to think this is an abhorrent attitude?

[faithinthesound]

The person in my company who is in charge of payroll had a bit of a bish up in November, and a handful of people were overpaid. It's... well, frankly, it sucks for the people affected, but these things happen, right? We're all only human.

There have been letters go up in our staffroom detailing what happened and making it clear that the money has to be paid back. In all of the cases that I've been made aware of, we're talking about less than $100.

So most people are saying "wow, that sucks, I'm really upset about it" and things along those lines. But they're doing things like, negotiating with the company about spreading the repayment over more than one pay, or rejigging their budgets to get it done. Basically, acknowledging that it's a suboptimal situation, but recognizing what has to happen, and taking steps to do it.

There's at least one person who is taking the opposite stance. A selection of gems heard straight from her mouth:
"Well, how much does the company make in a day? More than enough to cover this!"
"It's the company's fault, why should I suffer!"
"The company screwed up, they should take the hit, not me!"

I interjected here. I said, "If you're walking down the street, and you trip over a wallet full of cash, yes, the person who owns it should have been more careful, it is their mistake... but it still doesn't belong to you.

"I don't care!" she responded. "I don't care that it isn't mine. They screwed up, and I don't see why I should have to give it back."

Well, there's no arguing with stupid and selfish, so I was going to leave it. Until she said this.

"I don't even care if the company goes under." And "I'm going to fight it."

I said "Go ahead. Take it to small claims court. You don't have a legal leg to stand on."

And if the company goes under, it's not just her who loses her job, it's EVERYONE. All the people taking steps to fix the mistake, all the people who weren't even affected by the mistake, everyone. Everyone's out a job if the company goes under... but you don't care about any of that?

"Nope."

Am I being unreasonable to think she's revolting? Don't get me wrong, I'm fully on board that the situation sucks but that doesn't change the facts... right?

For the record, I wasn't one of the ones overpaid, but if I had been I would have given it back without hesitation - it wouldn't have been my money, you know? That's right and fair, I think.

I already disliked this girl for other reasons, but now she's really made my blood boil!

Even if she didn't receive a payslip or it wasn't written in a logical way the fact remains that there was £100 extra in her bank account.

If you don't know that there is extra money in your account and you are spending indiscriminately without knowing how much money you have to spend then you and you alone are responsible if that money is spent and you're not in a position to pay it back.

After all if she was spending and not checking she had sufficient funds and went overdrawn whose fault would that be? Extra balance is no different.

Yanbu.
I don't understand the comments that she may have money problems, it's not her money? It never was. It's not like they're taking her money, this was never her money to spend.
Don't think your comments about your colleagues being like family are ott either. I've certainly worked in places like, and am still close to old colleagues now.
I wouldn't like this persons attitude.
I understand the op.
Yes this £100 probably won't bankrupt the company, but what if everyone had this attitude?

I had a similar thing when I returned from Mat Leave on a job share. My first wage packet was over £800 more than it should be so I rang payroll and offered to put them straight back. They said oh it's ok we'll just take it out if the next one (which would mean no pay basically for a month). In the end we split it over 6 months and I stuck the overpayment into savings for Christmas and Car expenses etc... no hardship.

Yes when payroll get it wrong it's very frustrating but she knows she's not meant to keep it and she won't be able to keep it even if she does fight. It would cost her more to fight it. Maybe that's what's she's counting on... the company won't take her to court due to the costs involved. She doesn't seem to realise they may just be landed on her too.

It depends on what kinds of expenses they are. If it's straighforward things like milaged it's paid as expenses, but sometimes they'll back-pay you for training that you originally self funded.

But she wouldn't have necessarily have realised it was extra because the pay slip wasn't the usual amount to begin with as a result of overtime. When you have adjustments you trust payroll to not mess up.

The other consideration this £100 or whatever. Does this take into consideration that tax and ni would have originally been paid?

I was once overpaid over a year and a bit by about £200 a month, I think it came to around £3,000 in total!!

I didn't notice because it coincided with a role change and pay rise, and when I did a rough check to see if it looked broadly right, I thought maybe my calculation was wrong because I hadn't included tax and NI correctly and thought nothing more of it. Of course I then get the letter saying "you owe us £3,000!!! I paid it back in monthly instalments of around £200, and once I came to the end and the deductions stopped it was quite nice, it felt like a payrise

Of course I paid it back, it wasn't mine to keep. And I also consider that you pick your battles at work. Her record will be marked, even just unofficially, and come a redundancy exercise or similar they won't want to be keeping her around, though of course they'd never say it. Plus if she "wins" and keeps the overpayment, there's nothing to stop them giving her a smaller pay rise.

Having done payroll that would be one of my worst nightmares. Super stressful and I'd never do it again. She's going to have to pay it back one way or another and she's right to feel angry about it - it's such a pita - so she should be afforded the opportunity to stretch it over a reasonable amount of time. She has the right to be angry but I hope she doesn't screw up sometime because even if people don't say it they will always remember the arse that person made of themselves.

For what a pita it is for the employee it is so much more for the employer. It affects Everything - taxes, reports, budgets, all the withholdings - I feel so sorry for the person who has to fix this. Truly a huge mess. Not to mention the boss who is probably throwing dagger eyes at the one who made the mistake.

I'm certainly not well off. When I used to be overdrawn every month I would have immediately noticed being underpaid (payments not going through!), but not being overpaid.

How could you notice one but not the other? If you would notice £100 missing you would notice £100 extra surely?

Say you are due, for arguments sake, £2000 after tax. £1900 arrives and you know right away it is a mistake but £2100 doesn't ring alarm bells?

I don't understand that.

As a union rep I once represented someone who was overpaid by nearly £10k over a year (was fully paid for sick leave instead of half pay for some of it). The employer had been unaware because an external company ran the payroll, and the member had been aware from the first overpayment and didn't notify anyone. The employer (quite reasonably I thought) wished to reclaim the money over a 4 year period unless she left in the meantime when the balance would be repayable.immediately. The member was so angry and blinkered and refused to agree to the repayment terms so in the end the employer changed their period from 4 years to 2 and deducted it from source. It was really frustrating to deal with her frankly appalling attitude. She had spent the money on travelling whilst supposedly being off sick.

"Say you are due, for arguments sake, £2000 after tax."

Then, I would be well off.

I would notice less because it would plunge me into the red, but I wouldn't notice more because I wouldn't have my card refused in shops and wouldn't need to check my balance until the next statement.

She suddenly doesn't fit into the nice 'family atomos' at work because she has said she wouldn't particularly care if the business goes under.

God.

I wonder how many other members of the big happy family team keep their thoughts and feelings under wraps so that you can all be whooping and high-fiving each other every 2 minutes?

I would notice less because it would plunge me into the red, but I wouldn't notice more because I wouldn't have my card refused in shops and wouldn't need to check my balance until the next statement.

I understand people live like this, but to then claim on a forum that they 'keep check' of their finances is confusing.

How can you keep check and have that situation?

How many people does it affect? If its less than $100 per person it might well cost more than that in admin time to sort out the mess.

Great opportunity for the company to build some loyalty, saying 'hey everyone we made a mistake, this is on us, I hope you use the money to do something lovely.'

Years ago my building society made a similar error giving me an over payment.

When they told me they were going to take back the money I asked if that was fair given it was their mistake.

The answer was, well if we had taken OUT too much money, would you be so eager not to rectify the mistake?

You're over-reacting. Revolting, stupid and selfish? really? You clearly like her. And who put you in charge of querying what the others are going to do?

If the HMRC had overpaid you they'd sure as heck get it back, tantrums or not! (Equivalent of Internal Revenue). It's tough but too bad.

It is. Some people are just toasters!

Tossers 😉

It was never her money - I mean who doesn't know what they should be paid and check it incase its short each month... its a small amount in the scheme of things - they are being good to allow installments - I worked somewhere where they frequently fucked up these payments (lord only knows how) and it was tough - the whole amount to be returned etc. Their reasoning - they were a charity - personally I thought it would mean they had more of a duty of care to be caring but nope.

"If the HMRC had overpaid you they'd sure as heck get it back, tantrums or not! (Equivalent of Internal Revenue). It's tough but too bad."

Not always sometimes if they overpay tax credits you can get them to write if off if they made a mistake.

Example from their website where you can get the overpayment written off:

"You agree there has been an overpayment but believe you
should not have to pay it back because you told
HM Revenue and Customs about your daughter leaving school in
September 2015 and we did not change your award until
January 2016.."

She's being a dick and should pay the money back, it wasn't hers.
You're taking it really personally though. The company won't go under due to £100 or the cost of a small claims court appearance. She sounds like a paint to work with but you might want to consider why you're getting so worked up about it? Unless you're the person that mucked up (been there, not fun)

You're both being a little bit unreasonable, imo.

one colleague of mine received 2 pay cheques one month, basically double pay. They took it back over 24 months

I guess once the money has been given to you it feels like it's yours and giving it back feels a bit rubbish? It sounds like this woman is completely ott about it though. But it's between her and the company. Perhaps she genuinely didn't notice it and just spent it all? We don't get payslips anymore, you have to remember when it's payday, find the place on the intranet where your payslip is uploaded, look for your password, hope that the system hasn't crashed - I have checked my payslip about twice in the last 6 months. I also don't get paper bank statements anymore, so I could go for ages without realising a mistake in my pay.

There is an English UK saying; “Being overworked and underpaid.”
This has created a new one “Being underworked and overpaid!” good one. You should tell that to the lady who does not want to pay back.

The person saying this is very silly.
The payroll person has made an error and is being reasonable about correcting it.

If one month you get paid £1100.00 instead of £1000.00, the next month the company could pay you £900.00.

Offering to spread it over more months/ retract it in another way, that is suitable to both, is reasonable.

Ignore the whinger. they are being an idiot.