I can't imagine how they can just take it back! I'd take them to small claims court. It's not like it was an advance on pay they deducted.

So, wait. They asked for the $ back, you wrote them a check, and they STILL took $ out of your final paycheck?

Also, how is what they did even appropriate? As it is, I think it's dicey to give your employee a bonus and tell them what they're required to spend it on. But then to tell you *after* you'd shopped that you went to the "wrong" stores?

*Maybe* if you were a nurse, and needed a uniform, and they gave you a uniform allowance, and told you to shop at Uniform World, and you spent it at Pasties R Us -- that might be grounds for them to bitch. (You aren't, right? And you didn't....right?)

Katie Bee, I would also think that some local news stations might be interested in some examples of outrageous behavior around holiday time.

The funds were for Professional Clothes for the office, since I look like I "don't have the money for nice clothes." Ouch. I am a disreputable tatterdemalion. Even when I wear my new black and white skirt suit and elegant black wool coat to the office, it seems. I only WISH I'd spent the money on Ramones jeans and a leather jacket. And had my hair dyed pink, too.

The funds were for Professional Clothes for the office, since I look like I "don't have the money for nice clothes."

So, was it presented as a bonus, or were you explicitly told that you had to take the money and buy work clothes with it? It sounds like the latter, but I wanted to be sure. If it is, that's no kind of "bonus," in my opinion.

Even if they didn't accept your decision on "Professional Clothes" it doesn't justify taking the money back! That is just all kinds of wrong.

(Thinks about what I wore to work today. Orange shorts, tropical shirt, sneakers. Professional enough for me. I wore a bra.)

tatterdemalion

Ooh! Good word!

A person wearing ragged or tattered clothing; a ragamuffin.

They said, we're giving you a Christmas bonus, and we want you to spend it on professional clothes. A conditional gift. Also they're saying that they're within their rights to ask for it back, since it wasn't a gift but a company expenditure of funds for a specific purpose.

A person wearing ragged or tattered clothing; a ragamuffin.

I'm taking a wild guess here that you might not want to go back in January under a new job title for this employer. I am just stunned.

KB, that's hilarious. Which is to say, I'm very sorry about the whole job mess, because you don't need the stress of being unemployed, but I'm glad you're not working for the Idiot Bunch anymore.