A
male
age
36-40,
anonymous
writes:Some weeks ago i found a wallet, there was no identification inside the wallet but there was £110. I handed the wallet in to my manager with the contents. Several weeks later my manager called me into his office and gave me the wallet saying it was mine. £110, great i thought, i had always assume that lost property not claimed ended up in somebody else's pocket. I kept the wallet but i asked for the money to be donated to the company's charity and it was. Several weeks later an oversea's visitor enquired about a wallet which he had lost, the wallet i had found. Management asked me to return the wallet but also wanted me to return the money which i had already donated. £110 would of really helped me out but i donated the money through management to the company charity. They want me to pay back the money out of my own pocket which i think is not fair. They have already reimburse the oversea's visitor but they cannot justify me not returning the money even though i did not keep any of it. They have started deducting amounts from my wages without my permission but i cannot afford to make a fuss in case it affects my job. Should i just forget it and in future think twice about being honest, i really do not think i am being treated fairly
View related questions:
money Reply to this Question
Share |
Fancy yourself as an agony aunt? Add your answer to this question! A
female
reader, anonymous, writes (4 February 2015): This is a tricky one, tough in my opinion if I was the manager I without a doubt would put an effort of getting the money you gave to charity and giving it back to the customer. First of, you were very honest in this situation. Not many people would even report a lost wallet. Second, it was very honorable of you to donate it to charity, again, not many people would ever even think of of doing this. I just played a different scenarium in my head. I am a struggling single mother, and one day a friend of mine comes to me and says : hey listen I just found this wallet andi don't know who's wallet it is, but it was at my workplace. There were 110$ in there and the manager let me keep it, so I know you are behind on your bills , I am letting you have it. So, I am all great full taking the money, thanking my friend thousands of times. Couple months later , my friend comes to me and says: I feel awfull but an owner of that wallet came back for his money. I have to pay him back. So what am I to do? The money already spent, and my friend who was so kind to me now in a position to pay the money back to a guy, the money that she never even touched. Of course I am telling her, listen, don't worry, i will pull all my resources to pay it back, thanks for helping me out at the time, you are a great friend. But I won't punish my good friend for being good to me, and actually now to suffer consequences of her goodness for nothing. While the manager legally has no obligation of getting the charity money back, morally I think he is very wrong. if you kept the money, then yes, you should have to pay back, but he knows very well that you didn't keep the money, that it actually went to the company charity. The least he can try is to get them back, and if it's impossible, I don't see how, if he explains the situation, then he needs to take a responsibility and split it with you. No good deed should be punished, and this what you are getting here, being punished for a good deed. The other thing I don't understand how can they just deduct money from your paycheck. In my country it's totally illegal unless there is a judgement against you by the court.,If I were you, i would deffinitely speak up, and first find out who's desicion it was to garnish your wages.
A
female
reader, Ciar  +, writes (3 February 2015):
 I'm going to revise my answer somewhat. I ran this scenario by a colleague of mine and I can sort of understand where the others are coming from.
As adults we're responsible for the choices we make. That applies to you AND your manager. You're both adults and both, presumably, have enough life experience and common sense to consider that it was possible that the owner would eventually come looking for his wallet.
I think it would be fair if you BOTH absorbed the cost of paying back the money. However that is divided would depend on a number of factors. Like I said earlier, there are a lot of questions marks here.
How long did it take for the owner to approach the company about his wallet? Maybe he was looking everywhere BUT there because he'd mistakenly ruled out the possibility. Or maybe he just didn't get around to it and if so, does he expect others to warehouse his property indefinitely and for free?
Is this charity an in house thing that the company controls or an outside, private set up they just endorse? If it's the former, then arguably THEY accepted the money as THEIRS to disperse where they saw fit. If the latter, then refer to my earlier response.
This is ultimately, a moral opinion from a lay person. Not a legal one so if you want to know how this should be handled legally, then seek out a legal source. My opinion is that you're not a mindless automaton who should blindly accept, without question, whatever is given, be it a bonus or a bother. And your manager should not be so quick to, pardon the pun, pass the buck. And possibly even the owner, depending on how long the delay was and the reason for it.
That answer might change if I knew more about this.
...............................
A
female
reader, Ciar +, writes (3 February 2015):
Your manager chose to offer you the money but YOU CHOSE to accept it and once you did that that money became YOURS to do with as you saw fit. And you saw fit to donate it to charity, but you could have easily chosen to spend it on yourself. Why should your manager, the company or anyone else, be expected to pay back money you accepted?
Your manager could have pocketed it and you'd have been none the wiser. He did what he thought was fair at the time.
Now whether or not I think the amount should be deducted from your wages is another matter. I'm assuming the company paid the money in full to the actual owner who came looking for it. When you say 'company charity' do you mean a charity set up by the company or simply one they endorse? If the company controls the funds used for those charitable causes, they could simply have withdrawn them and returned them to the rightful owner, because in a sense you'd have put the ball back in their court. They can hardly approach a private charity for a refund.
Let's take your employer out of the equation for a moment. Imagine you'd found this wallet on the street, or at a bus shelter and you'd put the word out to your neighbours in case the owner came looking for it. After waiting a period of time you still hadn't heard anything so you decided to donate it to your local Boy Scouts or something. Who should pay back the money then?
It comes down to this...once you accepted that money, it became YOURS. YOURS to spend/donate and YOURS to pay back.
...............................
A
female
reader, Midnight Shadow +, writes (3 February 2015):
 I know that a job is necessary for money but, is there really no way you could look for a new one?
You should stand up for yourself to show them that you refuse to be a scapegoat and, if they fire you for doing that, they aren't a company you want to be working for any more because they would sacrifice you to save themselves (business-wise).
...............................
A
male
reader, CMMP  +, writes (3 February 2015):
A job should never be so precious that they can get away with whatever they want. I'd guess they are breaking the law. If anyone should be paying for it, it's the manager.
I've been fired for doing the right thing before (2 times) and I'd do it again if I had to. Granted there were always other jobs to be had, in some rare circumstances that may not be true.
...............................
A
reader, anonymous, writes (3 February 2015): Your honesty and character is not to be called into question; nor should you abandon your system of values, because your company is unethical.
Your boss wasn't authorized to release the wallet, and he probably covered his own ass. It is best to let it slide.
In the future, return a lost wallet or purse to the police. Have them find the owner of the wallet, since most contain identification and address information.
If a wallet or purse contains money and no identification, the police sometimes will return the unclaimed cash to the finder after a certain period of time. Depending on the amount and the determination it wasn't stolen.
Do inquire only to confirm the money was given to charity and clear your record; if there is a story that isn't consistent with what really happened.
...............................
A
female
reader, like I see it +, writes (2 February 2015):
 I agree with chigirl - you took the wallet to your supervisor and were completely honest about it. He held it for a certain amount of time and when no one claimed it in that time frame HE made the decision to give it back to you.
Whether he had it for an amount of time specified by company policy, or he used his own discretion to determine that the owner was unlikely to come looking for it after that time frame, no fault here is yours - all you did was take your superior at the word he gave you - and it is unfair that you are being asked to pay for it. The money reimbursed here should be coming either from the company or from your manager, whose decision it was to release the wallet and the money to you.
I won't lie - standing up for yourself here will not endear you to management, but you're talking about a fairly significant amount of money and also the principle of the whole situation. You are being asked to reimburse something based on someone else's judgment call, and personally that would not sit well with me.
Good luck and best wishes with this.
...............................
A
female
reader, chigirl  +, writes (2 February 2015):
 The manager who gave you the money, told you it was yours, is the one who should be paying. He told you to keep it, that it was yours, and that was HIS decision and he uses HIS authority to do this. If he did not have a right to give it away, then he should not have done so, or he is the one to be held responsible for giving away something that wasn't his. As he was the one who told you to keep the money, the money to reimburse should come out of HIS pocket.
I really think you should rally about this. It's a matter of principle, and teaching people how to treat you. I say stand your ground and demand your money back. If they want the money back they need to either get it from the charity, or out of the pocket of your boss who used his authority to give that money to you.
...............................
|
