just a small nonconstructive rant

[HgTX]

I would just like to say that if my employer thinks that I (or any of my colleagues) can be corrupted by a plastic envelope opener or squishy toy with a corporate logo on it, I (and likewise the colleagues) should not be on the payroll to begin with.

Much as I prefer to be the client rather than the seller, this public sector gig is getting old. The assumption from both within (internal "service" and audit functions) and without (taxpaying public, politicians) is that all public servants are inherently corrupt and looking for ways to commit wrongdoing, and I'm sick and tired of being treated that way. And it's only getting worse. And it is certainly not unique to my particular employer; in fact, I'm better off than many of my peers at other agencies.

Feh.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[zdas04]

When I worked for a big company, I was really careful to pick up at least half the lunch tabs--kept me out of those uncomfortable meetings with lawyers.

Now I'm a contractor and am amazed at how many company employees would no more pick up a tab than fly. And everyone I know has a corporate credit card. One guy blatantly solicited a serious bribe (I had a talk with his boss when I stopped by to tell him that I was dropping them as a client). I'm just not so very sure that Engineers can actually teach politicians about ethics.

David

 

[IRstuff]

I recall, once, being taken to lunch by a sales engineer who proceeded to park in a handicap slot, and then hung a handicap sign on his mirror. Only thing I could see that was handicapped was his moral compass. Never did any business with him thereafter.

As mentioned by others, Government employees are not supposed accept lunches provided by their suppliers. So, when we cater meals, we put out a "Straight Arrow" box to collect what they are supposed to consider the value of the meal to be. Usually, it's empty at the end of the meal. One time, we saw one of the customers actually taking money out of the box.

Temptation is temptation, there's nothing that makes an engineer any more immune to temptation than anyone else.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[MintJulep]

Usually they're begging to take us to lunch because if they pay for us, they can put the lunch on their expense account

Yes and no.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to foot the bill for client's lunches you get to fill out the "entertainment" version of the expense form rather than the standard version.

It has places for:

Who was present? What was the purpose?

The purpose is usually something like "Emphasize the many advantages of doing business with us rather than one of our competitors."

 

[SomptingGuy]

At one of our user conferences I told the barman to stick the bar bill for the evening reception on my room. A few weeks later I get a snotogram from one of our bean counters, demanding to know which clients were being entertained. I replied:

"All of our attending clients were invited. For a full list of attendees, please contact *******. I cannot give an accurate list of who took up the offer or what they ate and drank."

I heard nothing more.

- Steve

 

[MintJulep]

In the USA, the costs incurred for a "business entertainment" expense are a tax deduction for the business spending the money. The IRS has rules about what can and can't be deducted (food yes, booze no) and what records need to be kept. There needs to be something defensible as a business purpose for the expense.

All of this is auditable - certainly by the IRS, and very possibly by clients.

All of this is discoverable.

Many low-level (and even high-level) people in public service do not seem to understand this. There is a paper trail. If your rules prohibit gifts, free lunch, or whatever, and you allow a vendor to buy lunch for you - your name is very clearly written on the expense report.

 

[SomptingGuy]

God bless America's IRS.

See a penny, pick it up, all day long you'll have good luck. But then the next day you'll be busted for not paying tax on that penny.

- Steve

 

[jmw]

My colleagye received a pubic b***ocking from the MD for putting a double Famous Grouse on his room bill while at a conference.

The MD then attended another conference in London himself.
The bean counters, unable to give him the B***ocking he deserved, "leaked" * details of his room bill.
He had stupidly used the hotel phone and run up a bill for £180 ($360 in todays money but more nearly $240 then).

*Leaks: Bernard Woolley suggests:

It's another of those irregular verbs. I hold confidential briefings, you leak, he's been charged under section 2A of the Official Secrets Act.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yes,_Prime_Minister

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[HgTX]

Whether the card-carrying employee in question actually *does* the sales-talking that they claim on their expense report is not auditable. That part is their problem, not mine.

I had a particularly convoluted situation in which the supplier was contractually responsible for my travel costs, including food. So if I went to lunch with them and paid my own way, they'd get the bill eventually regardless. If I went to lunch with them and let them pay, then their employees got to have a free lunch. My pocket was the same either way.

Nevertheless, in the interest of "perception", we had to sit them down and tell them that much as we enjoyed and appreciated their kind hospitality, we couldn't accept so much of it. I felt like a real party-pooper, because they had been using us as an excuse to round up lots of their people to come have lunch on the company card. Yes, that "free" lunch would eventually trickle over if not to us (our contract was already signed) then to some future customer of theirs. But all the low-level employees saw, of course, was that their free lunch was going away.

The reason we had to draw the line, though, wasn't the logical, financial explanation about trickle-down expenses. It really was nothing more than the perception that the supplier was omigawd buying us lunch!!1! on a contract in which the supplier had to pay for that lunch anyway. But they had to do that paying through less direct channels.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[jmw]

Saddest of all is when the company bans you from receiving interstitial perks.... one company I worked for used to give everyone a Christmas bonus package of a Hamper, wines etc. When the taxman found out and tried to make it part of the taxable income they help a Christmas raffle where, funnily enough, everyone won one prize, a hamper with wine etc.
But where the taxman failed the bean counters succeeded.

Now whether bribing your own workers is also unethical or not I don't know. Obviously they did expect to gain from it. One thing is for sure, when they did away with the scheme, productivity and morale took a dive. The only area of increased productivity was around the coffee machine.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[GMcD]

The bigger the Corporation (Gov't or otherwise), the sillier it gets. I once was employed by a large multi-national corporation who made all the employees read and sign a Ethics Book of Rules, and neatly printed on the back page was the Corporate Address which was a tax haven in the West Indies. Nice. A group of the CEO/CFO gang was subsequently in court and some are doing jail time now. It's been said before, and will continue, the more paranoid society becomes: "Process and Procedure is the hiding place for people without the wit and wisdom to do their job properly".

 

[SomptingGuy]

My employer puts on a panto trip for employees' kids each year. I wonder how the tax man would see that.

- Steve

 

[SKIAK]

In college I was president of my school's ASCE chapter and we would always get the boxes of leftover gadgets and trinkets at the end of a career fair. They usually just turned into projectiles slung into the hallway at any innocent passerby.

Maybe you should just build up an arsenal at work and let your agression out that way. Its a better stress reliever than the foam hard hats anyways.

 

[controlnovice]

Two months after everyone signed the Ethics Rules Review, our CEO was given the golden parachute.

Found out that he was sleeping with a secretary.

She was also let go with a hefty sum.

______________________________________________________________________________
This is normally the space where people post something insightful.

 

[IRstuff]

At a previous job, the GM was caught, in flagrant delicto, in his office, no less.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[btrueblood]

In my 2nd job, it was the Safety Affairs officer and the VP of Human Relations. Both married, both in their late 40's to early 50's. In the "board room" (large conference room on top floor of executive office bldg.)

 

[jmw]

Video conferencing?

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[HgTX]

That's just the thing. The high-ups who make these policies base them on what nonsense *they* know *they* would get up to, not on what we in the trenches are actually likely to get up to.

We can hardly get away to go to conferences, because the legislators would treat such a conference as a big junket and so they assume we would too. Never mind that we actually take technical conferences seriously.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376