Monday, April 14, 2008

Another Turnaround Tale

Several days ago at my plant, an employee (out of several hundred) of contract firm “A” approached an employee of contract firm “B” with a proposition. Something like . . .

“Hey, man, I got a great idea. There are hundreds of us A company employees here, and nobody can keep track of all of us at one time. There are also hundreds of you B company guys here.

“Why don’t you help me get hired onto B company’s payroll to work with you?

“I’ll keep my job with A company. Every day I’ll show up, report in to both bosses, and keep busy. If your boss asks you if you’ve seen me, you can vouch for me that I’m really doing a great job. I’ll punch both time clocks, and nobody’ll know that I’m pulling down two pay checks.

“I’ll split my second check with you! It’ll work!”

And you know, it just might have worked!

Fortunately for us the B company employee declined, and came to tell our plant safety supervisor, Jay, the story. Jay called the on-site superintendents of both A and B companies, passed on the allegation, and left things in their hands.

They investigated. They determined that the story was the truth.

They debated the merits of letting the dishonest employee actually carry out his scheme for one pay period and then file theft and conspiracy charges. (Please note that I spelled “conspiracy” with a lower case “c”. I DO NOT want to stir up the OTHER one, with the upper case “c”!!) But The B company superintendent didn’t want to let his company be scammed, even as a “sting” operation, so the A company boss fired the conspiring fellow and sent him off to attempt his dirty deeds elsewhere.

It’s a shame he didn’t apply his craftiness to better ways of getting his work done. He might have been able to earn his way into a much bigger paycheck he didn’t have to split with anyone.

Well, anyone except Uncle Sam. (I had to throw that in, since today is Tax Day Eve.)

1 comment:

kenju said...

The nerve of some people! Too bad you didn't let him hang himself.