The manager of a tax preparation business (a storefront operation) worried every day that he’d never make enough money to buy his family a home (they had rented for twenty years) and, so, he revealed to my friend, his most trusted employee, that he’d been skimming profits during the confusion of the April tax season for several years now, and that he had become quite fearful that he’d be caught, and so he planned to leave the job before that happened and move his family to a less expensive city like Gainesville, Florida or Phoenix, Arizona, where he could purchase a home with the modest sum he’d stashed away. He said that as soon as May 1 came and the office settled down again, he would tender his resignation, but he asked that my friend, a great sympathizer of his, as he understood, not tell anyone about the money he had taken or his plan to leave. My friend, who for years had commiserated with his boss over Thursday evening draft beers, said that he’d keep his mouth shut, and, in return, the boss promised him a promotion and performance bonus, and even a modest share of the stolen money once he had reached Florida or Arizona. Before lunch hour that day, my friend had called the regional office to report his supervisor’s theft. His boss was not only fired, but arrested, and, my friend—as thanks for his corporate loyalty—was made manager of his office. By the end of May, he had fired and replaced any employee who had sympathy for his predecessor (despite his crime), a majority of the staff. As for the accountant who reported the rumblings and grumblings of the staff to him in minute detail, he promoted him to assistant manager. Understanding the pattern of corporate ascendancy in his office, he planned to fire this man as soon as his re-staffing was complete. But, before that time came, his assistant placed his own call to the regional office to report my friend’s cruel human resources practices, thereby ending his career in tax preparation.
