Recently Microsoft disclosed it mistakenly overpaid a few out of 1,400 workers it had to lay off a month earlier and, therefore, is requesting a refund for the money. Subsequently, Microsoft had decided to overturn their decision and stated that these employees could keep the payment. The company’s senior VP for human resources Lisa Brummel, stated that 25 workers had received letters regarding the overpayment amounts of usually ranging between $4,000 to $5,000.

Brummel did acknowledge that the incident came to her attention after appearing on TechCrunch, a technology blog. The site has a posting of a letter with a Microsoft letterhead dated the 18th of February. Brummel called on the phone a majority of the 25 workers to personally inform them of Microsoft’s final decision. Microsoft announced its layoffs on January 22, it also reported its last quarter net income for 2008 to be lower by 11% year-to-year, but still reached $4.17 billion.

I think that not reclaiming the over payments makes Microsoft look like a great company with a huge heart, and who doesn’t want to do business with a company that has those attributes. If I worked in the Microsoft public relations department, I would probably want to find some optimized press release services to make sure that the company’s generosity becomes known by many.