When employers deploy the perk police

Question:

My employer fired me this morning for an “offense” so minor it’s laughable — especially since dozens of other employees do the same thing.

Here’s what happened: My employer issues meal vouchers employees can use if they have pizza or sandwiches delivered to them at their desks when they’re working through lunch or into the evening. Since I didn’t take lunch for three days last week, and I prefer the variety offered by Carrs deli, I used my vouchers there on the way home. This seemed perfectly reasonable to me. The HR manager confronted me this morning and said my employer considered this voucher misuse. I argued it wasn’t, as I worked through lunch. What’s the difference if I want to eat my lunch at home?

This isn’t my first go-round with this employer’s pettiness. My job requires I travel monthly to places like Utqiagvik, Juneau, Valdez and Kotzebue. When I travel, I like to get food on the plane or stop at Denali Pretzels and get a Krispy Kreme donut and maybe a latte at Starbucks. This saves me from having to eat an early breakfast before I catch the plane and makes travel more palatable. I used my company credit card for these purchases, which seemed reasonable to me as I’d be using the card later in the day for lunch, dinner and lodging. HR issued me a warning and gave me the opportunity to repay the company. Of course, I didn’t. I consider airplane and airport food a legitimate perk, especially since I work longer than eight hours a day when traveling.

I hope you’ll publish my employer’s name.

Answer:

Instead of naming your employer, I’ll name Meta, Wells Fargo, Ernst & Young and Target. These and other employers deploy perk police to bust employees for what employees consider the equivalent of getting a traffic ticket for driving 70 mph despite a posted 65 mph speed limit.

Like your employer, Meta provides meal vouchers to employees so they can have food delivered to their offices while working. When an internal investigation uncovered two dozen employees using the meal credits to have meals delivered to their homes or to purchase items such as wineglasses, Meta fired them.

An employee quoted in an October Wall Street Journal article commented, “Don’t abuse any privilege because it’s not worth the risk,” after noting his former employer fired six sales employees for using meal stipends to buy groceries.

Wells Fargo fired or suspended more than a dozen bankers for putting dinners on the company tab and altering the time stamps on the receipts or ordering takeout before the allowed time.

Ernst & Young cracked down on employees who didn’t take training seriously. When it discovered some employees watched more than one online course simultaneously and fired them, some employees defended their behavior as “multitasking.”

Target’s code of conduct prohibits employees from using their position to gain an unfair advantage over customers with high-demand or limited-stock items. When customers couldn’t buy coveted Stanley water bottles and the company learned that seven employees had purchased them ahead of the public, the company fired them.

Why have companies started cracking down on rule breakers and rule benders? First, employers offer perks for a reason. They give meal vouchers to keep employees working at their desks, not to provide after-work snacks. Second, they want to cut expenses. Third, employers finding themselves overstaffed after post-pandemic hiring sprees are using code-of-conduct violations to push out unwanted employees. Fourth, employers may find themselves in tax trouble if they allow funds earmarked for perks and business expenses to be diverted to less-legitimate expenses.

Finally, I challenge your assertion that your employer’s firing you for rule-bending is laughable because a) it’s minor, b) everyone does it, and c) your employer owes perks to you. As I wrote in the “Twilight Ethics” chapter of “Solutions,” you’ve allowed your ethical muscle to become flabby by desensitizing yourself to incremental dishonesty. Worse, when others point it out to you, you argue. Even when others also do the wrong thing, even when you can get away with something, even when the wrong thing seems like it’s no big deal, it is.