# Unjust workplace ethics.



## UnknownObservantTortoise (Feb 7, 2012)

Ok so I work in a large supermarket. One day, for reasons I will not disclose, I walked out of my shift. I accept responsibility for that, and this thread isn't about any unjust treatment of me, in fact, I am annoyed at how little management is paying attention to my fault in this matter.

You see, for said incident, my team leader, who is a reasonable and hardworking individual who rarely, if ever, blunders or acts out of order, is taking all of the flak for my action. No one is talking to me about it yet and they've already put that guy on blast for it. The team leader notified me of this, said he trusted me and was dissapointed that I just walked out, and that I'd thrown him in the deep end. Now I had absolutely no idea that this would happen. It stands to reason that you cant expect any individual to take full responsibility for another in a workplace. It just makes no damn sense that for actions he had no part in, he is being punished.

So my question is, is the any way I can quite right this wrong? The poor guy is trying to move up the ladder and it looks like I've put a spanner in the works that shouldn't be there. Is there any way I can re-direct the discipline to myself, explain to management? Is this common business practice, to punish two for the acts of one? Ultimately its a pathetic way of dealing with insubordination and I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.


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## General Lee Awesome (Sep 28, 2014)

he was ultimately responsible for you therefore he was punished. its almost like if a student walks out during a field trip, they teacher will take shit for it. hopefully it doesnt hurt him that bad in terms of career wise.


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## AriesLilith (Jan 6, 2013)

I'm not sure if this is common practice, although it sounds quite unfair. If that guy is really fired coz of this incident then the bosses sounds very rigid and unfair so that probably you can't do much to change it.


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

UnknownObservantTortoise said:


> Ok so I work in a large supermarket. One day, for reasons I will not disclose, I walked out of my shift. I accept responsibility for that, and this thread isn't about any unjust treatment of me, in fact, I am annoyed at how little management is paying attention to my fault in this matter.
> 
> You see, for said incident, my team leader, who is a reasonable and hardworking individual who rarely, if ever, blunders or acts out of order, is taking all of the flak for my action. No one is talking to me about it yet and they've already put that guy on blast for it. The team leader notified me of this, said he trusted me and was dissapointed that I just walked out, and that I'd thrown him in the deep end. Now I had absolutely no idea that this would happen. It stands to reason that you cant expect any individual to take full responsibility for another in a workplace. It just makes no damn sense that for actions he had no part in, he is being punished.
> 
> So my question is, is the any way I can quite right this wrong? The poor guy is trying to move up the ladder and it looks like I've put a spanner in the works that shouldn't be there. Is there any way I can re-direct the discipline to myself, explain to management? Is this common business practice, to punish two for the acts of one? Ultimately its a pathetic way of dealing with insubordination and I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.


Was overseeing your work a part of his duties?


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## UnknownObservantTortoise (Feb 7, 2012)

Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar said:


> Was overseeing your work a part of his duties?


No. I've passed training, and there was no manager or team leader in at the time. So it just seems remarkably stupid that a punishment is given to someone who wasnt actually there nd who couldnt have done anything about it anyway.


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

UnknownObservantTortoise said:


> No. I've passed training, and there was no manager or team leader in at the time. So it just seems remarkably stupid that a punishment is given to someone who wasnt actually there nd who couldnt have done anything about it anyway.


That sucks :/ .


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## Metalize (Dec 18, 2014)

I'm sure the best thing to do is to talk to them as directly as possible; set up a face to face meeting if possible and explain the situation as you have here.

Of course, you do need to be prepared that something will happen to your position as well.

As for the workplace dynamics, yes, the team leader was ultimately responsible for you, but middle managers are notorious for lacking basic skills/comprehension of how these complicated workforce/human situations can ultimately pan out, and often preserve a rigid hierarchy through what you just described; holding certain people responsible. Of course, you don't know the exact situation there -- his manager(s) may have had it in for him and were just looking for an excuse to jeopardize his position or some other unknown factor there (company policy, overbearing upper managers, etc.). That's usually the case when something appears to not make sense.


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## UnknownObservantTortoise (Feb 7, 2012)

As an update to this thread, management actually gave a apology to said TL and instead came down on me like a ton of bricks. The person who spoke to him was having a pretty bad day and forgot to hold their tongue.

So alls well that ends with disciplinary meetings for me. ahaha.


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## Tezcatlipoca (Jun 6, 2014)

I thought this thread was going to be about how companies abuse employees without compensation for example having them work night shifts without additional compensation (it leads to a statistical increase in cancer rates for example), having workers underworked with odd swings in shift work for no reason, abusing salaried employees in terms of hours worked, and categorizing employees as freelancers when they clearly are not to cut back on expenses.


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## Dao (Sep 13, 2013)

There is nothing to be corrected. A team leader's duty is to direct others and to prevent mistakes in advance by being attentive to his subordinates' skills and weaknesses. It sounds as though he did not do this properly given whatever mistake you made under _his leadership_, and it doesn't matter whether he was present at the time.

Taking responsibility for the entire team or an individual team member is part of what it means to be a team leader.

Unfortunately, as someone who has walked out on your own shift, whatever lessons in professionalism that you have to offer to your superiors are even more suspect.

Let it go.


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## Metalize (Dec 18, 2014)

Tezcatlipoca said:


> I thought this thread was going to be about how companies abuse employees without compensation for example having them work night shifts without additional compensation (it leads to a statistical increase in cancer rates for example), having workers underworked with odd swings in shift work for no reason, abusing salaried employees in terms of hours worked, and categorizing employees as freelancers when they clearly are not to cut back on expenses.


Sounds like a great thread to start. :wink:

Don't forget the underreporting (coughForbescough) of the actual impact of Obamacare's insurance policies/prices on businesses, which resulted in a plunging number of open full-time positions at companies and a corresponding spike in part/temp jobs that offer less pay and zero benefits (but of course, the work still needs to be done, so cue the uncompensated work and odd shift hours).


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## Waif (Jan 3, 2015)

I work very hard and always get the flack. I also find myself in other women's sexual drama. I'm like their effigy or something. No matter what I do, there's no way out of it.


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## Carpentet810 (Nov 17, 2013)

Every action has consequences and 99% of the time those consequences will impact someone other than you. 

For example if you run a business with a couple employees and you decide you are tired of it and wish to retire... What are the Consequences of shutting it down? First your employees lose their jobs and most like their insurance unless they want to fork it out for Cobra or attempt obama care. Second your customers will have to look elsewhere for a similar product and hope to find it at a similar price or bad things will happen. 3rd the people that supply you will have to hunt for a new customer to replace the loss in revenue or they will have to lay people off. 

This is just a small example of how the ripple effect works. You have to think ahead to minimize collateral damage.


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## Waif (Jan 3, 2015)

Today, I had a flare-up with a girl at work who kept digging at me. I reacted to it, and then told my boss that I suspected her of having an affair with a cook, although I said I couldn't be certain and didn't want that to be thought if it wasn't true. It wasn't the "correct" thing to do, but I keep running into the same problems and I don't want them to keep continuing. I'll be moving soon, anyway. 

When I reflect on it, maybe there was a purpose for it all. Maybe light needed to be shed on that situation. It's funny that you mentioned that 99% of consequences effect other people. I was thinking this: he probably needed to know how much stuff like that effects people like me. People like me have to bear the brunt of others' sexual choices. I'm religious and I'm pretty, so I get all the negative energy that people feel toward others and themselves pinned on me. All because some boss somewhere doesn't want it to be his problem.


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## Carpentet810 (Nov 17, 2013)

That is one of the perks to being the boss. Delegation of wet work to the peons. As for problems like that there are always well planned industrial accidents, drug positives and assorted actions of diverse amusement. A good one is the hooker bit. Hire a streetwalker to come in and play like she knows your nemesis on a professional working girl status.. You could probably supply fair amount of personal data too. Make sure it goes down the during the busiest part of the day...


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## Waif (Jan 3, 2015)

Unfortunately, the women I work with are basically whores anyway.


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