There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Unless you’re this guy, who could afford 469,000 dollar meals at MickeyD’s. Because of a payroll mistake.

From the JT International News Wire comes a story called You Have to Work for Your Money! Author Tracey Coenen writes about someone who didn’t do the right thing:

Anthony accepted a job with telecommunications company Avaya Inc. in 2002. But he changed his mind and never went to work for the company. Yet a recordkeeping error meant that he started receiving regular payroll deposits into his bank account until the error was discovered in early 2007.

All told, he received about $469,000 from Avaya and never whispered a word of it to the company.

Amazing audacity. Stupidity, really. It does tell you that doing the right thing isn’t always top of mind. And it also tells us that HR Payroll has some room for improvement. I mean, seriously, $469,000 paid out over five years without anyone knowing? Please.

Posted on January 25, 2008 by Frank Roche
Filed Under Ethics

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JT 7 months ago 1 point
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I hate to say this relative to this event because I know some HR folk at AVAYA and have huge respect for them.

If HR really wants to produce all that ROI, we should first remember the standard of prudence needed when it's OPM.

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Frank Roche 7 months ago 1 point
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Other peoples' money is the key. We're to be stewards for that. And there have to be checks and balances to make sure it's spent wisely.

I'm sure this is one of the cases where something slipped through the cracks. Bummer that it was half a million dollars, though. It's not chump change. And it's a cautionary tale for all payroll departments.

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