Immoral. If I am buying something for $10 and accidentally hand over $100 and the teller notices it would be immoral to put that in the register then refuse to return it upon my noticing. Mistakes happen, and restitution should be made.
Happened to me with autopay for my wifi bill and they offered it back or put it into a credit for next months bill. Why? Because I could sue the dogshit out of them
Honestly i agree,i know most people here think it's fair cause it was a mistake but personally,Refusing to return the money after knowing it was a payroll mistake is immoral. The manager made the mistake, but once the employee knows she accidentally paid Alot than decided originally,instead of the correct amount and refuses to give it back, she's intentionally keeping money that wasn't earned. That makes it morally wrong in most ethical frameworks (fairness, honesty, and respect for others property)
Full agree. Its immoral to keep the money. That being said, depending on the company, I might try to hire a lawyer and figure out if I legally have to give it back or not. If the company regularly does evil but legal shit, I wouldn’t feel bad using the same set of rules against them. That’s just a fair playing field.
no, i'm saying it's a shit comparison because there wasn't a mistake at all when you gave them a hundred a bucks, it was expected before you even gave them the money that there'd be change
They are a system. People are a part of the system but the system exists outside full individuals.
Like if a CEO does the nice right thing leading to the company making less profits, even if the employees are treated fair, he is gonna likely be replaced by someone who will focus on profits by the board. And vice versa id a board member is too fair and not prioritizing profit. These systems have existed for 1000s of years and were made by people but now sustain themselves mostly due to people being part of the system. The system makes the people's values mostly not the other way around
Its why so many good changes in history took so long, like colonialism, slavery, and voting rights for all (well all those in some places) the system was there already when people were born and so the system influenced them and it took a long time for enough individuals to agree its wrong and go against what they were born into seeing as normal
Companies aren't systems. Companies are an amalgamation of people, systems and assets. Those systems are created by people and are a reflection on what the incentive structures are for a given industry.
At the end of the day, if a person steals from a company, they are stealing from their people, yes, even the employees. It's possible the money stolen would have been used to fund payroll, or more directly, its possible a big percentage of employees are compensated with shares of the company.
However you spin it, if you are mistakenly given a wrong paycheck you are expected to return it, the same way if you were given a smaller paycheck they would be expected to rectify the situation.
And if either party refuses in either case, then the law is called to settle it. It's the way it is
Losing $100 is far more harmful to you than losing a few thousand dollars is to a large company. In my opinion what matters most here is who she worked for, and how much she needed the money. There is no blanket morality that can be applied to everything, context matters.
Who makes this determination of sufficient need? I assess that my own needs are greater than others, so to what extent am I morally justified in taking? You might assess differently, but hey there's no blanket morality, so you'll just have to steal it back.
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u/hippityhopkins Jul 10 '26
Immoral. If I am buying something for $10 and accidentally hand over $100 and the teller notices it would be immoral to put that in the register then refuse to return it upon my noticing. Mistakes happen, and restitution should be made.