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. I explained 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.
I couldn't hold back my laughter. I swear I could hear a tiny violin playing.
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 really kind of shocked.