Thanks for the Trust...

Last week I received my final paycheck from my summer associate position. The amount pleasantly surprised me, and I filled out a deposit slip and left the check on my kitchen counter for later. That night as I lay in bed I thought, “Wait a sec. I think they overpaid me.”

So, the next day I pop out of bed, pull the check, run some numbers, and sure enough, I’m right. Not exactly shocking, I know.

On Monday I called the office accountant to report the problem. At first she didn’t believe me and ran the numbers herself. Then she responded with, “You’re lucky you told me about this because you would have messed yourself up with the IRS otherwise.”

Really? I may have to pay more in taxes, but it’s the office that reports my earnings. Wouldn’t they get in trouble if they messed it up? Oh, and how about a ‘thanks for catching my mistake’ or a ‘gee, that’s really nice of you to let us know. We would have never caught that’? I could have just walked away with a couple extra hundred dollars – money that makes a big difference to me and is fairly negligible to you guys.

“Okay,” she said, “Here’s what we’ll do. You need to write void across the face of the check and mail it back to me. In the meantime, I’m going to cut you another check for the correct amount and put it in the mail. They'll cross paths and arrive in their respective places on the same day.”

I wrote VOID across the check, but didn’t mail it. I used up the last of my stamps writing thank you notes, and I wasn’t in the mood to go plunk down $8 for a book of stamps when it was the office’s error. Plus, why did I have to mail it back? Why couldn’t I just rip it up? I mean really, do they think that I would report an error just so that I could potentially cash an extra check? Why go with the safe few hundred bucks when you can get twice the amount? Honey, anyone who chooses to enter the profession of law is not that kind of gambler.

I also held onto the check because I wanted to see if the accountant really did mail the check. Would she trust the kid who was honest enough to point out a problem that most people wouldn't even have noticed? A week has passed. No check.

So to recap:
I spot paycheck discrepancy that will cost me a few hundred bucks.
I promptly report said discrepancy.
I contacted the error-maker directly, even though I do not know her, nor did I work in her office.
I do not receive even a simple thank you for my behavior.
Despite all of this, the accountant does not consider me trustworthy enough to send a new check without receiving the old one.
Now, not only have I forgone the few hundred bucks, but several weeks have gone by and I have not been paid for the actual work that I did.

This is not exactly positive reinforcement, ya know?

It’s okay. I’m bitchy...uh, and a little defensive. I’ll give her another week. Then I’ll email the managing partner to say that the accountant messed up my check, overpaid me, and has not cut me a new check since I reported the problem, and could he possibly look into it?