Join us for our column “Confessions”, where people from across the country confess their sins and ask for forgiveness from members of the clergy. This week, Sister Frances fields a confession from a gaming enthusiast who created a fake charity to trick his company into giving him his full year-end bonus.
Dear Sister Frances,
This year I didn’t receive my year-end bonus because of an inconsistent attendance record. At first, I felt slighted since I showed up to work more often than not. But I quickly realized a workaround. I just made a fake charity in my name so my workplace would match donations to it. I feel that I’m just getting what is rightfully mine, but I wanted to run my logic by you.
As you may know, 2022 was an amazing year for video games. Major titles like God of War Ragnarök, Elden Ring, and Horizon Forbidden West were released, just to mention a few. With so many titles to conquer, it was hard to find time to go to the office and work. All things considered, I think it was pretty impressive I managed to show up on average three days a week.
But as I found out at the end of the year, my boss didn’t agree. I didn’t receive any of my $3,500 bonus for the year and my boss cited my lackluster attendance. This is where I think you’ll be proud of me, Sister Frances. Rather than verbally berate my boss then and there, I instead took the high road and quietly vowed to take revenge on the company.
Reviewing the company policies, I noted that my employer would match donations to any charity up to $5,000. So that night I made a website for a charity called “Games for Grays” which helps elderly people play video games. I added a few testimonials, a few stock photos, and of course most importantly, a PayPal button.
The rest was the easy part. I donated $5,000 to “charity”, sent a receipt to my employer, and a week later I received a PayPal notification of the additional $5,000 donation. Not only did I get my original bonus plus $1,500 extra for my troubles, but now all of my co-workers know how generous I am. It seems like a win-win scenario for everyone involved, but for some reason I have a little bit of guilt. I’m okay here, right?
Sincerely,
Generous Gamer
Dear Generous Gamer,
Lord Almighty you have sinned dearly, and yet you feel like you have done no wrong. You need to reevaluate your morals and let God into your life.
To skip work and play videogames of all things (many of which spread satanic ideologies – I’m preparing a post right now detailing these atrocities, stay tuned) is unequivocally an awful thing to do. How you can possibly justify your actions is mind boggling.
Your employer has every right not to provide you a bonus! A bonus is for employees who are exceeding the company’s expectations. You’re not even showing up to work 5 days a week! I’m not a spiteful person, but you deserve much more retribution than no annual bonus.
God teaches us to revere charity and its many virtues. To refer to the scripture, in 1 Peter 4:8: “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” You, my son, have done the exact opposite. Your multitude of sins have tarnished the gracious gift that charity can be. You could have contributed to an actual charity and have your company match, helping people who need it most. Instead you created a fake charity to line your own pockets (which I’m sure can’t be legal).
To conclude, your actions are reprehensible and you should immediately donate the money you’ve received to an actual charity, since the only charitable act I’ve witnessed so far is your company not choosing to fire you for performance issues and ethics violations.
Faithfully yours,
Sister Frances
