I have one real, true, complete and utter loathing - dishonesty.
No, not the sort of dishonesty that involves massaging the truth when someone is silly enough to ask "does my bum look big in this?".
I mean the sort of dishonesty that involves deliberately and knowingly withholding information in order to suppress the truth (and generally therefore not getting caught in something legally, morally or ethically dodgy), lying outright, taking things which they know belong to other people, taking the view that insurance companies, businesses and large corporations are there to be ripped off because [fill in any explanation excuse you like].
I'm not big on the concept of adding polls to blog posts, but if you have the time, I'd like to know if I'm living in a little world of my own on this topic. Here's what drew this bleat out of me - see what you think and then vote.
Someone is travelling overseas on work for their company. They are given cash in the local currency for those occasions where the Visa and Mastercards of this world are not accepted. It is NOT an allowance - as meals can be taken in hotels, restaurants, etc where they can be happily charged to the company credit card and all other costs are covered pre-travel or by the business this individual is visiting.
Said individual has travelled overseas before and is "spotty" with returning with receipts, but generally manages to do so for most of the cash and where he has fallen short previously, it has been explained in the past that he needs to be more proactive.
(For those that need to know - we require receipts for spending to present to our IRD, should they ask us.)
This trip is to a "third world" country - but (having been there ourselves) is fairly tourist and business tourist-oriented, so there has never been any problems gaining receipts as required.
Our individual comes back and is asked for his receipts and excess cash. Next to no receipts or cash is received. His explanation is that he "couldn't get receipts" from certain types of vendors. So what has happened to about NZ$500, then?
On top of this, the individual would like to claim for his lost sunglasses and duty free that he managed to leave in the taxi on the way to his final accommodation. Work-paid-for insurance.
So, here is the poll...
[polldaddy poll=1763819]
I know it's a bit of fluff - and my views are naturally coloured by previous dealings with this individual - but I'd still like to know if I'm just a raving lunatic or have at least a bit of a right to be persisted-ed off with this sort of behaviour.
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I promise non-bleating transmissions from the Oh Waily household will resume shortly. I have a few drafts that require a bit more work and they will be with you shortly.
2 comments:
Not being able to account for $5 business expenses fine, $50 maybe (depending on circumstances), but $500? No way. I presume there are people that advise employers how to handle this sort of thing, and procedures that can be followed that can result in some form of punitive action or dismissal?
Yes, there are people and there are processes. Employment law would not allow for dismissal - we would need to go through a disciplinary process of several warnings before dismissal was even an option.
Outright, provable theft may be a different matter, but skimming (or shrinkage as petty pilfering is euphemistically known) is a hard thing to prove especially in these sorts of situations. Still, I am a great believer in karma - and I am also elephantine in my memory about these sorts of things. ;)
As another example (direct, would you believe, from the horse's mouth) of this individual's behaviour pattern...
Curtains purchased at a well-known chain store were rebagged and returned (in a bag marked large) for the no-questions-asked refund policy. With the "large" curtain price restored to pocket, said individual went to another branch of this store and re-purchased the "medium" size curtains at the day-old sale price that prompted the return of the curtains and then their repurchase. Oh, and a profit on top of that to boot - what with the returned curtains actually being of medium size.
Hmmm. Yes, there are people like this out there. And some of us have the misfortune to have them pass through our lives.
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