What to Do if Your Supervisor Orders You to Do Unethical Things
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: PA
Hi everyone. I've been having a problem with my current employer and things have come to a head. I have been asked to do things that I disagree with and have constantly been told "that's how we do things" or "It has to be done this way or else" and have gone along. I'm not in a position to just up and quit due to a non-compete that is in place.
To the issue - for the last 3-4 months, my employer has been requiring me to commit fraud (best way I can describe it). The scenario - my company is a reseller for an OEM. OEM offers marketing funds to its resellers who use the funds for approved marketing initiatives, etc. Will over the last 3-4 months, my direct supervisor has instructed me to submit fake marketing initiatives into the OEM's computer portal in order to receive marketing funds. These funds are to be used for the specifically requested marketing initiative, however, the funds have been used for other various marketing initiatives, not specifically related to the OEM.
In my opinion, we are in violation of our reseller agreement with the OEM. I have expressed concern over this practice and have expressed my feelings, and have been told "that's what we're doing", or "why should we help sell their products when we make more money selling our own"? And I would explain "because we are receiving that funding conditionally and are not meeting those conditions".
Furthermore, my supervisor has instructed me to "make up" marketing metrics and results in order to keep the OEM happy and justify their expense in funds to us.
I should not have gone along with this from the start and now want to figure out what my options are. If I need to quit I will quit and deal with the consequences of the non-compete.
Can I be held liable for this? The funding requests were made under my name, at the specific direction of my supervisor.
The amount of money we are talking about ranges from $5k-$15k per quarter, $20k-$60k per year.
Any advice for how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
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Quoting
PADriver13
Any advice for how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Time to start looking for a new job. This will come back to bite someone in the butt, wanna guess whose butt your employer will offer up?
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
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Quoting
PADriver13
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: PA
Hi everyone. I've been having a problem with my current employer and things have come to a head. I have been asked to do things that I disagree with and have constantly been told "that's how we do things" or "It has to be done this way or else" and have gone along. I'm not in a position to just up and quit due to a non-compete that is in place.
To the issue - for the last 3-4 months, my employer has been requiring me to commit fraud (best way I can describe it). The scenario - my company is a reseller for an OEM. OEM offers marketing funds to its resellers who use the funds for approved marketing initiatives, etc. Will over the last 3-4 months, my direct supervisor has instructed me to submit fake marketing initiatives into the OEM's computer portal in order to receive marketing funds. These funds are to be used for the specifically requested marketing initiative, however, the funds have been used for other various marketing initiatives, not specifically related to the OEM.
In my opinion, we are in violation of our reseller agreement with the OEM. I have expressed concern over this practice and have expressed my feelings, and have been told "that's what we're doing", or "why should we help sell their products when we make more money selling our own"? And I would explain "because we are receiving that funding conditionally and are not meeting those conditions".
Furthermore, my supervisor has instructed me to "make up" marketing metrics and results in order to keep the OEM happy and justify their expense in funds to us.
I should not have gone along with this from the start and now want to figure out what my options are. If I need to quit I will quit and deal with the consequences of the non-compete.
Can I be held liable for this? The funding requests were made under my name, at the specific direction of my supervisor.
The amount of money we are talking about ranges from $5k-$15k per quarter, $20k-$60k per year.
Any advice for how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Ugh...I would not want to be in your shoes. At a minimum I would refuse to allow it to go in under your name, and I would be looking for a new job ASAP. IF the OEM finds out about it I can just about guarantee that your employer would throw you under the bus.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
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Quoting
free9man
Time to start looking for a new job. This will come back to bite someone in the butt, wanna guess whose butt your employer will offer up?
Would love to - but my non-compete is so restrictive that I will be forced to leave the industry in which I have over 10 years experience.
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Quoting llworking
Ugh...I would not want to be in your shoes. At a minimum I would refuse to allow it to go in under your name, and I would be looking for a new job ASAP. IF the OEM finds out about it I can just about guarantee that your employer would throw you under the bus.
Totally agree. Is this something that should be brought up to HR or the owner? Perhaps the OEM who is providing this funding?
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
The non-compete makes your situation messy. You may be able to leave your position and prove the non-compete unenforceable on public policy grounds or some other exception under your state's laws. You should talk to an employment attorney in your area about the situation. The laws around non-competes are extremely state specific and can vary widely from one state to the next. As an aside, the last thing you want to do is blow the whistle, get fired and still have the non-compete keeping you out of the job market in which you are most qualified. Talk to an attorney before you do anything else.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
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Quoting
PADriver13
Would love to - but my non-compete is so restrictive that I will be forced to leave the industry in which I have over 10 years experience.
Totally agree. Is this something that should be brought up to HR or the owner? Perhaps the OEM who is providing this funding?
A non-compete that restrictive might very well be unenforceable. Talk to an attorney and have them review it. I doubt that it would do you any good to talk to HR or the Owner, because its almost guaranteed that the owner already knows about it. Talking to the OEM might keep you from being thrown under the bus, but it WILL get you fired.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
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Quoting
llworking
A non-compete that restrictive might very well be unenforceable. Talk to an attorney and have them review it. I doubt that it would do you any good to talk to HR or the Owner, because its almost guaranteed that the owner already knows about it. Talking to the OEM might keep you from being thrown under the bus, but it WILL get you fired.
You can't collect UI if you quit - and at this point, being fired would be preferable to putting my own personal reputation on the line.
I've spoken to a local attorney who reviewed the contract and said it is reasonable in both scope and duration. That analysis from him came before I was instructed to start committing fraud, so I will ask him again if this changes anything.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
Yes, you most certainly can quit your job and be approved to draw unemployment if you have a valid work related reason to quit, you have tried to resolve the problem without quitting, and you have come to the conclusion that there is no reasonable alternative to quitting. It's easier if they fire you, burden of proof goes to them in that case, where when you quit, you have the burden of proof that you did what you did, and they did what they did, and you tried to resolve the problem and decided there was not any other way other than to quit the job.
Since you did go along with this for a while....which was a really bad idea, (to heck with a non compete which is so broad and reasonable that you're going to have to leave your field to find another job! Especially so when your reason for leaving was such that you were being asked to do dishonest and/or illegal things.)
But anyhow, since you have gone along with this for a while, you did not just refuse the first time they ordered you to do something, and let them fire you, I would probably refuse at this point to go any further with what you have been doing. Speak to your employer's next higher up, speak to HR, and keep detailed records of what was said in these meetings, regardless of whether or not they do anything about it. There is going to be some good in talking to your higher ups, like HR and/or owner, because then you can clearly say that you DID attempt to solve the problem before leaving. Whether they quit or fire you, the time to stop doing this stuff is right now. Let them fire you. Just stop doing it. You do not have to quit. You really probably don't need to quit. If they're stupid enough to fire you, they've got the burden of proof that they had a valid work related reason to fire you, and when you have this situation to come back at them with, I sincerely doubt if they will do much regarding your non-compete contract.
You're spending far too much time with these sketchy people, trying to be smart, work it out so you can get unemployment, get around the non-compete, etc. But as someone has pointed out, just let this thing come out, and you'll be the one they leave dangling in the breeze, especially if you are still employed there. "He/she was doing this TOTALLY without our knowledge, and we don't know WHY they'd do such a thing. They're just a bad person and we want to press charges!" Get out now.
I think you should talk to your attorney about how likely it is that they're going to sue you for violation of a non-compete agreement when they were doing illegal things, requiring you to do illegal or unethical things.
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
Appreciate the replies. I know from past experiences with other employees who left that the company will vigorously pursue anyone they feel is in violation of the non-compete. I have to believe this is how business has been done for some time (60 year old company) so I would imagine they've done this in the past.
llworking suggested not talking to HR or higher-ups, and I trust their opinion. Do others of you have opinions on how to actually go about the next step? Do I make a fuss? Or simply tell my supervisor that I refuse to enter fraudulent, made-up figures and see what she says? My guess is I'll get "why didn't you express this before", and my honest answer will be that "I did not know your plan was to commit fraud and deceive our OEM partner".
Obviously the end result will be the same - being fired (or quitting). But is there a better way than another to arrive at that conclusion?
Called my lawyer and am waiting to discuss the new details as it relates to my non-compete.
Edit - does anything think it would be a good idea (or bad) to confront my employer and try to have the non-compete eliminated by promising not to inform the OEM about the fraud? As in "look, what you're doing in unethical and I don't want to be part of it. I quit, and if you will disappear my non-compete I will keep quiet to the OEM about this?"
Re: Boss is Making Me Do Unethical Things
So we add threats and blackmail to your already being complicit with illegal activities? Threaten these people in this way if you REALLY want to screw this up.
It makes very little sense that your company, from the top down, could successfully manage to commit fraud and deceive customers for 60 years. Are you sure this is something everyone from the top down knows about? I think this dialogue with your supervisor is LONG overdue. I still repeat, LET THEM FIRE YOU. Especially since you think it's such a good idea not to try to make anyone else aware of your situation in the company before you quit. You are very unlikely to get unemployment in this circumstance, as they'll simply say, "We were not aware there was any problem! We'd have worked with him/her and dealt with this if we had only known!"