<p>I am starting a different thread because I don´t want to hijack the original thread.</p>
<p>I am an expat who runs a good size team for the region. Since I arrived, I have hired additional 5 expats. We are all given certain benefits and allowance based on our level. Our salary is also adjusted for cost of living, hardship…there is a standard formula they apply, and I could then make some adjustment to it if I so choose. One of the benefits is the company pays for one business class round trip ticket for each member of the family per year. The amount is different depending on where one´s home country is. They calculate the amount based on the latest airfare cost. The company deposits the total amount in the employee´s acct, and the employee could use it any way he/she wants (multiple economy tickets, use it for vacation). The total package is usually presented by someone from HR or mobility.</p>
<p>With all that as the background…I have a new expat who flipped out on me last week because the amount they deposited in her acct was a lot less than what she expected. She showed me the worksheet, and in the travel benefit there was an extra 0. She is a fairly senior person who has traveled quite a bit for the firm. I was surprised that she didn´t think the amount was too big. In speaking with HR, they said the worksheet was meant as an estimate, not a guaranteed amount. They admitted it was a typo.</p>
<p>The employee is claiming it is the amount that is shown to her, she wouldn´t have accepted the position if it weren´t for that large allowance (no kidding, the number was huge, 10 times more), even if it was a mistake the firm should live up to it.</p>
<p>I am in a bind here. I could understand where she is coming from, but she should have known that it was a mistake when they presented it to her. I have 10 expats working for me. They all got the same message on how that number was calculated. I could some how give her additional money to make her happy, but it wouldn´t be fair to other people. If I do nothing, I could have a disgruntle employee very far from home.</p>
<p>We have a lot of smart, reasonable people on this board. What would you do in my position? If you were the employee, what do you think would be a fair resolution.</p>
<p>How much will it cost to relocate this employee back to her old job? I would offer her relocation to her previous job or the compensation for travel you determine is correct with the new job. Let her choose…old job and move back…or compensation as it should be.</p>
<p>I know this isn’t how it works in business but don’t you WISH you could do that?</p>
<p>Does the worksheet include the words “estimate” anywhere?
Was the worksheet included in a package of benefits formally presented to the employee as part of the compensation package, or is the formula included? Upon what information did she sign the acceptance of employment?
Could you increase the flight compensation budget for one year as a mea culpa/no hard feelings gesture? (Maybe not by a factor of 10, but by 2x or 3x?)
What does your legal counsel say?</p>
<p>Our benefit packet is about 20+ pages long. In the packet it does state how that number is calculated. I am not certain what is on the worksheet. As this is a foreign country, the language is not always exact.</p>
<p>We are very careful with employee’s salary and bonus. We can’t even give anyone a verbal guarantee of bonus. But when it comes to benefits (health insurance, vacation, pension), it is usually at the company’s discretion.</p>
<p>I am following the same trail as UT84321. There are two separate issues: the employee’s legitimate unhappiness, and your legal liability. </p>
<p>Before you respond to the employee’s complaint, I would recommend that you and a company attorney sit with a top HR person and scour the written information she was presented with at time of hire to see whether it contains information that should have led her to realize the huge offer was a mistake, and whether the worksheet is written in such a manner as to be considered a firm offer or not.</p>
<p>If your attorney feels you are adequately covered, I would offer her a compromise along the lines suggested by UT, for one year. Be careful how you phrase any “apologies” you might make, in case she is contemplating legal action.</p>
<p>If your attorney says you are on weak ground, time to think some more.</p>
<p>I think I would give her the value of an extra business class ticket, apologize for the mistake, emphasize that it was an obvious error, and hope that does it.</p>
<p>Agree with the others here (and next time feel free to hijack away my thread…they aren’t that interesting anyway). Sit down with employee and try to come up with a compromise.</p>
<p>It looks like we are converging on a consensus strategy–figure out how legally stuck you are, and then figure out what is the least you can do to avoid hard feelings and maintain a good working relationship.</p>
<p>It does bother me that an employee seems willing to extract an excess payment from the firm due to a typo.</p>
<p>I kind of feel the same. She spoke to me about it again today. I asked her if the amount didn’t seem excessive when it was presented to her. She said she trusted us in coming up with the right number, so she never questioned it. But it still befuddles me why someone wouldn’t think a number that was 10 times more than what it should have been was not out of norm. At the same time, HR should have spotted it too.</p>
<p>If this gets pushed up further, and more people got involved (like legal), it’ll just get uglier. My boss happened to come by when she was in the middle of her rant. He stepped back and said, “I’ll come back when you are finished.” He later said to me to deal with it, but not how.</p>
<p>I think I may instruct HR to offer her something extra in order to put it to rest, but it is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.</p>
<p>I know you don’t want to hear this but I think you’ll have to give her something extra - maybe just like a one time thing - but then moving forward she has to play by the same rules as everyone else or find a new job.</p>
<p>We had a situation at work about a year and a half ago where we kept reporting that we didn’t think our paychecks looked right (about 1/4th of our paycheck is made up of incentive payments which are calculated on a monthly basis)… month after month we kept saying that they seemed low… they kept telling us they were fine… after about 10 months of this going on accounting realized they had an error in their system and that it wasn’t reporting right… so yes, they were paying us right for what their computer told them to pay us… but that wasn’t the right figure… they went through everything manually and sent everyone a letter… mine said something along the lines of “during our audit we realized we underpaid you 630.00. We will add this into your next check along with interest. we also realized that we have overpaid you by 320 dollars. due to the fact that you had no clue this was happening, you can keep that figure and we won’t be deducting it from your 630. sorry about any inconvenience.”</p>
<p>I remember thinking, gee thanks. I get to keep my 320 that you paid me by accident, which didn’t even remotely look funny to me since at the same time you under paid me by 630 dollars! My one coworkers letter said something along the lines of, we underpaid you by 3100, but we overpaid you by 800.</p>
<p>They paid us our missing money, plus interest for each month that it was late… and now it’s been put behind us… but you can bet on the fact that the next time someone says something looks wrong with their paycheck it will be looked into very quickly!</p>
<p>$320 in overpayment over ten months is $16 per pay period (assuming twice a month paychecks). I’m not sure even the sharpest eyes would notice $16 extra in a paycheck with variable compensation, especially with changes in tax laws, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with some here that a second look at employees initial offer paperwork is top priority 1. Before u offer any kind of settlement, search for words like “estimate” as some have said here. If you find that, then certainly you are covered legally, and then only have an unhappy worker problem.
But if no such wording can be found, I remember 1 point I was taught in a biz law class that might apply here…
An obvious mistake is generally not binding. For example- If a newspaper runs a car dealer’s ad for new Chevy Camaro at $3500., then the dealer is likely NOT bound to honor that, as anyone that knows anything about cars is expected to know that is one tenth of todays actual new car pricing. An obvious error. This might apply here. </p>
<p>Of course another point is that the job candidate may have relied on the promise the company made in the job offer package. Don’t have to be a lawyer to know exact wording is SO important.</p>
<p>Definitely check your pay stub every pay period.</p>
<p>We wouldn’t officially know if we were shorted or overpaid because of the fact that our paychecks vary so much… but those of us who have worked there awhile kind of know about what to expect. Getting a large incentive out of nowhere might not mean over payment, that just might mean you had a really great month. But if your incentives go up ridiculously a bunch of months in a row… you either got really good or something is wrong. Same thing if it’s vice versa… if your payments go down consecutively month after month, you either got really bad or something is wrong. also, if your paycheck massively shrinks all at once, that might be an error too. We get our incentive part in our 2nd payperiod of the month, so basically you have one paycheck of your salary, and then you have one paycheck of your salary plus extras. (i call them my little paycheck and my big paycheck. Little paycheck pays the mortgage, big paycheck is for everything else).</p>
<p>Another example being, my boyfriend always has a very very large incentive in Feburary… this year, for example, it was like 2400$… two years ago in feburary he got $600. He told them his feb paycheck was unusually small… they caught the error and it turned out he was shorted like 1300 dollars due to a computer glitch that effected him and some other people. They put it in their next paychecks. That was a 1300 error in one month. a 1300 error spread out over 10 months when you usually get between say about 800 a month is much less noticible… but if you have been there awhile you might notice your average incentive going from say 800 a month to 650 a month… but at the same time, if it was 700 a month… it still looks funny to you because it’s 100 less then normal… you’ve got no way to realize they have an extra 600 of overpayment in there over the course of 10 months!</p>
<p>I totally agree with Fendergirl. This employee (in my opinion) is taking advantage of her employer. That she rants and raves is not a good sign either. Simply put…SHE can’t make ANY mistakes…not even a small one. She will learn by her own example.</p>
<p>And I fully agree…EVERYONE should look at their paychecks every time they are issued. AND if there is a difference that is not explained (our HR folks put a written explanation for things that affect everyone…tax adjustments, etc), find out why there is a difference.</p>
<p>Also, salaried employees should make sure the payment they are receiving is accurate. We have had situations where staff were paid too much…AND too little. As public employees…those getting paid too much had to pay it back.</p>
<p>Look at it from the employee’s view. I get an offer with 20 pages of fine print and a summary. I accept the offer based on the summary, go through the substantial effort of switching jobs, and now it’s, whoops, the summary is wrong, we really meant the 20 pages of fine print, which of course end up lower than the summary, which was just an “estimate”. Ha ha, fooled you!</p>
<p>What’s fair is to stand by the agreements you make. How else is an employee supposed to operate?</p>
<p>I think you need to compromise with the employee. In some sense, it is unfair to the other workers, who got less benefits. But in another sense, it is fair to them because they’ll know that your word is good. Do you really want an employee who is telling the rest of your group that you’re (or your company) is a no-good liar? And who has the papers to prove it?</p>
<p>I’ll play devils advocate here. Does the COMPANY really want an employee that didn’t do their OWN checking? This is TEN TIMES the amount…not two times the amount. I would think that any employer could easily say “did you know what the value of this amount REALLY was? Why didn’t YOU check it?”</p>