There's too much money on my paycheck--and i don't feel much of a moral obligation to point it out. Is something wrong with me?

[LaundrySoap]

I received a retention bonus, about 6k paid out over a year (so ~$200/paycheck). This bonus was contingent on my staying in the department for a year. I was free to leave, but I'd lose the bonus (what was left to my understanding).

I left the department with a few months left of the bonus. I expected that extra $200 to not be there this paycheck.

But it was.

And I don't feel too much of a moral obligation to report it? Which kind of scares me. When I was younger, if ny paycheck was too much I'd head to the boss and ask. But... now I'm sort of thinking, it's not my fault, why should i report it?

I'm going to ask about it on Monday, but it's kind of worrying that I'm not feeling much conviction to report it...

 

[jacks]

I think you are doing the right thing to ask about it. Not only is it a moral issue, it may be that you would eventually have to refund the money and/or the person making the mistake could get in trouble. And hopefully it will turn out you are entitled to it even though you left early.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I received a retention bonus, about 6k paid out over a year (so ~$200/paycheck). This bonus was contingent on my staying in the department for a year. I was free to leave, but I'd lose the bonus (what was left to my understanding).

I left the department with a few months left of the bonus. I expected that extra $200 to not be there this paycheck.

But it was.

And I don't feel too much of a moral obligation to report it? Which kind of scares me. When I was younger, if ny paycheck was too much I'd head to the boss and ask. But... now I'm sort of thinking, it's not my fault, why should i report it?

I'm going to ask about it on Monday, but it's kind of worrying that I'm not feeling much conviction to report it...

If I was in your shoes I'd pray for forgiveness for the sin of not wanting for others what you would want for yourself.

Sometimes it's difficult when we are struggling to do the right thing, but it just means your flesh is talking louder than the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Just going before God and praying is helpful but other times it's good for others to pray for you as well. (And I'll certainly be praying for you too).

I wouldn't necessarily call it unusual for there to be times your flesh speaks louder... We all have our moments but God promises us forgiveness when we ask.

Something you should pray is Psalm 51:1-12 ... It's a good prayer, it's restoring in it's promise that we now know as Christians as well as it's heart-felt plea. You don't have to quote it verbatim or anything, it's just a good guideline prayer and helps you refocus on God when it's coming from your heart.

 

[LaundrySoap]

Even though I am going to ask about it on Monday, my thoughts are more like "why should I have to ask about this? Why can't I just let it go and let them deal with it? It's not my job." And I don't really understand if I'd be in the wrong for not reporting it. (Even though I am going to report it on Monday.)

Ugh, and I'm remembering another time around Christmas, where I received a bonus for high performance. I told them in my review that their numbers were off and my performance was probably not as high as they said it was. They were like "well its an average of the whole time period" and I just said something like "oh okay." Idk, they didn't count right and I got ~$700 before taxes. I didn't feel like I needed to correct them because a) that's their fault if they can't count and b) I kind of brought it up already to them in my review. Not sure what to do about that one, either.

I didn't do anything, and now I have one or two moral issues in my hands. They're not even my fault.

 

[LaundrySoap]

On second thought, I'm going to place a request to HR to have them look into both issues. This is a matter of about $900 and I will probably ask them to make my former bosses redo their numbers on my performance evaluation. Because I got an extremely high score, which I thought was weird. I am convinced they didn't do the math right.

 

[Hazelelponi]

Even though I am going to ask about it on Monday, my thoughts are more like "why should I have to ask about this? Why can't I just let it go and let them deal with it? It's not my job." And I don't really understand if I'd be in the wrong for not reporting it. (Even though I am going to report it on Monday.)

Ugh, and I'm remembering another time around Christmas, where I received a bonus for high performance. I told them in my review that their numbers were off and my performance was probably not as high as they said it was. They were like "well its an average of the whole time period" and I just said something like "oh okay." Idk, they didn't count right and I got ~$700 before taxes. I didn't feel like I needed to correct them because a) that's their fault if they can't count and b) I kind of brought it up already to them in my review. Not sure what to do about that one, either.

I didn't do anything, and now I have one or two moral issues in my hands. They're not even my fault.

That to me sounds more like your just exasperated with an ongoing problem you see, that your employers seem unwilling to correct.

But while it isn't your job to oversee accounting at work, your doing the right thing.

My biggest ongoing moral dilemma where overpayment was concerned wasn't as big as all that, just the occasional cashier giving back too much change at the gas station (back when cash was a thing... Lol).

The minimum wage employees at the gas station often couldn't manage to count, and more than once in life I was given an extra 10 dollars or so in change.

I understand that the accounting department at your place of employment can't count either, lol, but when it's in your lap mentioning it is the right thing.

Your biggest issue causing you to feel exasperated is that it's an issue they should want to correct and aren't.

This doesn't sound like you're anything but exasperated with a recurring problem though, and that's something I believe anyone would feel.

But, like most things in life, it's your response that matters as a Christian. If you mention it and they don't believe it's a problem, you can put it behind you.

They may really have appreciated your help so much they don't want to take the bonus money away, or it's possible for you to have been the one who misunderstood something and the money is actually owed you.

Money that is actually owed you is possible, a few years ago I thought I had been overpaid only to find out I was wrong and it was owed me.

So really you just never know until you bring it up, and, while it isn't your job to oversee, it is your responsibility to bring up since you believe an error was in fact made.

 

[LaundrySoap]

Yeahhh... I guess I just don't understand why it's my responsibility, but I suppose as Christians we're supposed to speak up when there's an injustice.

Last piece of the puzzle, and this is kind of unrelated. But I was thinking pretty hard last night about bonuses and my performance in that department.

Backstory:
The bonus was also contingent on me meeting, every month, 80% of the assigned work. Meaning, every day I was given a list of 20 patients with consults (referrals), and I had to handle at least 16 a day. Sometimes this involved very little work per patient, sometimes a patient's referral would be really complicated. But we as employees kept track of how many patients we handled in a day by just marking them off on the spreadsheet we were given each day, and turning the spreadsheet back in.

Problem:
One month I averaged exactly 80%. One less patient and I would have lost my retention bonus (or maybe not, since we obviously have all these issues surrounding that). I did the math myself that month so I know 80% is correct. But the problem I had was, there were a few patients that I feel like i shouldn't have counted for that month. Where maybe I saved work for the next day and counted it again, despite having time to complete it all one one day. Or something like that. I do remember thinking about that at the end of the month, and trying to make sure my numbers were "ethical" (Meaning, I knew i did wrong, so I was trying to make sure my false numbers didn't affect my monthly total). I worked it out somehow in my head, by acknowledging that I chose not to count a few patients that I probably COULD have counted. Meaning it probably all evened out.

Except that was a few months ago and now I'm freaking out because I don't know if I actually had accurate numbers in my head of what canceled out, if that makes sense. And of course it's Saturday so I can't go and look at old spreadsheets. It's possible I'm not even supposed to because I'm not in that department anymore.

To clarify, my freak out isn't so much "I might have to pay money back" but more like "I might not have accurately made up for something I did wrong." Who cares about the money at this point I don't want something I might have earned by being dishonest.

I hope this all makes sense.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

I received a retention bonus, about 6k paid out over a year (so ~$200/paycheck). This bonus was contingent on my staying in the department for a year. I was free to leave, but I'd lose the bonus (what was left to my understanding).

I left the department with a few months left of the bonus. I expected that extra $200 to not be there this paycheck.

But it was.

And I don't feel too much of a moral obligation to report it? Which kind of scares me. When I was younger, if ny paycheck was too much I'd head to the boss and ask. But... now I'm sort of thinking, it's not my fault, why should i report it?

I'm going to ask about it on Monday, but it's kind of worrying that I'm not feeling much conviction to report it...

It seems two sentiments are competing in your subconscious.

Saying 1 is do unto others as you would like for them do unto you, that's Christianity.

Saying 2 is do unto others as they would do unto you, that's Satanism.

Nowadays, the economy is crap, it's not like the employer will give raises out of the goodness of their hearts. So perhaps there's something connected to that also.

In general though, accounting will see it eventually and subtract the amount from your paycheck if it's not supposed to be there so ..

 

[eleos1954]

I received a retention bonus, about 6k paid out over a year (so ~$200/paycheck). This bonus was contingent on my staying in the department for a year. I was free to leave, but I'd lose the bonus (what was left to my understanding).

I left the department with a few months left of the bonus. I expected that extra $200 to not be there this paycheck.

But it was.

And I don't feel too much of a moral obligation to report it? Which kind of scares me. When I was younger, if ny paycheck was too much I'd head to the boss and ask. But... now I'm sort of thinking, it's not my fault, why should i report it?

I'm going to ask about it on Monday, but it's kind of worrying that I'm not feeling much conviction to report it...

well evidentially enough conviction for you to ask about it ... so do so.

 

[LaundrySoap]

Update: I messaged HR yesterday; the guy said thanks for catching the error, and the amount that was erroneously paid out last check will be deducted this check. And I asked about my performance bonus and long story short, he it's already closed out (and that the bonus was based on my rating, not my numbers... my numbers factored into my rating buuut since he said it's closed out, we can't do anything more about it).
So, that's the end of that, I think.

 

[Richard.20.12]

I received a retention bonus, about 6k paid out over a year (so ~$200/paycheck). This bonus was contingent on my staying in the department for a year. I was free to leave, but I'd lose the bonus (what was left to my understanding).

I left the department with a few months left of the bonus. I expected that extra $200 to not be there this paycheck.

But it was.

And I don't feel too much of a moral obligation to report it? Which kind of scares me. When I was younger, if ny paycheck was too much I'd head to the boss and ask. But... now I'm sort of thinking, it's not my fault, why should i report it?

I'm going to ask about it on Monday, but it's kind of worrying that I'm not feeling much conviction to report it...

Whenever I have done this sort of thing I've been blessed. I think God loves a voluntary heart. Every time I point out I was undercharged it feels somehow very,very right. So I keep on doing it.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

When we lived near Lancaster SC, we would shop at a grocery store name 3 Guys. Really cheap. I went to pay the cashier and she gave me too much change... like 20 bucks. Wanting to do the right thing, I explained it to her and offered her the $20 back. She did not understand what I was doing and called the manager over. I explained it to him and he actually tried to give me more back. Flustered, I told him never mind and thank you. I am not sure what else I could do... I think I may have given the $20 to someone who looked like they needed it.