Getting overpaid due to rounding error?

[Sockpuppet]

I suggest you call a company wide meeting and alert everyone that theyre all being overpaid and your company could save millions by deducting $10 from everyone's paycheck.

This will certainly make you the most popular employee there!

[Basilios]

I dont know why asking ones brothers and sisters in Christ a simple question deserves ridicule and egotistical mockery.

It's merely a simple moral question. What does a Catholic do if they are overpaid? Simple. Nothing to do with common sense or being scrupulous.

[Sockpuppet]

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[Greg]

I dont know why asking ones brothers and sisters in Christ a simple question deserves ridicule and egotistical mockery.

Because the question is ridiculous.

Neither God, nor your employer cares about $9.30 particularly when you did absolutely nothing to defraud or steal it.

By understanding where ridiculous starts and ends and, getting mocked for it, people learn what not to worry themselves about in future.

[Basilios]

You speak for God and every employer around the world do you?

An accident that is not corrected when it benefits you is deceitful. Whether 9 dollars or 9000 the principle remains the same. The question is far from silly or ridiculous.

If a worker was underpayed by 9dollars you bet he'd say something and go on a moral crusade if the company decided that it was ludicrous to mention it to him.

People do not learn from mockery they only resent it. A gentle answer bears more fruit. You can raise your kids how you like but don't expect that adults on a message board should lie down and take it because you have self important ideas about what is and isn't a ridiculous question.

A ridiculous question would be, can I take 9 bucks from the cash machine of my employer doesn't notice? This is a case of someone in good faith and conscience trying to decide what is suitable when an honest mistake happens that benefits him in a small way. Honest mistake honest question.

[Greg]

I worked for about 68 hours and 42 minutes (I think)

If you don't even know for certain how many hours and mins you worked for then how do you know they've overpaid you?

Perhaps they've underpaid you $11?

In short, the answer is there in the first post.  Your working hours and therefore your pay are not an exact science.  Roundup, round-down, who cares?  It makes no material difference to your employer or you.

Would anyone here go to their employer and ask for another $11 over 4 paychecks?  How do you think they might view that request?  Well, it cuts both ways.

[Greg]

You speak for God and every employer around the world do you?

In the sense that God and just about every employer employs common sense then YES.  I do.

[Greg]

An accident that is not corrected when it benefits you is deceitful. Whether 9 dollars or 9000 the principle remains the same.

And in principle you shouldn't do servile work on Sunday.  In practice you are allowed to pull your ass out of a hole on a Sunday.

There are lots of exceptions to lots of rules.

The $9 does not benefit you because it is only $9.  It's a non material amount.  It doesn't hurt your employer, because it is only $9.  Look out of the window, come in on Monday with a slight hangover, read the newspaper in the toilet at work and you cost your employer more.  The nature of employment is not this pedantic even in a Chinese sweatshop.

The reality is, that by asking the stupid question more employers have been damaged by other posters who should probably be at work, working instead of answer or reading the very stupid question.  Or are we ALL logged in at home ?  I doubt that.

This question has probably cost employers $1000 already.  If you want to get scrupulous consider that lost productivity.

The reality is that by going back to the employer and raising the issue it would cost them more money and wasted time to correct or consider or address than just leaving it alone.

[Kaesekopf]

I worked for about 68 hours and 42 minutes (I think)

If you don't even know for certain how many hours and mins you worked for then how do you know they've overpaid you?

Perhaps they've underpaid you $11?

In short, the answer is there in the first post.  Your working hours and therefore your pay are not an exact science.  Roundup, round-down, who cares?  It makes no material difference to your employer or you.

Would anyone here go to their employer and ask for another $11 over 4 paychecks?  How do you think they might view that request?  Well, it cuts both ways.

We're also talking about an OP who has a terrible history of being very/overly scrupulous.

Who keeps their working hour totals down to the minute?  I can't think of any employer who has ever asked me to account down to the minute - I've only ever been asked to work on the quarters. 

[Greg]

If a worker was underpayed by 9dollars you bet he'd say something and go on a moral crusade if the company decided that it was ludicrous to mention it to him.

For 1 hours work, in 240 hours?

No, I'd tell him to stop being a fool and if he feels hard done by to simply pinch a packet of post-it notes and a couple of bog rolls.  That is the sensible way to behave. Going on a moral crusade is foolish and will likely get you fired for being an asshat.

Have you ever wondered why despite your parents being materially successful you are not?  Because nobody wants to employ pedants and moral crusaders and nit-pickers.

[Greg]

Who keeps their working hour totals down to the minute?  I can't think of any employer who has ever asked me to account down to the minute - I've only ever been asked to work on the quarters.

I just invoice whatever I think they'll pay.

Since they make 10 to 100 times more money from my work than I invoice them I don't really care.

If they don't query the invoice then the price was correct.

[Greg]

Henry Ford once balked at paying $10,000 to General Electric for work done troubleshooting a generator, and asked for an itemized bill.

Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford's skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.

The engineer who performed the work, Charles Steinmetz, sent this in response to Henry Ford:

"Making chalk mark on generator, $1. Knowing where to make said mark, $9,999." Ford paid the bill.

[LausTibiChriste]

Or are we ALL logged in at home ?

I sure as hell never logged in while at work in the military. Considering a) how PC they are b) All your internet usage is tracked and c) how much we talk about subjects not approved by the PC utopia of today (ie. the joos) then I only foresaw problems.

I did, however, spend hours wasting tax payer money surfing Reddit 

[Kaesekopf]

Who keeps their working hour totals down to the minute?  I can't think of any employer who has ever asked me to account down to the minute - I've only ever been asked to work on the quarters.

I just invoice whatever I think they'll pay.

Since they make 10 to 100 times more money from my work than I invoice them I don't really care.

If they don't query the invoice then the price was correct.

I just read about a businessman who included, on his invoice, a "CR Tax".  Turns out it was a fee to his clients that paid for his Colorado Rockies season tickets. 

He was never questioned about it by his clients, haha.

[Greg]

I wouldn't define myself as scrupulous but when I was first a salesperson and travelling around on business, I used to try to save money for my employer.  I'd take a bus instead of a taxi to the airport if there was plenty of time to catch my flight.  I'd take the red-eye to save money on a hotel.  I'd even stay in a 4 star hotel instead of a five star and I would book my flights 14 days in advance to get a cheaper deal.  Never fly business class etc, unless it was over the Pacific or a 15 hour flight somewhere and therefore somewhat justified.

Took me about two years, but I finally realised that in big corporates that was a really stupid move.  The game was to piss away as much on expenses as possible.  That got you respected.  Saving their money didn't.  They just viewed you as a mug for spending any energy on that.

From then on my expenses probably went up by $1000 per month.

So I learned how to play the game.  It worked.