This is a UPDATE from my previous post: https://old.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/13r7n7u/my_manager_collected_donations_for_me_but_kept_it/
I just want to clear something up since I've gotten harassed over it. These donations were collected less than a year ago after our whole office had been strictly WFH due to covid. I continued working from home until I couldn’t, which was last week. I wanted to give everyone an update because some were asking for it so I hope this is OK.
I used a compilation of some of what you all said and emailed my coworkers from my personal email explaining the situation and requested they get their money back because none of it was actually donated to me. I also requested they send a screenshot of the donation as proof so I could see what I could do legally like pressing charges or small claims court. Mainly wanting proof this actually happened.
So over the weekend 8 of my coworkers responded. They all said they would request the money back but were not interested in doing anything like pressing charges or escalating this past getting a refund because they weren't willing to risk losing their jobs. I guess I was right in my first post when I said this wasn’t really my money in the first place but I was still pissed. They were not as furious as so many of you expected them to be.
But then today after I got off work I got a phone call from my former manager. He had figured out what was happening whether by the HR girl, getting notified about the refunds, or a coworker contacted him about it. He told me he now has a great job (a city official position) and wanted me to double back and tell my coworkers I actually HAD gotten the donations. He wanted to “work this out” without getting anyone involved. He told me he had just moved and gotten a new vehicle so his “funds were depleted”. He didn’t have enough money in his account to cover once paypal started pulling the funds back.
He took money from his coworkers under the guise of it going to help a grieving mother (me) and thought that I would care. I have five fucking dollars to my name and the donations were nearly $3,000. My coworkers are probably not going to re-donate to me which is fine, I just want them to get their money back. I was even approached by a reporter regarding my situation. I didn’t tell him that because who knows what he would do or say since he has such an important job now. I don’t know if I should tell my coworkers that he called or not. I’m looking into whether I can legally pursue charges even if my coworkers don’t want to. I’m really kind of shocked.