25 Of The Most Unethical Things Bosses Ever Asked Of Their Employees

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mattstaff
Jan 28, 2018 3:00 PM EST

These people need H.R. like yesterday. As for bosses...they're the LAST people that should've been put in positions of power. 

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  • 01
    Text - I worked for a company that sold third party financed residential solar contracts. I found out some (if not most) of our sales reps were trying to have elderly people with Dementia, Alzheimers, etc sign 20 year contracts. When I sent an email pointing out this reoccurring issue to the VP of Sales, he responded to me with "Check your morals at the door". I left work for the day because I would have lost my job, had I stayed and said what was on my mind that day.
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  • 02
    Text - Many years ago I worked for a bank that was at the time having a big expansion of ATMS into small shops, we had a database that worked out where those on low incomes were most likely, how close other machines were etc then put in small notes and charged a higher rate for transactions. In more affluent areas there wasn't a charge at all. I was supposed to be the one who decided which charged and which didn't to basically screw the poor.
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  • 03
    Text - Worked in catering for a bit. We cooked entire sheep on open flames at the event. Any meat that was under cooked had to be placed in a large tub of bbq sauce to hide this.
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  • 04
    Text - Former management at a retail store. We had several instances of corporate telling us to handle all major cleanup after the close at night. Here was the issue. We had several teenagers working for us. That meant there are limits on the number of hours the minors could work. Having to stay an extra hour or two after close meant we violated child labor laws. Now ultimately the employees didn't care. They made more money. But it was an issue, based on corporate saying that customers come fir
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  • 05
    Text - In the pet store, I told my manager that a young rabbit had a runny nose. She told me to put it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer. The rabbit would have to be quarantined for a week, during which it couldn't be sold, and we'd have to feed it and give it a dollar or so worth of antibiotics. On the other hand, if it died within thirty days of our purchasing it, the distributor would refund our money or replace the rabbit for free. I refused. I later found the rabbit in the freezer.
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  • 06
    Text - I worked at a coffee shop where the owner said in a meeting that we were to kick out any homeless people. I wanted to clarify (for the newer staff there) and said, "just the ones that hang around all night and don't buy anything, if they want to buy a coffee and warm up it's fine." No, she wanted us to kick out anyone who looked homeless because it didn't look good having them in the store, even if they wanted to buy something. My store kept serving our regulars, regardless of where they
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  • 07
    Text - Bioethics conundrum. It was a for profit lab. I won't say the name, but it's one of the big ones At this site they did hundreds of thousands of Urinalysis examinations per year. It was written in the procedure to never report out sperm in urine because it's not clinically significant. That's true. It's not. 99% of the time. But what if a female child comes in and she has sperm in her urine? She was obviously sexually assaulted. According to this lab, we still don't report it out, because
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  • 08
    Text - Hard sell high interest store credit cards to people who demographically might not be very knowledgeable about financial matters. Specifically the elderly and minorities, especially people who seemed to be struggling financially or not completely fluent in English. And to hook them in by saying they could get up to $1200 instant credit with only $15 monthly payments. But the $15 minimum monthly payments didn't even cover interest. So They'd come in and pay their $15 every month and not un
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  • 09
    Text - Not super unethical, but once I worked with a catering company that would sell fried chicken for larger parties/weddings. Thing is...we didn't have a deep fryer, so where did we get the fried chicken? From the gas station down the street of course. TBF it was amazing fried chicken, but we never told anyone where it came from because people don't like hearing the expensive food they paid for came from a gas station.
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  • 10
    Text - I used to make sugar. I had the flu big time and was working in the packaging area. It's 100% against the company's own work rules to work in open sugar areas if you have an "infectious disease." The supervisors of that area had a fuzzy definition as to what constituted an "infectious disease," but it definitely didn't include the flu to them. They then told me they had sick people working around the sugar all the time.
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  • 11
    Text - To withhold the pay of new employees without telling them. He planned on giving it to them after 12 months so that they would stay with the company. But failed to tell them that before they were hired. Edit: Yes, my boss was a dick. I only stayed at the company for a few weeks and just couldnt stomach how he treated people. It wasnt just staff. He would avoid suppliers for months until they put his accounts on hold then he would pay just enough to have em opened again. Last i heard, he is
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  • 12
    Text - Not me but my friend got a roofing job when he was 18. On his very first day he fell off a roof and wasn't wearing any safety gear. He broke his leg and the boss drove him to the hospital but when they arrived he told my friend to act like they were a gay couple and that they had an accident at a park. I think he offered my friend money as well but in the end he ended up taking workers comp
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  • 13
    Text - I teach a college class that's part of the core curriculum and where you're required to get at least a C (73%) to pass. If you get a C- or D, you have to retake the class. The head of the department told us that if a student is getting a C- or D we should just go ahead and give them an F to avoid dealing with them asking to have their grade adjusted up to a C
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  • 14
    Text - My last job I literally spent every single day fighting with my boss and stopping him from telling our workers to do illegal stuff or instructing me to do it. He would try to get me to circumvent government procurement regulations, harassment of employees, safety hazards and environmental violations. In all my time there, I can not think of one time where he got something past me. But it was pure Hell. Just one random horrible thing was the day he was stupid enough to instruct a worker to
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  • 15
    Text - I worked for a low-income apartment complex as a leasing agent. a resident came in wanting to extend her lease to a month to month basis, which the lease clearly stated that she could do. I asked the property manager what paperwork we needed to draw up in order to make that happen. Her answer was that "we don't do that." I told her that the resident has a signed document saying that we do. Her response was "tell her to get a lawyer if she wants to contest it"
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  • 16
    Text - Owner of restaurant had me (dishwasher) and a line cook break into another employees residence to look for stolen items from the restaurant. Search came back negative.
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  • 17
    Text - At a job interview I was asked, "How would you rate your comfort level with breaking the law?". I said, "I don't know - 1, zero - whatever the lowest option is. I'm not going to do it." That was the end of the interview.
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  • 18
    Text - I'm GM at a restaurant and was asked by my area manager to purposely short people's hours in order to make sure we come in on labour costs. Hard no from me, and if I find out that it has been done anyway I will be reporting it to the operations director. Never mess with anyone's money
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  • 19
    Text - Iwas asked to do a cost estimate for a ~2 million dollar proof of concept project. My manager claimed we could already fulfill the requirements, but that was not true. The solution we were giving the client was not even feasible and there were better, cheaper and faster solutions to meet the client's needs. On top of that, the client wasn't really an external party. We were supposed to work with him, not con him.
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  • 20
    Text - Not really unethical, but when I was a call receiver for AAA emergency roadside service we had a script we had to read for every call. In this script, it would offer 'suggestions' based on what type of service was being requested. Need a tire change, we were made to offer to bring you to a local mechanic to sell you new tires. I would frequently get a talking to because my call times were 'too short'. I am sorry, I thought these people were calling because they are broke down somewhere an
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  • 21
    Text - I used to deliver furniture. I wasn't asked to do something just unethical, it was straight illegal. We were regularly asked to do deliveries well beyond the time the DOT said we were allowed to be in the truck. I finally printed off several copies of the laws and would hand them to the managers anytime they asked. I found out after I left they had the new crew work something like a 37 hour shift. Driving a box truck. They're lucky no one ever died.
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  • 22
    Text - Worked the night shift at a shady motel. Was overlooking the security cameras and spotted a guy breaking into a truck. I called the cops. While on the phone with them, I witnessed the owner of the truck confront the man. The man got all stabby with the owner and got him pretty good in the gut. Stabby takes off so I go out to render aid to the owner of the truck while the authorities came. Once the paramedics took over I called my boss who tells me not to give the cops any testimony or acc
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  • 23
    Text - Lie to customers to lure them into what was basically a scam. The job was "technical customer support", we were supposed to help people with real problems, turned more and more into a sales job with the problemsolving being an important sidenote. "Oh the phone you received doesn't work? Well I'm sorry, here, have this crap that will cost you money after a month for free. Nol don't have time to solve your issue Sir, I have another customer. Please try turning it off and on again. Bye."
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  • 24
    Text - Worked at Dunkin Donuts and a lady had asked that we not put cream in her coffee as she was allergic. Well of course the shift leader at the time made it with cream and told me to "give it to her anyways" as she didn't feel like remaking it. I reported her to the manager.
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  • 25
    Text - Sell a $1500 furnace (installation included) for $5000 to a old lady because she'll never know she's being ripped off. Funny side note, that guy is in jail for money laundering and embezzlement now.
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