From what I know of my management (it’s a fairly small company), unless I quit fairly soon after I claim the credit, maybe within a year, I don’t think they’ll bother making an issue of it.

There’s an economic argument to be made, since most people would challenge such a demand, and the time and effort of the managerial team to pursue it, and the cost of hiring a lawyer to issue the correspondence to say that I should comply, among other associated costs would start to eat away at any benefit from getting the $1000 repaid they would end up spending more money chasing it down.

I think my employer is financially intelligent enough to know that. I also didn’t see any such provisions or clauses in my employment contract. So it’s borderline impossible to enforce to begin with, you can’t really argue that it’s breach of contract since it’s not in a contract that I signed. So it needs to (legally) be pursued as damages, which is a bit harder to prove without a drawn out legal battle. The cost of the lawyers alone to get to that point makes it a triviality in terms of cost.

If they can threaten you with minimal cost to them, and you willingly pay it out of fear, that’s on you.

Only people who penny pinch on principle would even bother doing anything more than issue a threatening letter demanding repayment.

I’ve known business owners that have that kind of mentality, and they are honestly some of the worst people to work for.