Where I work I can take checks from customers for payment. However, the main office requires them to be business checks, no personal checks allowed, with a check number >= 1200. All well and good, except that exactly what the office requires wasn't adequately explained initially, and like with most of what they tell me, what they want seems to change over time or isn't fully explained until they have a problem. The process of how it was explained to me over time was essentially
- Checks are OK
- Not all checks, though, only check numbers over 1000.
- Only checks over 1000 from a business.
- No checks with a person's actual name, just business name.
- Check numbers must be at least 1200.
- We'll take some personal checks, but only if the owner or [supervisor] knows them personally
I work by myself 99% of the time, so if someone wants to use a personal check, I have to stop what I'm doing, call the office, see if they can get ahold of the owner or otherwise look up their history of business with us in QuickBooks. I was OK'd to keep a list of people they've approved for personal check use so that I don't have to call them all the time.
They haven't had a problem with any checks I've taken for a while, because at this point it's just business checks with a number 1200 or more, or else I deny the check or call the office. But yesterday, my immediate supervisor came down to my location to bitch at me about someone else' mistake (who I do not work with), and at the end of it he added that if I ever take a personal check and it doesn't clear, the amount the check was for would be taken out of my pay.
That's not fucking legal in this state, not without having me sign an acknowledgement at the time the money is deducted from my pay. My first thought was that he was just bluffing, trying to scare me into paying more attention to an issue that's already been solved, but I've seen how they do some very obviously illegal things regarding HR and payroll issues. He may or may not believe that just taking the money from my pay would be illegal, but I'm sure he'd try. I doubt they'd even attempt to have me sign the paperwork on it and just have it deducted.
I didn't say shit to him about it. I just gave him a “good to go”, let him finish bitching, and went about the rest of my day after he left. I've already been actively job searching and working on getting my CompTIA A+ certs done. I'm not sticking around this place much longer.