How do those scummy cheats do it?

jacalata — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 18:50:12 -0800

Inspired by this question, I would like to know what people actually do to cheat in university (or school, or academic settings generally). I'm looking for something less generic than 'ask a smart friend' or 'pay a smart nerd'. Surely there are some ingenious methods out there for increasing your grades? (disclaimer: I've never used any, and I don't need to. People who cheat to get through end up being the dumbass in my group project making me do all the work because they still can't write).

My boss wants me to do shady things.

Meredith — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 22:46:38 -0800

How do you refuse to do something your boss asks of you without jeopardizing your job? For the first time I find myself working for a company who's ethics and standards on things make me uncomfortable. I work in the accounting department, and my boss often asks me to do her dirty work- nothing illegal like keeping two sets of books, just things I feel are wrong and am not comfortable with.

For example- when a customer has overpaid, or has a credit balance, we don't inform them. We do not send out credit memos, we let the customer "see them on the statement." However, if a customer has a credit balance, we don't send them a statement at all. After a while, if the customer does not order again and the credit balance sits there, my boss asks me to write it off, instead of sending them a refund or at least contacting them. Obviously the problem with this is that if a customer has made a bookkeeping error and is unaware they have sent us too much money, they won't know about it, because we aren't sending them a statement, and in fact go out of our way to hide the fact from them, so we can just keep the money after a few months if they don't ask for it back.

All of my previous jobs, I worked for companies who would immediately contact customers if they had overpaid somehow and offer them a refund, or ask if they wanted to just use it as a credit. And this is only one example of the kind of shady, dishonest things she asks of me.

How do I best go about approaching her with this and letting her know I will not do these kinds of things? Up until now I've just passed these occasional requests on to other co-workers who don't really care, but it's becoming more frequent and I can't keep shifting my workload. I realize that should anyone question it, it would fall on her head and not mine, but I am just not comfortable with this.

I also can't afford to lose my job right now- I have a brand new car payment and an 11 year old greyhound with thyroid cancer undergoing chemotherapy (about a $3k vet bill), and the job market around here is, like most everywhere, not that great right now. I am looking, but I have to have something else lined up before I leave this job. Another point of note: people get arbitrarily fired from this company for no good reason all the time, and SC being an "at-will" work state, there wouldn't be much I could do about it should they let me go.

So is there a good way for me to get around this, approaching my boss or otherwise, or should I just suck it up and do as she asks until I find something else?

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How do those scummy cheats do it?

My boss wants me to do shady things.