I Pit the Conniving Tattle Tale (i.e. Me)

The BBQ Pit
1

At work, I am responsible for a very boring, very mundane task which basically involves cleaning up files for use in billing.

I inadvertantly discovered that a co-worker was consistently “padding” their charges. Let me reiterate that I found this while doing a mundane chore and that for the most part people are ruled by the honor system. No one cares or wants to hear that such and such overcharged by fifty or sixty cents.

The most recent incident I came across involved a total overcharge of $2.30. Even relative to the total charges for one hour for that person, the overcharge by itself was not material.

Two things really got to me though. First, the consistency. At $2.30 a day x five days a week etc etc it does add up and this person is definitely padding every time they can.

Also, they had gone beyond just tacking on a charge and had begun to “fake” it. I won’t drag this out further by explaining all the details, but you can imagine a scenario where an hourly worker writes in a start or end time because they forgot to punch in or out. This would be similar only this person has started just changing the clock.

Forgot to punch in or out? No biggie! Made an adjustment that came out in your favor? Whoop-de-Doo! Change the clock to make it look like you were here when you weren’t…? Day after day…? When you’re working on the honor system anyway and you could just make an adjustment…?

Long story short (I know it’s already too late for that) I told. I waited until no one else was around and then said to the supervisor that I just wanted to air a concern and that I didn’t expect that anything to be done.

I know perfectly well that by telling, I’m ensuring that something will happen with this. It’s petty and it’s trivial, but it’s also petty and dishonest to pull that shit in the first place!

I covered my ass by making before and after snapshots to prove my case. I also discussed the situation later with others who — at first — took the position that it was no big deal. Eventually, others began to say WTF too and agree with me that some line had been crossed.

Most of this took place on Monday and Tuesday and I thought I would have forgotten about it by now, instead I’m feeling like a little POS weaselly narc fucking tattle-tale pussy who went running to mommy because someone took an extra pudding pop.

Part of me is pissed that I even noticed and part of me is pissed that the dumb fuck didn’t cover their fucking tracks better so I could have looked the other way.

2

You did absolutely the right thing.

Obviously this person needs to be dealt with, and if you didn’t tell, a thief would get away with stealing, and that is wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with speaking up when you witness wrongdoing. This is not something petty. Someone else would have to pay for this thief’s padding, and that isn’t right.

I just don’t understand the mindset that people should get away with rip-offs and the rest of us should just shut-up and smile.

3

Do you like working under an honor system? If so, telling was the right thing to do, because shitheads like that ruin it for everyone else.

Honor systems work if and only if all of the participants are basically honest. As soon as someone abuses the trust implicit in such a system, it undermines not only the organization’s trust in that person, but in the honor system itself.

You did the right thing, and I think you know you did. “Telling on” someone always feels shitty, because you know they’ll have to face the consequences of their actions because of your action. However, the consequences are THEIRS. They brought this on themselves, you didn’t bring it on them.

4

Well, it can be an indicator of a pattern, too. I would look more closely at everything this person did if I was their boss. Who knows what other little thefts they are commiting that add up so something larger. At the very least it indicates some passive aggressiveness? And it’s better to get that dealt with.

5

I do like it, and I feel a childish pride in being able to work unsupervised.

But it’s such a piddling amount. Part of me just wants to avoid the embarrassment of having a customer call and point out something like this on a bill.

I guess I just feel like an anal retentive jerk.

Honestly, I feel shitty because I don’t want to be “that guy.” When I see this person in the parking lot, they’re going to glower at me for being an uptight, penny-pinching prick.

I really wish I just hadn’t noticed.

6

I’ve never understood why a person is supposed to feel bad, and is often made to feel bad, because they spoke out about dishonesty or other wrongdoing.

You did the right thing. The amount doesn’t matter. If you noticed one or two paddings I’d be tempted to let it slide, but as you said, this has been done repeatedly, in increasingly nefarious ways. You were being a loyal employee, and from the employer’s point of view that is ABSOLUTELY the right way to swing.

7

I appreciate the feedback, but I want to make it clear that I do understand that the only one making me feel bad is me.

A dirty look in the parking lot (which has only happened in my own brain) means nothing and if anyone wants to pretend that nothing happened, I know that’s Bull.

…I need to think about this some more…

8

As someone who had a similar misfortune of seeing sales reps “gaming” the commision systems, I understand your pain. We had a system where when the customer booked the event, part of the commission was recieved, the other half was paid when the event took place. Many of these events were scheduled 6-8 months out. At least once a year it seemed like the “rising star salesman” left after a short period of time only to discover that the bookings were all bogus and he left with a huge chunk of money that all he did was a phony rebook of existing clients that hadn’t called for a few years.

Something similar could be going on in your case. If there are bonuses available for $X in additional revenues or profit margins on revenues, the extra few dollars a customer could push him over a bonus threshold, garnering him a nice chunk of change for fudging his numbers. He may have figured out that an extra 1% is all it takes to make one of those breakpoints.

9

Agree with the others who support your decision to “tattle.”

If money is going into **X’**s pocket when it shouldn’t, it is coming out of somebody else’s. Whether that somebody else is a customer, or another co-worker, or a company shareholder, or whatever . . . it is thievery. Would you want to be the one on the short end?

It is difficult, uncomfortable, and occasionally murky to stand up for what you know to be right, and I salute you for having the cojones to do it.

10

I’ve thought about it and all I can say is thanks. I’m upsetting myself needlessly.

One of the things that bothers me is that, at the outside, it could add up to maybe $500 a year. It doesn’t seem worth the effort to choke every nickel out of the system whether it’s coming to you or not.

As I mentioned, it’s basically on the honor system. If someone writes on something extra in the margin, I take their word for it. If something doesn’t add up, it’s not worth 20 minutes of my time to find $2.00 worth of accounting error. At times, I have simply paid people and not billed anyone. If I accidentally overpay someone $5.00, who cares? I certainly don’t begrudge them the money.

In fact, because it’s a such mundane chore, I take short cuts. If I’m given ten totals: {3,6,8,,2,4,,*,4,9} I don’t even go and look for the * totals, I just add up the series and put in 10 for *, then I know I’ll be “over” but with a certain range. It’s good enough for government work (as they say) and I will know if something is way off.

The problem in this case was that, despite fudging the numbers, the totals were exact. Garbage In Sunshine and Lollipops out. :dubious:

I can be very obsessive about things like that so I just set it aside to look at later. By the time I came back to it I knew what had happened.

11

You were born to audit. You have a gift.

You notice anomalies; you notice patterns; you don’t get your knickers in a twist about minor stuff. BTA, honey.

I do some auditing. The point of auditing is not to find mistakes (yes, it is, and it’s fun) but to identify opportunities for improvement. You found a major flaw in a process - malfunctioning resource - reported the event, and initiated a corrective action. You have improved the situation for everyone - including the thief, by supplying an external control where there is no internal control. You rock.

But I hope the thief got fired; someone who will steal $10 a week will steal anything.

(Were you taught to add up several numbers by essentially using scientific notation, or did you figure that out on your own?)

12

SiXSwordS there is a word to describe your actions. It is integrity. You’ve got it.

13

I agree. It isn’t always comfortable, and I don’t like to believe coworkers are unethical, but it happens. I know because I’ve been in your shoes.

Many years ago, when I read the Straight Dope in print, I was talking with my manager who happened to have the weekly timecards we filled out by hand on her desk. One of them caught my eye because of the time a coworker had written down as his quitting time one day. I remembered that day because he asked me to let him leave as soon as he finshed what he was doing because his sister was sick. I told him it wasn’t a problem and made arrangements to cover the rest of his work. On his timesheet, he wrote down a time which was a full four hours later than the time he left.

I told my manager this and she asked me to keep track of the times he left. I felt a bit sneaky, but I did it. Sure enough, he was padding his hours quite a bit. He quit the company a few seconds before he was fired. I felt bad for him, but what else could I do?

14

Thanks again for all of the feedback. It really means a lot to me.

I must have figured it out on my own since I’m not sure exactly what you mean.

I don’t have any actual background for most of the jobs I do. Most of my training has been of the sink-or-swim variety and I’m on a first name basis with the lifeguards a few of the EMTs.

15

One thing to consider is that large frauds often start with piddling amounts. Getting away with a piddling theft often emboldens the perpetrator to make increasingly larger thefts. You did the right thing by nipping it in the bud.

16

I’m not sure that everyone would agree it is theft.

To use a till as an analogy: the honor system means that the cashier can write “$5.00 Petty Cash” on a slip of paper, drop it in the drawer and take out five dollars and no one would blink. I would call it commonplace.

In this case, a customer brought item A to the cashier who rang up item B. The customer pays with a twenty and gets a nickel back as change and is happy because the register says $19.95 and their receipt says $19.95.

Now the cashier voids the sale of item B (a common procedure) and rings up item A – which matches what she actually sold – and now the register says $14.95. The five dollar dollar difference goes in their pocket.

Obviously stealing, right?

But add this bit… the cash in the drawer is the cashier’s in the first place. They have other “Petty Cash” draws for the day and the totals come out. In fact, the “cashier” in this case made an adjustment to explain why the $14.95 item cost $19.95.

I wouldn’t have said a word if it weren’t for the quick shuffle of “ringing-up” item B and then “voiding” it. That transaction will show up on that customer’s statement and, if anyone were to question it, I would likely change it; it’s only $5.00 and not worth quibbling over.

But if it’s not worth quibbling over when I’m dealing with a customer, is it now worth quibbling over with a co-worker. Others who do the same job I do commented that they had seen similar transactions and let it go.

:confused:

17

Okay, so it’s not theft. It is dishonesty, isn’t it? The way I see it, you had two choices: deal with the dishonest person, thereby being honorable yourself, or ignoring it, thereby being complicit. I can’t see how the amount would matter from an ethical standpoint. Unless we all get license to steal $500 a year, and I haven’t heard about it? That would be great: I could get an iphone.

18

So, the customer got overcharged five bucks? And you’ve seen this more than once?

… no, that’s worth mentioning.

19

Yeah. Actually I’d say they stole five dollars from the customer. Theft by deception.

20

I’m seriously questioning myself, but there seems some intuitive point where the amount does matter. In accounting there is an idea of materiality. I also think most people have some point at which they just don’t care.

Don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff… right?

Realistically, it’s more like several customers being overcharged a total of less than five bucks. I came up with the $500.00 per year by projecting the same “scam” out five days a week x 52 weeks per year.

But yes, I’ve seen something like it before from the same person. This was the first time I had seen it done obviously through adjustment after the fact.