People Share The Most Unethical Thing Their Boss Has Done To Make Money

"I work at a clinic..."

I work at a clinic owned by a doctor that is notoriously cheap and shady. I hate even being in that building. I try to avoid it. One of my coworkers who has more of a stomach to deal with him told me a story about a time he was there. Our equipment needs chill water to cool it. The chill water system is installed by a different company so my coworker was relaying this to the doctor to get the right maintenance guy there.

The guy shows up and immediately identifies the problem. One of the electronic valve solenoids is out no big deal it will take an hour to replace. The guy draws up a quote and hands it to the doctor to sign so he can get started on the work.

For those of you that don't know how this system works. When you have gear that needs regular maintenance like this equipment you usually have contracts but in this case its a pretty robust equipment so instead they just do time and materials. That means if I go in to fix something I have to show you the cost of the materials and the labor. You then have to sign the quote showing you agree to the charges.

So the doctor looks at the quote and tells the guy it shouldn't have broke. The maintenance guy who is really just fixer-upper guy and shouldn't be brokering deals says he can't work unless there is a signature on that paper. The doctor yells at the guy for half an hour to get started but he holds his ground waiting for the signature. Red in the face and still fuming the doctor signs the quote. The guy gets started. He has to work in a back room kind of cramped. He finishes the job and started to get ready to leave. He looks at his clipboard and there is no signed quote. No one saw the doctor take it but it was obvious he did. The guy asked him about it and the doctor chased him off the property with his lawyer on the phone telling him how he was getting sued.

Pencilowner

I applied and got a job when I was a teenager for a siding company for a few weeks for some quick cash. I went to the job site for 2 weeks, finished the siding job then the guy just ghosted me for a month. I told everyone I knew the guy was a sleazeball who is trying to take advantage of kids. Sure enough, he hired another guy I know and stiffed him. I lost track of him after that cuz he was dead to me essentially. I hope he gets his in the end.

Pencilowner

"My husband..."

My husband worked for a company for 13 years. They had a big job and the boss told him if he got it done under budget and ahead of time there was said big bonus for him. He busted his @ss every day no days off for 9 months and the boss bought his wife a new car and himself a new boat . My husband got laid off a week before Xmas.

toiletcleaner999

"I quit last year..."

So, I used to work for Nordstrom. There was a guy that was surpassing everyone in their daily goals to get as many people to join the Nordstrom credit card program. I didn't understand how this guy was racking in so many credit cards with the customers. It wasn't until I worked with him that I saw what he was doing. He was signing up customers under the thought that they were going to be "saving" money that day.

It totally sketched me out because the customer was not aware of any credit cards opening up with their name. I confronted him about his shady ways of doing this. He just walked away from me. I went to my manager and told her about the way he is going about opening these credit cards. Yup, that did nothing. He ended up getting a promotion on such a job-well-done with all the credit cards he was able to pull in.

I quit last year and never looked back. Places like Nordstrom scare me, because it is not only being shady to its people, but the ways these employees are finding ways to "bend" the rules is nuts. It is all fake.

guyhabit

"Pretty sure..."

Pretty sure my 1990's employer never applied the full raises I got. It was my first "real" job and a mom and pop operation. The tabulation of wages was just an adding machine receipt stapled to our check that made no sense to someone who was in the top math level in school. I didn't seem to ever make more money based on actual hours, though the amount fluctuated randomly. I am fully convinced that they stole hundreds or even thousands from someone making barely over minimum wage. I would not have been the only one either. I...am not inclined to forgive them.

KnightofForestsWild

"Telling families..."

Telling families of autistic kids they could "recover" their kids 85% and they can live full, "normal" lives. They would get families to move to my state, get funding and then fudge the results to show "improvements." Families would move with no family support, split families where one parent moved and the other would have to stay because or work or own a home. So much money out of pockets for extra services. Once I learned they were super shady, I quit.

Smilesunshine57

"My brother..."

My brother had a coffee shop/restaurant. He bought a big container with pump of Ghirardelli chocolate syrup for the mochas and when that ran out he poured the cheaper Hershey's chocolate but still told customers it was the Ghirardelli one. He also claimed his canned chili was homemade and got mad at one of the employees when she told a customer she cut herself opening the chili can. When he made fish and chips he told people it was cod when he was using pollock...

Yeah, he's a piece of work, and that's the least of the sh*t he's done.

dustbunnee

"Taking money out of my paycheck..."

Taking money out of my paycheck to cover the cost of a drive-off. The gas station I worked at was pretty old-school and had a rolodex of "trusted" families and businesses that were authorized to pay inside. This guy must have been aware of that, as he hit the "pay inside" button and then stared angrily at me, like "What gives? Don't you know who I am?" I was brand new and didn't want any complaints, so I authorized the pump request. $50 later, he drove off. If I wasn't desperately broke and living shift to shift, I'd have hired a lawyer. Being in an at-will state, I'm sure they'd eventually find some other reason to fire me. So I ended up just biting the $50 bullet and cutting back my food budget. Never authorized another "pay inside" request after that unless I could personally identify them.

thrustaway_

"I worked..."

I worked at Mr. Goodcents. The original store. I cut my finger while using the slicer. Got blood all over the turkey. My boss washed it off and put it back with the rest of the meat.

jjjbud7

"I used to work..."

I used to work at a staffing company in the automotive manufacturing industry.

All of their salespeople were women. I noticed and asked my boss why that was. She thought I was being sarcastic, I suppose, but it didn't dawn on me right away:

They refused to hire salesmen because the women would attract the business. Several of our saleswomen reported sexual harassment and the company swept it under the rug.

They are probably still in court over a few of their cases.

qwasymoto

"Buddy of mine..."

Buddy of mine worked for a guy doing landscaping for about half a year. His boss withheld income tax on every paycheque, but pocketed it rather than paying the government. Friend got audited and was fortunate enough to have saved his paystubs showing his deductions, but he would've been SOL without them.

I've also seen business owners telling their employees how to vote in elections, saying that if X party gets into power, they won't be able to afford to keep their staff.

elmuerte_17

"Then take government bailouts..."

Sell sub-prime mortgages they knew would fail and have the parent company buying derivatives betting that those mortgages were going to fail. Then take government bailouts and not help the people we ducked over.

(Sold Mortgages for a subsidiary of AIG).

7thAndGreenhill

"I once worked..."

I once worked in a restaurant. The veal parmigiana was made with pork butt. The crab cakes were made with imitation crabmeat.

We were frequently asked for the recipe for these items which was always denied. I didn't learn the truth until I had been working there for about a year.

Aspy17

"I worked..."

I worked at a local Italian restaurant briefly. My boss insisted that if we served a customer a fountain drink, we had to pour it back in if they didn't finish. So if a customer ordered a coke, and only drank half, we'd have to pour the coke back into the fountain machine. Apparently he thought it was saving money.

asolpugid

"Went and literally fussed..."

Went and literally fussed at the business that sought to hire one of his employees, thus causing the new and far better job to say "ehhhh, no, we don't want drama from their employer..."

KaizokuShogo

"Sacrifice..."

Sacrifice the health of the American people to sell opiates.

Pants_optional42

"I drive coach..."

i drive coach, my boss started giving the coaches really cheap to our major client, in exchange for which the tour guide went round the coach and collected a £2 per head tip for the driver per day of the tour (our coaches had 57 seats) this money was placed in a sack, given back to the tour company by the tour guide (all this was done in mandarin, thinking the drivers wouldn't know) , who once a year passed the whole amount in cash to my boss, who placed the whole lot in an offshore tax haven....we are talking very high 6 figures, this client had between 5-10 coaches a week on 4-9 day tours, at the rates he was charging they barely broke even on the hires. I quit when a passenger who spoke good English accidentally told me what was going on, and sweated out the rest from the tour guide. We need our tips to survive (minimum wage job), every owner knows this, but i guess getting all that tax free and screwing us over is worth more than ethics.

Bawbag121

"When people would bring in parts..."

I used to work at Auto Zone. When people would bring in parts to test, our machine/testing equipment was always down. Which forced people to either leave or buy the part. They could also go to another store which I would recommend. The management also got mad that I informed the employees about the updated sick leave policy. the store I worked at also did commercial sales to auto shops. The shops get a big discount ..bigger if they spend a lot of money. They turn around and charge the customer double for a part they could walk in and get themselves. They would focus more on the shops than the actual customers who were inside the store.

zehcnas67

"University..."

University I went to hired me as a notetaker (special-ed accommodation), let me go halfway through the term when the student dropped the course, and then tried not to pay me for the work I'd done because the contract wasn't completed. I had to threaten small claims court (over $30!) to get them to pay.

Wish I'd taken it to the department of labor. Guarantee I wasn't the only person they tried that on, and most of the others probably needed the money more.

grenudist

"The former..."

The former Assistant Manager that I used to work with would close my tickets (I'm a Computer Tech), refund the customer's money, Reopen another ticket under his name, add a few services and retap the customer's credit card. He did this repeatedly to all the other techs I worked with.

Kinseeker69