College Son Calls It Life Hacking

[joshuad]

@megkh22 I worked in audit for over 10 years. I've personally audited payroll dozens of times. If he continues to do it, it is just a matter of time for him to be caught.

The auditor will not present this as fraud, but as a control deficiency. The pattern is clear and everybody knows what the employee is doing. It's very different than other employees and consistent. And always in favor of the employee.

The auditor will suggest to chance how pay is calculated. However, the manager will be notified about the employee. It's the manager that will decide what to do with this information in terms of discipline.

 

[rac76095]

@megkh22 If he does get caught, he should plead ignorance/claim he never realized he was being overpaid. Should also start mixing in longer stints so that seems more plausible.

Many universities have very strict ethics codes. They’re usually designed to be harsh on people cheating on tests/plagiarizing but I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided it applies here too. Your son could be risking getting expelled for $8 at a time.

 

[dmbaker]

@megkh22 He'll get caught and learn a life lesson...

Or he wont and will try it somewhere else and get a more consequential life lesson...

In other words - it'll catch up with him one way or another.

 

[preppertoo]

@megkh22 I'm always wary of people that lie/cheat/steal without remorse and do it simply because they know they can. Youre right, your son lacks ethical integrity.

I wouldnt be too worried yet given your son's age, but I'd definitely have several talks with him about ethics. It sounds like you've already done this, but this is one of those lessons that is often learned over time. It may require more than one talk.

Overall, I wouldnt be too worried. This case just sounds like a prime example of a dumb kid that doesn't understand or appreciate that actions have consequences.

I doubt he sees it as stealing, he probably views it in a less mature way. Like taking advantage of a glitch in a video game to skip to the next level. He probably hasn't even considered the fact that he's committing theft.

"Theft is what criminals do, I just found a legitimate and harmless exploit in the system! I'm not hurting anyone." - probably what he's thinking based off how he sees it as a "life hack"

Edit: spelling

 

[asperninja]

@preppertoo Sincere question: long term capital gains are untaxed federally, as long as your income is under a certain amount. I realize just enough gains to keep me under the limit. Am I committing theft?

If so, what should I be doing instead? If not, how is it different than what OP's son is doing?

 

[preppertoo]

@asperninja Not paying taxes you don't even owe IS NOT theft...

Accepting payment for work you did not do IS theft...

If you can't tell the difference then I suggest you spend a little more time thinking about it. You'll get there.

 

[asperninja]

@preppertoo Help me get there.

Suppose I get a job like OP's son. If I work 1:28-2:31 and turn in an accurate timesheet, they pay me $17. Should I give money back?

If I work 1:15-2:45 they pay me $17. Should I still give money back?

I don't know for sure how the rounding rules treat a shift that runs from 1:01-2:29. If I get paid $17 should I give money back? If I get paid $8.50 is that also theft, but this time is the university stealing from me?

Edit: where I think I'm ending up is that if I tell my manager what's happening, everything gets sorted out. Maybe they say it's fine, maybe they fix the system, maybe they tell me what to do. But if I have to keep it secret, that's what makes it dishonest.

 

[preppertoo]

@asperninja I'm going to assume you're young and answer accordingly.

His employment contract states that he gets paid $8.50/hr. He isn't supposed to be getting paid $17 for working 61 minutes. There is a rounding flaw in their payment system. A flaw which he is purposely abusing.

And yes, it works the other way around. If you work and aren't paid it's still theft but from you.

In a perfect world everything would line up nicely, but we're not in a perfect world so we have to do our best to round appropriately. Of course whats appropriate is subjective. Its a grey area. Typically rounding up or down by 5-15 minutes occasionally is fine (for most people), but rounding up by 59 minutes is beyond inappropriate. People have been fired for less.

The takeaway from this is that just because you CAN do something doesn't mean you SHOULD. That's why we have ethics in the first place.

 

[jnnp]

@megkh22 It's about as ethical as $8.50 an hour.

 

[lostranger]

@jnnp I was gonna say lol... If you pay someone that little then I mean who are you to be upset.

 

[nyliram]

@megkh22

I find this VERY hard to believe that payroll software basic math would allow this to happen!

You'd be very surprised. Math rounding errors are common. But consider the following

Some companies round at 10 minute intervals. So that 1.1 hour you logged could be 1 hour and 1 minute. You get paid the full 10 minute mark even though it was only 1 hour in. Not really hacking. Whether this is fraud or not truly depends on your company's reporting procedures. Its on a per company basis.

 

[jaylr]

@megkh22 He will post this on r/unethicalLifeProTips and be cheered on. Common rounding but most place pay per 15 minutes so rounds up at 8 minutes