Until this week I was employed on a very casual basis at a local bar in Scotland(only from November, did like 6 shifts if that). My email was broken for a few months (I know I should’ve checked, I’m a student and it wasn’t my uni one so I just lost track to be honest, exams are a bitch), so I wasn’t getting notifications about any emails and honestly it wasn’t my priority at the time.

In March I got an email from the new boss asking if I could work at all in the next few weeks and I sent a very apologetic email back that week saying that because of my exams I wouldn’t be available for any shifts until after May. This is where it gets messy though- after I sent that I went into full exam mode and didn’t check that email for a few weeks. In those few weeks, they emailed asking if I could cover a shift at a wedding in April, OBVIOUSLY I didn’t see it until after the fact but I figured that because I’d been clear in my last email about my availability, it wouldn’t matter. I fired one back as soon as I read it (so like, 3 days after the wedding) apologising for not replying sooner and restating that I wasn’t available till after May.

Yesterday I got a big scary corporate speak letter saying that they’d paid me for the shift (I saw the money come in but had been expecting a payment from another job so thought nothing of it) and now I owe them nearly £200 back.

Do you have to pay this kind of thing back? I made them wellllllllll aware in advance of the fact I couldn’t work it and I’m genuinely lost for words at the fact that they took my silence as a yes and paid me even after I didn’t make it to the shift (also literally not a single follow up, I’ve called people before when they’ve been running late for shifts so I have no idea why they did genuinely nothing and just sent the money anyways).

Help, pls 🥲 I’m too broke for this kind of thing 😭