At work, we get paid for unused flex time, sort of like vacation time. We get eight days a year, and if you don’t use it, you get paid for it, up to $1000.
Normally, because I’d rather have the money and because I’ve been at work long enough to get 20 days of vacation a year, I take a check for my unused flex time.
This year, with the breast cancer, I used my flex time for recovery from my lumpectomy.
I was checking my bank account on Friday and noticed a deposit from work for about $520. I called payroll, and I was told that was my unused flex time, four day’s worth.
I checked with my boss, and sure enough, she had the same number I did…that I’d used up all my flex time. She gave me a copy of the vacation request form, and there it is, all seven days (I’d used day 8 earlier in the year for my biopsy.)
So I go over to payroll, and they pulled out the vacation request form that they had, and sure enough, all seven days on one form.
How they figured 8-8=4, I don’t know. Payroll said they’d look into it and that $500 will be coming back out of my bank account.
Could I use it? Hell, yes. Things are very tight right now because our rental property has been vacant for two months, and there’s been no serious nibbles for this month either.
But it wasn’t my money. Somebody screwed up, and I’m sure sooner or later they’d figure it out and yank the money back out.
My husband just shook his head when I told him. He knows I’m honest to a fault, and he expected nothing less, and really, we’re no worse off than we were before.
So, I thank my parents for raising me with morals and ethics. I won’t say it didn’t cross my mind to keep my mouth shut, but I will say the thought was a very fast zip across my brain.
Maybe it was a test. Maybe I got a karma point in the credit column. Maybe it’s what is supposed to happen when you find something that isn’t yours. In any event, I slept very well over the weekend.