No names, just facts…and feelings.
One of our hourly employees (#1) left for lunch at about 11:30 am. At 11:57 am another hourly employee (#2) slid #1’s time card through the time card machine and then took the card to #1’s desk and laid it there. Another employee saw this happen and reported it to me. I downloaded the info from the time clock and found this indeed was the case. I felt I needed to report this to a supervisor who called #2 and asked if this had happened. #2 initially denied everything. Then, when told not to lie about this, #2 said that #1 came back to the office and gave the timecard to #2 and asked #2 to slide the time card because #1 forgot to clock out.
There are many reasons why this could not have happened this way. I’m not going to go into all that at this time. It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that this act was wrong. In fact, it was no different than theft–a felony. At most other workplaces someone who did this (or was involved in any way with this) would immediately be fired. That didn’t happen in this case. Both persons were written up and told that if this happened again they would be terminated.
Now I am being shunned by both–as is another person in the office whom they suspect told me about all this. I’m not going to say who told me, just as I am not mentioning the names of those who did all this. Who knows who reads my blog. I’m sure both persons are pissed that they were caught, however, what they did was WRONG! Neither is innocent of wrongdoing and both should just be grateful that neither was fired. Instead, I will be looked at as the wrongdoer for reporting what they did.
So what do I do? I fear both will talk amongst other staff members and I will be classified as someone not to be trusted. Unfortunately, it is my job to report any kind of illegalities with regard to payroll to supervisors. While I want to be friends with my coworkers, I also have to do my job. I am regretful that this happened, but they are the ones who did it, not me. And, I am worried that both will make it very difficult to interact with them on the job…and it is necessary that I work with both for varied parts of my job.
I love my job, but I truly hate this part of it. I dread going in tomorrow.
5 users commented in " Work Turmoil "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackYou shouldn’t feel the least bit guilty about this – your first priority is to do the job you were hired to do, not to make friends. I would imagine that most of your fellow employees will feel the same way.
While many will agree with me, there will be a number of them who will feel sorry for the two who got in trouble. And there will be some who will feel that anything they say or do will be reported to the higher-ups, which has never been the case. We’ll see how things go this morning…
This is another facet to a preexisting pattern. Ultimately you’ll be revered by anyone whose opinion matters.
Both came up with reasons why this happened. Of course they didn’t produce these reasons until the next day–after they no doubt were able to talk with one another in the evening and make sure their stories matched. Both were still written up even though they produced what they thought were valid excuses. I don’t know whether the ‘powers that be’ believed the excuses, but I’m certain what they said the next day was something they came up with after the fact. #1 has yet to say anything to me or even look at me. Ask me if I care.
#1 called me at home Friday night. Wanted to talk about everything that had happened and clear the deck. Suffice it to say we’re on speaking terms. Not going to go into all the details. It’s over. I hope not to have to deal with this again.
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