For a while, my mom was stuck in a job she hated, where her boss asked her to lie (to clients, about whether or not a shipment of the product was available, to cover up that the boss had screwed something up). Mom hated it, but she had a mortgage and two kids in private school, so the fast-food option some other person so glibly suggested wouldn’t exactly pay the bills.
I’m glad there are so many people here who are fortunate enough to be able to choose their ethics over paying their bills, or have never been in that position, but I’m also seeing a lot of high horses. It’s very easy to talk about what choice you would make in a difficult situation that you’ve never been exposed to.
And lying to a customer about the origin of a problem is so far down the continuum from raping, torturing, or murdering another human being that your post didn’t exactly gain any credibility that way.
Been there, had to make the choice, yes. My daughter was getting tutored to help her overcome her dyslexia, which was expensive, time critical (she needed to get that tutoring and learn to cope before she could progress in school) and absolutely necessary. I still quit the telemarketing job when I found out how sleazy it was, and surprise! my promised bonuses just somehow evaporated. When talking to other workers, I found out that this company had a history of promising bonuses that never appeared.
I tend to think of private schools as luxuries, not necessities. A fast food job usually won’t cover a mortgage, whether or not one is paying for private schools or not, but there ARE usually other jobs out there that won’t require a worker to attempt to bypass someone’s security. I have to wonder if this woman thought up this strategy all on her own, or whether she was instructed to do this sort of thing by her company, though.
Lying about when a shipment is not the same as trying to get around security, unless the shipment is vital for life or health. And hating a job is pretty much normal. However, when a job consistently requires its workers to behave unethically, then the workers should quit, for their own sakes.
For the record, and just to get on an even higher horse, I also refused to sell my cigarette and gas rations when my husband was in the Air Force and stationed in Spain. We were desperately poor at the time, and could have really used that money.
Well, that’s not quite right. The conversation went something like this:
Phone Rep: Hi, we noticed that you recently switched service away from BellSouth, and we’d like you back.
Me: No.
PR: May I ask why?
Me: Absolutely you may. (Long explanation of what happened from start to finish).
PR: Oh, I’m so sorry, I feel so bad! (Sounds of copious weeping. Well, maybe not really, but at least a quaver in the voice).
Me: I know it’s not your fault, you’re not the one who lied to me and whose incompetence meant we couldn’t post the pictures. But please mark in our file not to call us again: your company performed terribly here.
Shot From Guns, if you live in a world in which the only way not to criticize someone for unethical behavior is to be willing to pay them not to be unethical, then you’re an idiot.