A few years ago when I was working as a cashier at the concession stand of a sports arena, I was faced with an ethical dilemma. As I had my back turned to the register to prepare some of the food, one of the other employees was at the cash register getting change for a customer to use at the vending machine. This was something that happened regularly so I was not surprised or worried that anything would go wrong. At the time management was very trustworthy of the employees and everything was pretty basic when it came to security procedures. This meant that there were no cameras behind the register and most of the employees had access to the register. When I was putting food in the oven, I could see out of the corner of my eye that the person was putting money into their back pockets. I didn’t think anything of it at first because some employees worked as hostesses for the birthday parties so when they entered the bill into the register, if any tip was given to them, they just deducted it from the total as a tip and took the money out of the register. Once I got back to ringing up the customers in line, I realized that this certain employee was not working birthday parties that day. When I figured out exactly what happened, I knew I had the responsibility to tell management. I wasn’t sure how to bring it up without putting myself or the guilty party in awkward situation. Finally, I decided to write a note to the supervisor to explain the situation and what I saw. In my mind I did what I thought was right by telling someone in charge. I think everyone has a different opinion on how to handle ethics, so it is hard to determine what exactly the right thing to do is.
I can imagine this being very difficult. This is a great example of ethics in comparison to my accounting major. Accountants are constantly reminded about ethics due to so many loop holes they are capable of creating; allowing them to save money in different accounts, resulting in serious consequences if confronted.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely ties into your ethics and sounds like a tough situation to be in. However, I think you handled it appropriately and ended up doing the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI understand, everyone wants to avoid that awkwardness! It's natural!
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing by telling your supervisor. I worked take-away in a restaurant before and those cash drawers can get tricky. Once we had a crazy night and somehow orders got switched and money went to the wrong ones. Management was notified about it but they didn't delete the correct orders so the money was still screwed up. After putting in all sixty dollars of my tip money the drawer was still twelve bucks short. The manager didn't say we had to put in our tip money but I felt it the right thing to do since we were the ones who screwed it up! So I worked a long crazy shift and made no money in the end. It wasn't fun!
ReplyDeleteI think you handled this well. Separating yourself from the allegedly guilty party by way of a note, rather than a direct confrontation is probably the best way to have handled that situation.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a tough situation, especially because the person may have been able to assume you were the one who told. In the end you removed yourself from being blamed and also stood by your values of honesty.
ReplyDeleteI think you handled the situation perfect. It is very awkward to tell management that something unethical is happening in their place of business. Also, you may get those managers who keep you there to be face to face with the guilty party which just makes things worse especially if you were friendly with them. I do believe you should have informed management of the situation as well because you could be blamed for and stealing I find is very unethical.
ReplyDeleteThat was probably very difficult to do but glad you did the right thing. Those situations are always tricky
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that had to be a very difficult decision to make. One in which I do not know if i could personally unless it was my company. But more power to you.
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