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Man Punished Because Company Is Stupid
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Lilit Marcus used to have a really, really terrible assistant job. So she quit. Now she is the Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of www.savetheassistants.com, “a blog for the beleaguered,” where assistants from all industries can submit horror stories, get advice, and more. A New Yorker via North Carolina, Lilit is also a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Post, and Mediabistro.com. When she’s not trying to save assistants, Lilit lives, works, writes, learns to cook, and shops for vintage clothes in Brooklyn, NY.
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October 29, 2009
Remember the character Milton from Office Space? He was the guy who was laid off, but didn’t know it and kept working at the company even when they corrected a clerical error that kept paying him? A story from New Jersey is basically the opposite of that. Anthony Armatys accepted a job at a telecom company called Avaya in 2002, then changed his mind. However, he’d already been added to the company payroll, and it didn’t occur to anyone to take him off of it. Fast forward a few years, and in 2007 someone finally realized Armatys had been collecting a paycheck for not working. He has just pleaded guilty to a count of theft as part of a plea bargain.
Here’s the thing: Armatys didn’t do anything accept decline a job. He didn’t fuck with the company’s computer system or anything — the mistake was theirs. Frankly, if a company started paying me a check even though I didn’t work there, I would probably keep the money and laugh my head off about how dumb they were. I mean, did no one ever wonder why checks were going to someone who didn’t work there? Was the company such a huge bureaucracy that it took five years to figure out there was a problem and correct it? I don’t think Armatys is at fault here.
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Georgia_Girl
19 days ago
2 comments
Agree! It is still considered stealing regardless of the company's clerical error. Am I the only person who would have done the honest thing by notifying the company of their mistake and returning their money? Truly I must believe that others share my thoughts.
zem
19 days ago
8 comments
Unfortunately, Mr. Armatys is still a thief. He collected money to which he was not entitled and continued to do so for five years. No matter how incompetent Avaya was at maintaining its payroll, it was Mr. Armatys' responsibility to inform the company of its error. Instead, he decided to keep the unearned money until he was caught. Sadly, this article's author apparently shares this man's lack of good morals and judgment.