An ex-employee received a full month’s paycheck long after resigning, sparking an online discussion around payroll oversights. The Bengaluru-based CA noticed the accidental transfer, waited a day for someone to contact him, and ultimately alerted the founders himself about the incident.
“So this actually happened to me on 1 of Sept. My last working day was 31st July. On 1st September, they credited my full August salary into my account. for a job I hadn't shown up to in a month,” Bengaluru-based CA Sreyans Jain wrote on LinkedIn.
Assuming internal checks would quickly identify and reverse the error, he anticipated a quick correction from the finance team.
{{/usCountry}}Assuming internal checks would quickly identify and reverse the error, he anticipated a quick correction from the finance team.
{{/usCountry}}“First thought: someone catches this in a few hours. Payroll flags an exited employee, someone sends a ‘ignore that, pulling it back’ message. That's how it's supposed to work.”
However, hours passed without any sign that the company had noticed the accidental disbursement.
“A full day went by. Nothing. No email, no call, no message even on the office group I was still on.”
Refusing to hold onto unearned funds, he took the initiative to report the issue directly to leadership.
“I wasn't going to sit on something that wasn't mine and wait for them to notice. So I wrote directly to the founders. Told them exactly what happened, asked for their bank details, said I'd transfer it back myself.”
What happened next?
Following his message, human resources reached out to assist in returning the money.
“Got a call from HR within a couple hours of that email. We sorted the transfer, money went back, roughly 48 hours total from the day it landed.”
Reflecting on the situation, he pointed out that the primary issue lay in the lack of internal detection mechanisms.
“Honestly the mistake doesn't bother me, payroll runs get messed up. What bothers me is nothing on their end caught it before I did, and I'm the one who had to communicate them to close it out.”
Concluding his post, he offered a warning to growing companies regarding the importance of tightening offboarding and accounting operations.
“If you're a founder scaling fast and hiring right now, this gap is cheap to fix today, a real headache once it's happened to five people, not one.”
What did social media say?
An individual wrote, “Wild that it took an ex-employee flagging it, not their own system. Says a lot that you did the right thing so quickly though — most people would've just... waited and seen.”
Another expressed, “Thank god, this didn't turn into ‘Oh, look how cool the company is. Here is why founders must learn to treat their employees like family’ post. You kept it genuine.”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. Hindustantimes.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)