Question:

My employer fired me this morning for an “offense” so minor it’s laughable—especially since dozens of other employees do the same thing.

Here’s what happened. My employer issues meal vouchers employees can use if they have pizza or sandwiches delivered to them at their desks when they’re working through lunch or into the evening. Since I didn’t take lunch for three days last week, and I prefer the variety offered by the grocery store’s deli, I used my vouchers there on the way home. This seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The HR manager confronted me this morning and said my employer considered this voucher misuse. I argued it wasn’t, as I worked through lunch. What’s the difference if I want to eat my lunch at home?

This isn’t my first go-round with this employer’s pettiness. My job requires I travel at least twice monthly. When I travel, I like to get food on the plane or pick up a Krispy Kreme donut and maybe a latte at Starbucks. This saves me from having to eat an early breakfast before I catch the plane and makes travel more palatable. I used my company credit card for these purchases, which seemed reasonable to me as I’d be using the card later in the day for lunch, dinner and lodging. HR issued me a warning and gave me the opportunity to repay the company. Of course I didn’t. I consider airplane and airport food a legitimate perk, especially since I work longer than eight hours a day when traveling.

I hope you’ll publish my employer’s name.

Answer:

Instead of naming your employer, I’ll name Meta, Wells Fargo, Ernst & Young, and Target. These and other employers deploy perk police to bust employees for what employees consider the equivalent of getting a traffic ticket for driving 70 miles per hour despite a posted 65 mile per hour speed limit.

Like your employer, Meta provides meal vouchers to employees so they can have food delivered to their offices while working. When an internal investigation uncovered two dozen employees using the meal credits to have meals delivered to their homes or purchase items such as wine glasses, Meta fired them, https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/17/tech/meta-employees-fired-meal-credits-layoffs/index.html.

An employee quoted in Wall Street Journal’s October 2024 article commented “don’t abuse any privilege because it’s not worth the risk” after noting his former employee fired six sales employees for using meal stipends to buy groceries, https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/the-little-sins-we-commit-at-workand-the-bosses-who-are-cracking-down-74929770.

Wells Fargo fired or suspended more than a dozen bankers for putting dinners on the company tab and altering the timestamps on the receipts or ordering takeout before the allowed time, https://www.advisorhub.com/wells-fargo-is-investigating-bankers-alleged-expense-violations/.

Ernst & Young cracked down on employees that didn’t take training seriously. When it discovered some employees watched more than one online course simultaneously and axed them, some employees defended their behavior as “multi-tasking,” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ey-fires-staff-multiple-online-training-courses-meta.

Target’s code of conduct prohibits employees from using their position to gain an unfair advantage over customers with high-demand or limited-stock items. When customers couldn’t buy coveted Stanley water bottles and the company learned that seven employees had purchased them ahead of the public, the company fired them, https://www.businessinsider.com/target-workers-caught-off-guard-by-stanley-cup-crackdown-2024-1.

Why have companies started cracking down on rule-breakers and rule-benders? First, employers offer perks for a reason. They give meal vouchers to keep employees working at their desks, not to provide after work snacks. Second, they want to cut expenses. Third, employers finding themselves over-staffed after post pandemic hiring sprees are using code of conduct violations to push out unwanted employees, https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/the-little-sins-we-commit-at-workand-the-bosses-who-are-cracking-down-74929770. Fourth, employers may find themselves in tax trouble if they allow funds earmarked for perks and business expenses to be diverted to less legitimate expenses.

Finally, I challenge your assertion that your employer’s firing you for rule-bending is laughable because a) it’s minor, b) everyone does it, and c) your employer owes perks to you. As I wrote in “Twilight Ethics,” Solutions, https://bit.ly/3FcApi9, you’ve allowed your ethical muscle to become flabby by de-sensitizing yourself to incremental dishonesty. Worse, when others point it out to you, you argue. Even when others also do the wrong thing, even when you can get away with something, even when the wrong thing seems like it’s no big deal, it is.

Lynne Curry, PhD, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, authored “Navigating Conflict” (Business Experts Press, 2022); “Managing for Accountability (BEP, 2021); “Beating the Workplace Bully,” AMACOM 2016, and “Solutions 911/411.” Curry founded www.workplacecoachblog.com, which offers more than 700 articles on topics such as leadership, HR, and professional development and “Real-life Writing,” https://bit.ly/45lNbVo.  Curry has qualified in Court as an expert witness in Management Best Practices, HR, and Workplace issues. You can reach her at https://workplacecoachblog.com/ask-a-coach/ or for a glimpse at her novels, short stories and thought-provoking essays, lynnecurryauthor.com. © 2024