An employee (not one of our customers) was moved to a less prestigious position but received the same pay. Both jobs were performed in an air-conditioned office in an eight hour day that began at 7:00am. . However, the new job offered little upward potential and prestige. The employee was simply moved to a position with a greater need in the billing department.

The instructions were simple, print the invoices, stuff the invoices in a window envelope, run the envelope through the envelope sealer, then run the envelope through the stamp machine.

Sounds simple enough to me. Easy job; no headaches. In fact, this person did the same job two years ago. What could go wrong?

Well, I'll tell you. Rather than placing the stamped envelopes in the mail basket, the employee crammed them into a cuby above the desk where they sat for five weeks. AR balances were rising whilst receipts took a dive.

Mean time, the IT guy had to add phone lines in the area, opened the cuby and invoices began spilling out onto the floor. As the IT guy feverishly re-stuffed the invoices back into the cuby, the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) noticed the ruckus down the hallway and perused by to see what the excitement was all about. You should have seen his face when he realized that over 1.7 million in invoices where "here instead of there"! Ready to be mailed instead of ready to be paid! Good thing you didn't hear what he said!

When asked why, the employee responded "You never told me to mail them!"

Should this employee "get off on a technically"?

In my book, employees should exert themselves mind and body as agreed for the companies benefit during working hours. And if you have a question or see a gap in the process, it is the employee's duty to ask!

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