Exempt employee made personal purchases

babies2

Our facilities manager made personal purchases on our account and has not paid us. This happened 2 months ago and he keeps saying he'll pay us but he hasn't. We have not paid the account and the vendor is becoming angry. I can't blame him. I can't deduct the money from his pay because he won't agree to it. Should we suspend him without pay for a day to see if he pays us?

Dutch2

Without knowing all the particulars... one tough way to play this would be to tell the Facility Mgr. that ethically this is the same as stealing from the company and therefore grounds for termination. Is his job worth paying the company back? Do you have a policy regarding the use of company accounts, credit cards, etc for personal use. If not, this might be a good time to include same.

ritaanz

Dutch is right on. The guy used the company account for personal stuff without authorization. When that happened at the last company I worked for, he was fired as soon as the company found out.

NaeNae55

It is either theft (you pay and he doesn't reimbursee you) or fraud (he made a purchase he did not intend to pay for under false pretenses by using your name and credit history with one of your vendors). Either is a punishable crime. Do you really want to keep a manager with so little ethics? What other things is he doing to your company? What example is this setting for your other employees? I recommend you pay the vendor and fire the manager. Keep your name and credit clean, and clean your 'house' of foul employees.

Good luck!

Nae

drehil

I agree with Nae on the payment part...pay the bill, you are only ruining your reputation by not paying the bill. As for the employee I would write them a letter saying they have #(however many days you decide)days to submit payment to your organization or face disciplinary action. If it's not paid within the # of days..terminate.

davids

I agree with others - the employee should be terminated. My experience is that this type of behavior is usually the tip of the iceberg. If he has acted unethically in this situation, he is likely to act unethically in other situations. You are better off cutting your losses now than waiting for him to do something with far greater repercussions for your organization.

hrdilemma

You know way more than the rest of us Monkeys (though very professional) sitting on the fence waiting to help solve all the problems of the HR World regarding this case but besides all the ethical issues, what hasn't been uncovered which may come to light and the big TRUST factor here, I believe I would ask SR. Mgmt if they are aware of the situation, express your thoughts on this regardings existing policies etc., and then depending on the amount of purchases in the situation, if you terminate this @%*$# manager, once you pay the bill your accounting department may be able to 1099 the amount of the puchases not paid for that were personal to the EE as income for the year. We can do this in our state.

TGIF day...

Rockie

I'd give him a choice to pay up or be terminated immediately.