Moral dilemma with boss

[John W.R.]

Dear,

I work in a huge multinational company. My current boss is a former university professor and he is beyond terrible. He has no idea how to motivate the team, he lacks the technical knowledge for his position, usually offends my pears, and compulsively lies. Still, I am always trying to do my best for the team and for the company.

However, recently I found out that during his time in the University, he took money from the Government for research, and provided no results or reports on how, what, and when he spent the public money. The public agents investigated him and, so far, he was convicted to return a substantial amount of money to the government.

My moral dilemma: His job is totally involved with the government and the scientific community. I am certain that his boss or any other in the company has no idea about that.

What am I supposed to do?

Thanks a lot.

[PG]

Usually if you have a terrible boss the best thing you can do is to get out and often the best way of getting out is to do so quietly since you may still need references etc from this person in the future.

If you work for a huge multinational Company and feel that what your boss is doing is horribly wrong you may have something similar to what we have which is the speak up button. In reallity this is a bar on the Company intranet that you can click and leave a report to legal. They will then investigate (and you remain Anonymous). They will start out discretely and maybthen escalate as needed.

[Dick Woodward]

PG is correct about what he calls the "speak up" button - in the States it is called whistleblower protection. Legally, companies are not allowed to retaliate against whistleblowers, but that does not mean that retaliation does not happen, albeit subtly. For example, another supervisor may not want to promote you into his group for fear of what you might find and report. It should not happen, but unfortunately, it does.

I would suggest that the best way to proceed is to find a new employer and get out of your current company as quickly as possible. There is little upside to blowing the whistle on your supervisor, and it may even cost you your job rather than his.

An aside - was the professor "convicted" or "convinced" to return the money to the government? "Convicted" implies a criminal proceeding, which would probably be known to the company. "Convinced" means a slightly less visible persuasion, as in "You give the money back to the government and we won't sue you, and we'll keep everything quiet." The difference is critical.

Dick

[John W.R.]

He was convicted, found guilt for not providing explanation for taking that research money.

His process is public but I am pretty sure that nobody in the company knows about it.

[Nate W.]

Be careful about the company you keep. Sadly, you can be unfairly judged by your association with your boss; even though you have done nothing wrong. Leave before this becomes widespread knowledge at the company.

This happened to me. Get letters from other past supervisors and coworkers.

[K.B]

It is very important to work with ethics, and yes you have to speak up. As you mentioned, if he was already convicted, it is your duty to take actions in that regard. When it comes to the team motivation and if he's not contributing enough, this needs to be addressed at the right time to his manager and also make sure if that's also the opinion of other peers. I am really wondering if that could happen in a multinational company to have people like him. Clearly HR related issue, your actions might be insignificant. Try to find other group, or talk to your HR about your intention to move out of his group.

[Steven Z.]

Having a bad boss is a no-win scenario. The best thing you can do it conduct a search and leave.

As for ethics, large corporations particularly are full of people especially at the management and executive level who are devoid of it to the point they meet several of the criteria for personality disorders. If you are going to work in the private sector you had better get used to it. For most corporations the only ethics are cost efficiency and the law.

[Dave Jensen]

Having a bad boss is a no-win scenario. The best thing you can do it conduct a search and leave.

As for ethics, large corporations particularly are full of people especially at the management and executive level who are devoid of it to the point they meet several of the criteria for personality disorders. If you are going to work in the private sector you had better get used to it. For most corporations the only ethics are cost efficiency and the law.

This comment is so far off from reality . . . Corporations are like people. There are as many different views about ethics and morality as there are in any group of random people. In 30 years I've worked with many more companies than I would have If I were just an employee. I've had the opportunity to "peek behind the curtain" at management and the way they think. While I've had differing views with some of them on their actions taken, I have only seen two or three (out of hundreds) that had problems with integrity. Yes, big companies can shelter people who might otherwise be drummed out in a smaller business where they were more visible, but for the most part these companies are steered by good solid people.

I've had serious problems only a few times with decisions/actions of company employers, and they were almost always smaller or mid-sized businesses, still run by founders.

But the impression that this poster gives of a society run by unethical corporations is just off base in my opinion,

Dave

[Steven Z.]

Please, there is a reason why we so heavily regulate corporations. It is because they create moral outrage after moral outrage and the public demands the govt rein them in. Not a day goes by that we don't hear about immoral behavior from companies.

-From VW rigging their computers to cheat emissions tests
-to companies forcing employees to train h1b replacements or not get severance
-To my personal experience with churn and burn perma-temp h#ll hole companies. BTW the company in question constantly promotes itself as one of America's most ethical companies and they got fake awards for it.

I could post all day long and most people don't have to be told. I personally prefer working for a smaller company.

[Dave Jensen]

Please, there is a reason why we so heavily regulate corporations. It is because they create moral outrage after moral outrage and the public demands the govt rein them in. Not a day goes by that we don't hear about immoral behavior from companies.

-From VW rigging their computers to cheat emissions tests
-to companies forcing employees to train h1b replacements or not get severance
-To my personal experience with churn and burn perma-temp h#ll hole companies. BTW the company in question constantly promotes itself as one of America's most ethical companies and they got fake awards for it.

I could post all day long and most people don't have to be told. I personally prefer working for a smaller company.

Exactly as I said, there are just as many different version of company ethics and morality as there are in any group of people. We could go on and on talking about the ethics of either, or lack of ethics.

Dave