How unethical/immoral is this? - Page 6

Assani Fisher · #51 03-31-2007, 01:44 PM

When I worked at a bagel shop, if you worked the night shift you could take 6 bagels at the end of the night. We threw away literally hundreds each day because they had to be fresh daily. I have no clue why they limited it to 6.

Assani Fisher · #52 03-31-2007, 01:50 PM

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If you have done nothing different in behavior to obtain these items (as suggested, hiding the products so they expire, etc), then no morality or ethics are broken. If it makes you feel any better, physically put it in the dumpster, then go in and take it out of the dumpster and put in your car. You are now officially trash-picking.

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If a boss saw you do all of this, could they fire you and legally get away with it?

ETA: I see __w__ 's post now. Care to give some details on the courtroom aspect of things?

BigSoonerFan · #53 03-31-2007, 02:19 PM

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Well you can make this argument, but it's not like my manager says "Oh hey go ahead and take whatever you want, just throw the leftover "garbage" in the trash."

So obviously someone out there has a problem with it.

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Managers don't like you taking home the "garbage" because that leads to more and more stuff being declared garbage.

I had some friends who worked at Pier 1. Any time they wanted something from the store they'd chip the paint on it or something then show the manager so it got declared unsellable so they could take it home.

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This is the correct answer. It's not immoral, or unethical, unless you consider breaking your work's policies unethical.

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This isn't the correct answer for this condition. The expiration date is created by the manufacturer and the OP has nothing to do with it. As long as the actions are limitied to those items (drinks/foods) with expiration dates, then this "slippery slope" argument doesn't apply.

__w__ · #54 03-31-2007, 03:13 PM

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If you have done nothing different in behavior to obtain these items (as suggested, hiding the products so they expire, etc), then no morality or ethics are broken. If it makes you feel any better, physically put it in the dumpster, then go in and take it out of the dumpster and put in your car. You are now officially trash-picking.

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If a boss saw you do all of this, could they fire you and legally get away with it?

ETA: I see __w__ 's post now. Care to give some details on the courtroom aspect of things?

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Sure. I ended up in the courtroom twice over stuff like this. But the company I worked for had a very clear policy that stuff like this would be considered a form of stealing. The terminated in both cases argued that the dumpster was public domain and that it was no different from dumpster diving anywhere else. This of course didn't hold up, as we had a clear policy against it in the handbook, and it was on a sign by the dumpster as a warning.

The biggest thing is, if your company has a policy against it, then I wouldn't be doing it. It isn't a question of immoral or unethical at that point. If you break the rules, and the company wants to pop you, they are going to pop you. No different from surfing porn, using company resources for personal use, etc.

Talk to your manager about. If he/she blesses it, then you are good to go. If not, then let it go. Otherwise, you could end up unemployed.

prohornblower · #55 03-31-2007, 05:24 PM

This isn't bad at all. In fact, it is good. You are saving food. And eating it. Both good things.

stinkypete · #56 03-31-2007, 05:37 PM

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When I worked at a bagel shop, if you worked the night shift you could take 6 bagels at the end of the night. We threw away literally hundreds each day because they had to be fresh daily. I have no clue why they limited it to 6.

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they limit it to 6 so you can't give a dozen bagels every night to each of 20 of your closest friends, who might be customers of the store.

stinkypete · #57 03-31-2007, 05:40 PM

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I work at a store that I will not name, for obvious reasons. We constantly throw out perfectly good items for one reason or another(DVDs, food, drinks, etc.)

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taking the dvds is pretty much equivalent to downloading them illegally online. definitely unethical.

the food can be argued both ways. depends whether you're a commie or a capitalist.

cking · #58 03-31-2007, 05:40 PM

simple. Drop it in the trash can and then pull it back out right away. Once its trash its free game.

Blarg · #59 03-31-2007, 06:04 PM

We used to do this with remainders books when I worked at a bookstore. We had to tear the covers off so they couldn't be resold, and then we were supposed to ship them back. But there were tons of perfectly good books there, and sometimes we kept some with or without covers. Somebody eventually did get fired for it though. So I would be careful if I were you.

Blarg · #60 03-31-2007, 06:09 PM

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They have you follow these policies until you've become so brainwashed that a "Kill all Jews" order doesn't seem so bad.

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Oh man, last night, at class, Im taking a business ethics class to get my mba and the teacher loves to give us scenerios and have us debate, the scenerio was about a secratary writing an inflammatory, untrue, reputation destroying letter for her boss. Is it unethical to do so. this kid says, "no she is just doing her job", I counter with a nazi argument obv, and this enrages the kid abotu how he doesnt blame them as they "were just doing their job". it was surreal, the whole class shutup and just stared.

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Considering that not doing your job could mean a bullet in your own head, as well as the repercussions it could have on your whole family, it's not like the kid doesn't have any ground to stand on.