Beyond pissed off about a colleague

I have been supporting a school for over 6 years now, since then my boss doesn't know his DHCP from his IPV6. I mean literately he has no clue about anything IT, he needs everything in layman's terms. well a co-worker has been stealing little things from the department and selling them on ebay (old motherboards, Apple mac remote, a mac book pro, Cat 5 cable) things like that, nothing major, but enough for me to report it to my superiors. they said, OK we will look into it...... 6 months go by.... nothing. Again he takes a motherboard, processor and memory from a system that the management know nothing about. I got really pissed off and reported it to senior management, they suspended him for 3 days (he admitted the lot) and say I must submit a report (that he gets a copy of) and that most likely he will get a warning and I am expected to work next to knowing that he has read the report telling his that I shopped him.

To say I am pissed off is an under statement. I have very high morals when it comes to honesty .
Should I have kept my mouth shut ?
Should I have taken advantage of the situation (taking things of my own) ?
Should I ditch the company and look to work elsewhere ?
any comments welcome !!!!!

Find more posts tagged with

Free for TechExams community: Cybersecurity salary guide

Compare cert salaries and plan your next career move

Button

Comments

Akaricloud

Tell management what's going on. Either have them not give him a copy or make sure that they don't put your name or anything that would identify you on it.

If they're not willing to work with you on it then I'd suggest you start looking elsewhere.

colemic

Is it in your corporate policy that you must write the report, and that it be given to him?

cyberguypr

colemic wrote: »

Is it in your corporate policy that you must write the report, and that it be given to him?

I am wondering the same. I've written reports on illegal/unethical activities I've witnessed but not to be given to the employee in question.

Coolhandluke

Yeah its policy that they get a copy of the statements involved.

xirtlook

you've done nothing wrong, why should you be reprimanded?
stand up for your beliefs... who cares if he gets a copy...
he knows he's doing wrong, and you're doing right.
the only way I can see him being upset with you, is if you didnt come to him first. thats his only argument...

but in either case, stand up for yourself...

and in everyday life, if youre not happy with something, find what makes you happy. if youre not happy with your work environment, find employment where you will be.

cxzar20

You did everything right. I think a point missed here is, what if your employer caught on that these things were missing and began accusing YOU of doing it? If you didn't say anything then you might have been caught in the crossfire. This all applies to the CYA principle.

Mercury#

I believe you did the right thing. Unfortunately, I too was the victim of a report that was submitted with the intention of protecting my employer. In the end, I guess the saying goes 'No good deed goes unpunished'.

cisco_trooper

These things should be kept confidential. Remind them that a loss of trust will probably prevent people from making any reports.

Plantwiz

xirtlook wrote: »

you've done nothing wrong, why should you be reprimanded?
stand up for your beliefs... who cares if he gets a copy...
he knows he's doing wrong, and you're doing right.
the only way I can see him being upset with you, is if you didnt come to him first. thats his only argument...

but in either case, stand up for yourself...

and in everyday life, if youre not happy with something, find what makes you happy. if youre not happy with your work environment, find employment where you will be.

The only thing you (or any of us) keeps is our integrity. So, you can follow your company policy and maybe/maybe not look like a rat to a thief (and does the thief's opinion matter?).

You can make your report and look for another company to work for...leaving them with the thief.

I worked a place (many, many years ago) where an employee stole. I reported it (actually it was her and her husband who both worked for the organization). During moderation, She admitted it and cried...basically got a slap on the wrist and let to go back to work.

I did not wish to work with this particular thief (because things she stole hurt all the staff). Others were ticked off, but it came down to very few were bothered enough to take a stand...so I found a better place to work.

Employee theft is one of the higher areas of shrink within an organization. It adds to the operating expenses of a corporations which (when you share profits) affects ALL the employees.

I've found that not many people are bothered by this sort of thing. They say they are, but if they don't feel the effect immediately, they don't really care too much.

So, stay within the SOP of your organization. IF you can live with yourself for reporting the problem, then bother to follow through. IF you cannot live with yourself by not reporting it, than find another place that fits your personality or learn to live with not reporting it.

You will probaby find it difficult to trust that employee ever...and likely will find yourself working with them for a lot of projects (which may bother you).

Did you confront the employee first? In my case, I did because "WE" all shared profits and stealing product (and reselling it) as well as time, phone calls and setting up exchanges too the employees focus OFF our business and hurt our customers as well as the rest of the team.

Frankly, if someone is new and not doing something according to the code of the team, feel free to tell them HOW you all handle things...they maybe didn't realize you all don't steal and maybe one of the superiors did grant permission, but is hesitant to say that they gave this new employee permission to take stuff and sell it.

Personally, if they are selling products, than they could sell it FOR the company to expand your departments purchasing power rather than taking it as a personal pay increase.

YMMV