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Microsoft Demands Laid Off Employees Pay Money Back
Over Payment of Severance Packages to 1,400 Employees
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Posted 24 February 2009 - 07:10 PM
More proof the Microsoft is a soulless corporation.
[quote]Microsoft has sent a letter to some of the 1,400 workers laid off last month telling them they were mistakenly paid too much severance.
And they have 14 days to give back the overpayment.[/quote]
[url="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-watch/2009/02/microsoft_demands_money_back_f.html?hpid=topnews"]http://voices.washingtonpost.com/economy-w...ml?hpid=topnews[/url]
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Boredom Software Stop Highlighting Things
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Posted 24 February 2009 - 07:21 PM
Only due to the bad press it caused. I still think MS ought to be tasered.
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Boredom Software Stop Highlighting Things
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Posted 24 February 2009 - 07:29 PM
Be that as it may.
Taser. It solves so much for so little.
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Boredom Software Stop Highlighting Things
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Posted 24 February 2009 - 07:35 PM
I'd scream if I received this letter from Microsoft.
Dear former employee,
Due to a svchost.exe error, we have mistakenly paid you too much severance. You have 14 days to give back the overpayment or we will disable your copy of Microsoft Windows using the Windows Genuine Advantage component.
Rest assured that our technical team are working on a patch that will be distributed through Microsoft Update in order to make sure that this will not happen again.
Sincerely yours,
Bill Gates
This post has been edited by Lloyd T: 24 February 2009 - 07:36 PM
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Posted 25 February 2009 - 08:16 AM
[quote]More proof the Microsoft is a soulless corporation.[/quote]
Really, why? If it were your business, and your money, and your accountants made a mistake, wouldn't you ask for your money back? I sure would, and I know you would too. I am in the business of making money, not giving it away. The fact that Microsoft has deep pockets does not make it any less right for them to ask for their money back, nor is it out of the norm. What does it say about the character of those people who got more money than they should and didn't say anything? If the bank gives you more money than you have in your account, you can bet your boots that they are going to come after it. What do you suppose the consequences are going to be for the employees that screwed up the severance checks? How about the developers that wrote the program to calculate severance pay.
"Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdo
m will come to you that way" - Christopher Hitchens
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Posted 25 February 2009 - 08:19 PM
It is considered theft to keep severance or retirement money that one is not entitled to. If Microsoft had allowed for repayments over time on an installment plan, there would not have been such a stink.
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Posted 25 February 2009 - 11:47 PM
You hit the nail on the head,
Groovicus,with your Post.
What right has anybody got,to keep money, that is not rightfully theirs?
My thoughts are,
fuzzywuzzy6,that Microsoft would agree to installments,if the truth is known.
What one reads on the Net,is not always the Gospel truth.
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Posted 26 February 2009 - 10:53 AM
Well, the difficulty with this issue is that severance pay is an arbitrary amount of money. Therefore it is difficult to apply the "bad guy" label to either party. I don't believe any company is required to pay it in the first place. It seems odd that Microsoft didn't just keep quiet and correct the problem in their billing department to avoid "over-payments" in the future.
In my opinion, it was Microsoft's mistake and they should have eaten it.
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - Albert Einstein
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams
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Posted 26 February 2009 - 12:30 PM
Often the multiple formulas involved in calculating severance (depending on the benefits the employee had and various contract provisions in effect at different times during the employment period), the various units within MS would have had trouble calculating the amounts precisely, and most of the employees would have had an even more difficult time.
Quite often, the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, or the hand on the forehead, or the hand on the backside, etc.
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Posted 26 February 2009 - 01:16 PM
[quote name='locally pwned' post='1153638' date='Feb 26 2009, 10:53 AM']Well, the difficulty with this issue is that severance pay is an arbitrary amount of money. Therefore it is difficult to apply the "bad guy" label to either party. I don't believe any company is required to pay it in the first place. It seems odd that Microsoft didn't just keep quiet and correct the problem in their billing department to avoid "over-payments" in the future.
In my opinion, it was Microsoft's mistake and they should have eaten it.[/quote]
They did eat it.
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