My coworker in a 2 associate team is on vacation. We recruit a backup for her from the call center.
It was a hectic day today. I had a regularly scheduled person who helps on Mondays when we are Extremely busy. Usually my coworker manages her and I only have her for 3 or 4 hours. But they changed her hours to match mine and damn it’s hard to manage someone inexperienced while trying to do your own job.
But. That’s NOT the reason I want to drink. The replacement co-worker pointed out that my regular coworker has not been marking sales tax on her invoicing for a very large account. Presumably the total amount billed is correct, I have not checked. PLEASE UNIVERSE, LET THE BILLED AMOUNT BE CORRECT. But because she has not been doing this, I have not reported those taxes collected and they have not been paid.
Taxes. NOT paid.
The thing is – she did it correctly for about 7 months and then in March she just did it randomly and in April only 4 items and after that…
I have NO idea what was going on in her mind. But I do know that I report the taxable payable amount to the owners of the company and they faithfully pay that amount to the state.
And it was wrong since March. By a not insignificant amount. This puts them in danger of audit and fines etc.
I love my co-worker. But she works too fast. That’s her key strength but it’s also her weakness. I worry that her desire to get my work started before I arrive is causing her to let important things slide. She likes to be the hero who helps people.
And I worry that telling my bosses that the last 4 months of tax reporting I did for them was wrong. Because they will want to know why. And then I will be throwing my friend under the bus.
She’s on vacation. I talk to her regularly by text but I’m not going to ruin her vacation with this nightmare. Still it’s giving me stomach issues. I can’t tell them without telling her first. But that’s a weeks wait. sigh.
Drinking seems like a decent solution to get through the week. If only it had no next day consequences.
It's a Thought 
Wow, that’s – well I don’t know what to say. That’s just terrible.
You need to tell your boss and explain how it happened ASAP. I know you don’t want to get your coworker in trouble, but they need to know what happened so they can try to minimize the damage from this. The one good thing is that it hasn’t been going on for very long. The company will have to pay whatever taxes are owed and there might be a penalty, but if it’s only one account and only been going on for a couple of months it won’t be too bad. The good thing is you caught this now
LikeLike
But it will put up a flag that auditors may use to select this business to audit. And frankly that would not go well. It’s a small business that just does a lot of seat of the pants stuff that wouldn’t happen in a big company with internal auditors. No one in the building has an accounting background. No real book keeping background. And the outside accountant is wonderful, but she gets the end result, not the mess that leads to it. I’m very worried.
But there is an honorable way to deal with this and one that I will regret. a week more or less won’t change things much. I want her to have a chance to take this to them herself. Then I won’t be throwing her under the bus.
Plus the President of the company is on vacation and it would be best if she heard it directly. (this last part is just me giving excuses. Her brother and she own it. He likes to say he made her President so she would go to jail and not him.)
LikeLike
You have to report it right away. You shouldn’t feel guilty as it’s your job. It’s what they pay you for. If you text with your co-worker, you can wait a day or so and just say that you found something wrong and are working to correct. Keep it short and simple. I was in this same situation only I was the co-worker who did an incorrect calculation on a batch of stat reports. My co-worker noticed my information was off and went to our boss. We all sat down and I couldn’t duplicate my actions to get the incorrect totals. I didn’t hate her for it. It wasn’t personal. It was my error.
LikeLiked by 1 person
But wouldn’t you have appreciated the opportunity to bring the error and it’s solution to your boss, rather than having it taken to them. I would want that opportunity. The owning of the mistake and solution are part of a good employee. And she really is a good employee. I think she would prefer to do it herself.
I will call her Sunday and we can talk about it. She may impulsively run into work and work all Sunday night on the solution.
Once she accidentally threw away an important (only one in the universe and we needed it to get paid) paper and she drove in at 8pm to dive into a dumpster to find it. She found it.
I hope she doesn’t spend Sunday night doing that, but I definitely won’t give her the opportunity to ruin her family’s Birthday Week for it. 2 of her children, both her and her husband and her mother have birthdays this week.
People are more important than companies. It’s worth remembering that. I often didn’t remember that when I was a director of a call center. I regret that lack of perspective. Or more accurately, I regret the actions I took because I didn’t remember.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You should do what you think is right. She will have time to correct it next week but if I was the boss I’d sure like a heads up that something’s wrong. You don’t have to report it as an “error” but as something that doesn’t look right. You are right that you shouldn’t ruin her vacation with it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah. I don’t drink, but that would be enough to make me start. Such anxiety.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just replied to you and it didn’t branch out of this reply. So check the page. I’m sorry. Sometimes I’m not even good that the simple things like “Reply” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
it’s not you. WordPress has been wonky with replies for the last few months. When I’m on Kate’s page, it tells me my reply cannot be posted all the time. Even if I’m already logged in. Really irritating.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well that is comforting. I always assume it’s my own mistake. Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right?! My stomach is tied in knots trying to weigh the various pulls on my loyalty. Ultimately, I think the best compromise is to wait until Sunday to talk to her about it, so she can have an opportunity to bring it with a solution to the owners of the company. I hope.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s very considerate of you, though a little tough on the stomach lining.
LikeLiked by 1 person