Ask Ms. Magnolia

Ms. Magnolia

Letters have been edited for length and clarity.

Dear Ms. Magnolia,

Our of. ce is in a debate. Some of us

are close friends with an older worker

named Sam. Last week during a custodians meeting, Sam spilled his coffee on the

conference table, and some of the coffee got to his supervisor’s personal laptop

before he could pick it up. Sam is not an

executive and is near retirement and lives

only on his income from work. Should the

supervisor ask Sam to pay some of the cost of a new laptop since it was a per-

sonal laptop and not company property?

Frank

Dear Frank, If this were a company laptop, it would just be the cost of doing business that the company should cover. However, since it was not equipment owned by the company, there may be some question.

Perhaps the company will cover the cost since the supervisor presumably had the laptop there for work purposes.

It seems to me that Sam shouldn’t be . nancially penalized because his super-

visor had his personal laptop at work.

Accidents happen.

If you have a question for Ms. Magnolia, please mail it to P.O. Box 669, Vidalia, GA 30475, or e-mail to msmagnoliaadvance@yahoo.com.