Unethical Behaviors in the Workplace

When I was in high school, I worked at a retail store that seemed like it had a revolving door when it came to store managers. Over the four years that I worked there, there were four complete changes in management personnel. Some of them quit due to personal reasons, (pregnancy, new jobs, etc.) Others, however, were fired due to unethical practices. 

One manager that ended up being fired really sticks out in my mind because of a situation that I faced. This particular manager was stealing company time—and was not being very secretive about it. She would go in and revise her time card to show that she came earlier or stayed later than she really did. This manager would also take one to two hour lunch breaks but would not clock out—even though to my fellow employees and me, she would strictly enforce us to punch our during our breaks. 

Since I was only sixteen at the time and relatively new to the company, I was unsure on what to do. It was blatantly obvious that she was doing something unethical but I did not know quite how to go about the situation. I ended up talking to the assistant manager, only to find out she had already brought this to our district manager’s attention. The district manager (DM) had not done anything about the problem. Since she was in charge of hiring the new store manager, she did not want to believe there was something wrong with her choice. Because our DM was only in the store once every month or so, she just pretended like it was not happening, and actually scolded the assistant manager for reporting the problem.

In the end, the store manager was fired because it was finally brought to our regional manager’s attention. I was surprised that it took so long, and more than one person to report this problem to have some kind of action made. I am sure there are other ways to go about this problem—if you were in my position, or even my assistant manager’s position, what would you have done differently?

Posted by: Jenny Liechti