Moral dilemma

[Shathus]

What about when you get something from the vending machine and TWO items fall instead of one? Clearly you have to report the 2nd item to your manager, otherwise you have to report it on your taxes =P

Ok... I should really do some work now...

[edsdame]

It's possible the rogue change was tagged with a tracer, and the owner of the money will hunt you down for it.

Or it will blow up into your face marking you with green ink!

[Invisusira]

I fail to see the moral dilemma here. I refer you to the doctrine of finders vs keepers.

[halabar]

What about when you get something from the vending machine and TWO items fall instead of one? Clearly you have to report the 2nd item to your manager, otherwise you have to report it on your taxes =P

Ok... I should really do some work now...

When the second item falls, it's just making up for when you paid before and didn't get the item.

Yeah, finders-keepers in this case. The email will just show you who the greedy saps are that come for change when it wasn't theirs.

[Dorvan]

Perfectly fine as long as you don't know who left the money there and can't reasonably give it back to them.

^^ Surely this. In this case, the amount of money is so trivial that the value of the employee time you'd consume sending out an email or something would far exceed that of the change. If you saw a person walking away from the vending machine as as noticed then sure, it'd be polite to flag them down, but this situation is too trivially small for an action beyond that.

[Blackharon]

Perfectly fine as long as you don't know who left the money there and can't reasonably give it back to them.

^^ Surely this. In this case, the amount of money is so trivial that the value of the employee time you'd consume sending out an email or something would far exceed that of the change. If you saw a person walking away from the vending machine as as noticed then sure, it'd be polite to flag them down, but this situation is too trivially small for an action beyond that.

Which begs the question - what amount of money isn't small enough to warrant an email. If you look at it from an employee time value, at a large company this number becomes infinite. However if you look at it from a personal level, losing $100, $50 or even $10 is more than enough cash for you to seek rewards in karma levels.

[Invisusira]

IMO we need Theckd in here to graph out morality vs triviality vs effort to get to the bottom of this.

[vertinog]

Perfectly fine as long as you don't know who left the money there and can't reasonably give it back to them.

^^ Surely this. In this case, the amount of money is so trivial that the value of the employee time you'd consume sending out an email or something would far exceed that of the change. If you saw a person walking away from the vending machine as as noticed then sure, it'd be polite to flag them down, but this situation is too trivially small for an action beyond that.

Also who is to say that only the person who didn't grab their change would respond to the e-mail stating it is theirs.

[Dorvan]

Which begs the question - what amount of money isn't small enough to warrant an email. If you look at it from an employee time value, at a large company this number becomes infinite. However if you look at it from a personal level, losing $100, $50 or even $10 is more than enough cash for you to seek rewards in karma levels.

Realistically speaking: if it's something more significant, the best move for any found item situation is to hand it over to some sort of lost and found. If the lost item was of importance, the person losing it will seek out the lost and found and recover what they've lost. You also don't have to use everyone's time by sending an email in order for this to work. Finally, false claims aren't much of an issue because no one else is aware that something was even lost.

[Kelaan]

Which begs the question - what amount of money isn't small enough to warrant an email. If you look at it from an employee time value, at a large company this number becomes infinite. However if you look at it from a personal level, losing $100, $50 or even $10 is more than enough cash for you to seek rewards in karma levels.

If you find a $20+ in the break room, bring it back and put it in an envelope. E-mail people and say, "Found some money; if it's yours, please tell me the denomination and where you think you lost it." If no one claims it, donate it to the office snack fund, or something. If more than one person claims it, have them sort it out themselves, I guess... ick. Ugly situation. Either way, though, you shouldn't be pocketing it.

If you find $1 or a few quarters, put them on the counter next to it, and/or tape it to a paper saying, "Found this change near the ___. If it's yours, enjoy; if not, I trust you'll leave it for the rightful owner." This avoids you being the one to pocket it wrongly, even if it doesn't protect about Some Jerk taking free money when he next goes to get a coke. You could also just anonymously donate it to the office snack fund, if you have a contributory snack arrangement at your office.

[Fridmarr]

/moved

[Arnock]

It's serious business

[Barathorn]

I demand a graph of posts made per day vs level of pointlessness for the OP.

Theck, get to it!

[Levantine]

Silly Barathorn. Vertical lines don't make for very interesting graphs.

[Invisusira]

/moved