Money Moral Dilemma: Should I report my colleague for not telling payroll he's been overpaid?

Mikeyboy01443

How many people here who said they should report it also drive round on a cycle with a helmet cam and snitch on motorists on their phone in traffic 

BikingBud

akira181 said: 

Regardless of what any contract says, an employer cannot reasonably expect employees to regularly check payslips for mistakes that shouldn't be happening in the first place and claim fraud/misconduct when an employee fails to do so. 

Anybody that doesn't check their payslip is foolhardy, the same as anyone not checking their tax code.

The paid salary can be in error for any number of reasons, if you do not know what you should be getting paid and observe discrepancies and don't intervene then more fool you.

From the responses on here, I expect many would also suggest that when you have been underpaid or over taxed that you don't have time or need to check and therefore you also just let it fly.

Or back in the real world you bleat like hell.

Honesty is a two way street.

ETA - Don't snitch! Is this similar to honourable thief!

BikingBud

Mikeyboy01443 said:

How many people here who said they should report it also drive round on a cycle with a helmet cam and snitch on motorists on their phone in traffic 

Snitching on driver using phones in traffic, I'd buy them all a beer.

Danien

Quite a few years ago I left a company two thirds through a pay cycle. When I went to check my account on pay day for my two thirds pay, I'd been paid for a full month. I phoned the company immediately the same day who said that I couldn't just return the overpayment, they would cancel that payment and I'd have to return the whole amount and then they would reissue the two thirds payment.

It then took weeks to get the payment from the company, constantly reminding them to get the payment. I didn't have enough money to live on and had to borrow money at high interest (the only loan I could get) to afford travel to my new job. My landlord was angry with me for being late with rent and bills weren't paid. I'd started my new job at the point in their pay cycle just too late to get paid that month, so it was another 6 weeks before I got paid from them. I ate plain rice and pasta for weeks as I couldn't afford anything more.

Now THIS is being punished for being honest. Not what the op went through which was simply paying back what they owed. 

It is not your responsibility to report your colleague, it is their responsibility to report the issue. Reporting them yourselves is petty and vindictive. Tell your colleague that what they have done is theft and will eventually be found out and that they should inform the company they've realised they were overpaid and arrange a payment schedule with the company. Then they make the decision whether they want to be a criminal or not.

akira181

Mikeyboy01443 said:

How many people here who said they should report it also drive round on a cycle with a helmet cam and snitch on motorists on their phone in traffic 

I think few people are going to be on your side with that one matey. 

Personally I think anyone using a mobile phone behind the wheel should be 12 month banned on the spot. Lifetime ban if it's repeated, no discussion, no appeal. It's just as bad, if not worse, than drink driving. You're not so important that disaster will strike if you don't immediately reply to a text nor are you a better driver than everyone else so you can afford to be distracted behind the wheel. Utterly arrogant, irresponsible, and narcissistic behaviour. Absolutely no excuse for it.

As bad as a lot of cyclists are on the road, good on them for reporting idiots on their phones. I wish Scotland had a similar system, the amount of drivers on their phone in rush hour traffic doing 60-80mph on the motorway and completely oblivious that they're drifting lanes is appalling.

BikingBud said:

akira181 said: 

Regardless of what any contract says, an employer cannot reasonably expect employees to regularly check payslips for mistakes that shouldn't be happening in the first place and claim fraud/misconduct when an employee fails to do so. 

Anybody that doesn't check their payslip is foolhardy, the same as anyone not checking their tax code.

The paid salary can be in error for any number of reasons, if you do not know what you should be getting paid and observe discrepancies and don't intervene then more fool you.

From the responses on here, I expect many would also suggest that when you have been underpaid or over taxed that you don't have time or need to check and therefore you also just let it fly.

Or back in the real world you bleat like hell.

Honesty is a two way street.

ETA - Don't snitch! Is this similar to honourable thief!

Tax codes don't change anywhere near often enough to merit checking monthly and neither should your wage. If I had to regularly check my payslip for accuracy, I'd get a new job, plenty out there at the moment.  If you don't trust your company to pay your wages correctly after 3 or 4 months of being there, why are you still there?

If they can't do the basics like paying their staff correctly, what confidence do you have in senior management to lead the company and deal with more complex issues? It's foolhardy to stay in that work environment where there's no trust or managerial competence.

Might be different if I was on a time-sheet and/or manually reporting overtime but still, if there were regular mistakes, they've lost my trust and it's not a company I'd continue working for.

elsien

Why is it that the word snitch is strongly reminiscent of the school room and 12 year olds?

Chris_Jay

How quickly would the OP, or colleague, report an underpayment? I suspect that it wouldn't take long, especially if the direct debits and standing orders, that the majority of people have in place to remain solvent, are due to be paid within a day or two of of pay day...

DavidL58

To all the people saying how awful and dishonest people are now, I would say that the OP's advising to ' keep quiet ' are the only people actually being honest.
I've been in this position before, goaded to say something because they won't. Do the right thing. Then when management ask who agrees, they all deny it. You're on your own. So they want someone ELSE to be the messenger.
There's plenty of whistle blowers who have had to leave their jobs for 'doing the right thing.' Or had their contracts terminated. Something really serious, then yes. Otherwise, get in the real world.

yorkie22

I would suggest that you tell your colleague about what happened to you. The longer he/she is getting this money the more they will have to be paying back. No use saying they did'nt notice and they have spent up. If you say something and they don't correct they only have themselves to blame. For warned is for armed.