Jain said his first thought was that the payroll team would quickly notice the mistake and reverse the payment. But after a full day, he said there was no email, phone call or message from the company about the payment.
Instead of waiting for the company to discover the error, Jain contacted the founders directly. He explained what had happened and asked for the company’s bank details so that he could return the money himself.
His bigger concern was that the company’s systems had not identified the payment before he did. He also used the incident to highlight a wider issue for growing businesses. The incident serves as a reminder that payroll systems need proper checks when an employee leaves a company. A simple error involving one former employee could become a much bigger problem if it affects several people.
The issue was resolved and the money was transferred back, with the entire process taking around 48 hours from the date the payment reached his account.
The company’s HR team contacted him within a couple of hours of his email, according to Jain. Jain said payroll mistakes can happen and that the error itself was not what concerned him. Jain said companies hiring and expanding quickly need stronger payroll checks to prevent payments being made to former employees.
