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The original thread title was 'Probably getting fired' but they called to tell me to show up for work tomorrow. Anyway, here's the particulars:
Back around Thanksgiving, some of our office mail got rerouted. The item that started all this was the <phone company program> statement. The company earns points for paying our phone bill and we get to spend those points to get stuff. Now, it comes addressed to the HR lady but somehow wound up on my boss's desk. Oh, my boss is the Director of Finance, henceforth DoF, this will come up later. How did he get it? Beats me.
He called me in to ask what I knew about it. I gave him the brief run down that it used to come to accounting, but she had it changed over to herself last year. We flipped through some of the items available and I had suggested that we get two of the $100 Best Buy cards to buy new IT equipment, since the IT Dept. was looking for ways to save money. Free $$$ = free equipment = Good. I jokingly said 'or maybe we should get them and split them between the IT staff' which is made up of me and the IT Manager, M.
Well, DoF - who is also M's direct report boss, said that it wasn't a bad idea. Other departments get freebies and why shouldn't IT get something once in a while, too? I came with 'I'm just kidding' but he said no, go ahead, ask M and if you two agree, use the points. Shockingly, M was okay with the offer. I mean, who says 'Yes' to a gift from the company, right?
Well, I needed a password to get in the system, which I didn't have, so I called and the <phone company> CSR let me do it when I have him the address & account numbers for the phones. Which is actually easy, since accounting has all the records for paying the bills, so I have all the info on hand. I also changed the contact information over to M, since he's the IT Manager.
We get the cards a little before Christmas, time passes, and just this afternoon I get called into the meeting room by the General Manager (GM). Which happens, especially if there are questions about the EOY audit stuff coming up and what have you. I get in there, and he's sitting with HR Lady, DoF, and M.
Well, the question is 'Do you know anything about redeeming <phone company program> points?' I explain what happened and DoF comes back saying he doesn't remember any such conversation or giving me permission to do this.
It basically comes down to the situation being painted to look like I set the whole thing up to steal the points from the company's account. Well, not just me, but also the IT manager M. He's PO'D, more so than I am, because he wasn't even in on the initial conversations. To my credit (and his), he did mention that he and I had talked about it a few times right out in the accounting office, at no point did we try to hide what was going on. He also said that it was an honest mistake and if it's about the money, he'll write out a check to the company right now.
The GM said as far as he's concerned it's outright theft and it's not about the money, but the fact that it happened at all.
At this point, HR lady claims she couldn't get into the account when she tried and how did I get into the account without pretending to be someone else? Sorry I know how to speak to CSRs? Or perhaps the guy did a bad job of vetting me? I mean, I had all the account information on hand, so he verified stuff and let me do it. Despite not being able to get in, now she's into the account and has changed the password twice in two days, but now can't get back into the account - it's been locked - and what do I know about that? I suggested that maybe it's been locked because the password had to be changed twice in two days? I haven't called them, so I don't know.
So, M and I were sent home while the GM, HR lady, and DoF talked it over to decide what they were going to do.
I presumed I was going to be taking the hit on this, given that my boss has plausible deniability, M is a manager, and GM and HR Lady seemed to be in head hunting mode. Not to mention it saves the company money by cutting a job with no ability to qualify for unemployment.
I've been told to report to work at the usual time tomorrow and that DoF will talk to me about what was decided.
I've already been working on my resume and have decided to find other employment. Up until now, I've had zero complaints about DoF as a boss. In fact he's been one of my favorite bosses ever. But you throw me under the bus once, shame on me. Throw me under the bus twice - not gonna happen.
And really, it's partially my fault. I should know by now to get things in writing if there is any manner at all in which it could come back to bite me. Anyway, I needed to vent, thanks for reading.
Back around Thanksgiving, some of our office mail got rerouted. The item that started all this was the <phone company program> statement. The company earns points for paying our phone bill and we get to spend those points to get stuff. Now, it comes addressed to the HR lady but somehow wound up on my boss's desk. Oh, my boss is the Director of Finance, henceforth DoF, this will come up later. How did he get it? Beats me.
He called me in to ask what I knew about it. I gave him the brief run down that it used to come to accounting, but she had it changed over to herself last year. We flipped through some of the items available and I had suggested that we get two of the $100 Best Buy cards to buy new IT equipment, since the IT Dept. was looking for ways to save money. Free $$$ = free equipment = Good. I jokingly said 'or maybe we should get them and split them between the IT staff' which is made up of me and the IT Manager, M.
Well, DoF - who is also M's direct report boss, said that it wasn't a bad idea. Other departments get freebies and why shouldn't IT get something once in a while, too? I came with 'I'm just kidding' but he said no, go ahead, ask M and if you two agree, use the points. Shockingly, M was okay with the offer. I mean, who says 'Yes' to a gift from the company, right?
Well, I needed a password to get in the system, which I didn't have, so I called and the <phone company> CSR let me do it when I have him the address & account numbers for the phones. Which is actually easy, since accounting has all the records for paying the bills, so I have all the info on hand. I also changed the contact information over to M, since he's the IT Manager.
We get the cards a little before Christmas, time passes, and just this afternoon I get called into the meeting room by the General Manager (GM). Which happens, especially if there are questions about the EOY audit stuff coming up and what have you. I get in there, and he's sitting with HR Lady, DoF, and M.
Well, the question is 'Do you know anything about redeeming <phone company program> points?' I explain what happened and DoF comes back saying he doesn't remember any such conversation or giving me permission to do this.
It basically comes down to the situation being painted to look like I set the whole thing up to steal the points from the company's account. Well, not just me, but also the IT manager M. He's PO'D, more so than I am, because he wasn't even in on the initial conversations. To my credit (and his), he did mention that he and I had talked about it a few times right out in the accounting office, at no point did we try to hide what was going on. He also said that it was an honest mistake and if it's about the money, he'll write out a check to the company right now.
The GM said as far as he's concerned it's outright theft and it's not about the money, but the fact that it happened at all.
At this point, HR lady claims she couldn't get into the account when she tried and how did I get into the account without pretending to be someone else? Sorry I know how to speak to CSRs? Or perhaps the guy did a bad job of vetting me? I mean, I had all the account information on hand, so he verified stuff and let me do it. Despite not being able to get in, now she's into the account and has changed the password twice in two days, but now can't get back into the account - it's been locked - and what do I know about that? I suggested that maybe it's been locked because the password had to be changed twice in two days? I haven't called them, so I don't know.
So, M and I were sent home while the GM, HR lady, and DoF talked it over to decide what they were going to do.
I presumed I was going to be taking the hit on this, given that my boss has plausible deniability, M is a manager, and GM and HR Lady seemed to be in head hunting mode. Not to mention it saves the company money by cutting a job with no ability to qualify for unemployment.
I've been told to report to work at the usual time tomorrow and that DoF will talk to me about what was decided.
I've already been working on my resume and have decided to find other employment. Up until now, I've had zero complaints about DoF as a boss. In fact he's been one of my favorite bosses ever. But you throw me under the bus once, shame on me. Throw me under the bus twice - not gonna happen.
And really, it's partially my fault. I should know by now to get things in writing if there is any manner at all in which it could come back to bite me. Anyway, I needed to vent, thanks for reading.
But, he's being laid off in 2 weeks. 
.
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