce after cutting down your hours, you would have brought it up much earlier than now.

I think you would gain much more respect if you informed your boss and HR immediately of their error and then discuss with your boss if there are any options for your to do extra paid hours if it can help the team.

Not quite. Went PT for childcare reasons, don't want to be full time but this month hasn't seen any reduction in workload for various reasons (Aug/Sept a lot of our courses start plus we've launched new systems and some of the management of that has fallen to me in the absence of others on sick leave/holidays)
Anyway, it seems I'll be able to take back some of the time as TOIL in November so it all will balance out along the line.

Thanks for your comment though.