I have been working for the state of (stupidity) for 10 years. I have seen an enormous amount of ‘Enron’eous type of actions. This is one. Okay, I work in a regimented boot camp where I am a mid level manger, this is ran by my states military department. Our kids are called CADETS. Now here are some, very small idity bitty bit of what goes on here. We have an Alpha company and Bravo Company. A former employee of Bravo transfers to Alpha we will call him D. One of my employees comes to me and shows me 2 radios that he bought off of ‘D’. I look them over and asked him where ‘D’ got them, he tells me that ‘D’ bought them of the internet at e-bay. I asked him ‘then why do they have Alpha Company employee names on them?’ His face went white! I took the radios and photo copied them, ran the serial number with the supply section and yes they belong to the state! Hm. Most people would have at the very least been fired, oh but not this guy, his wife happens to be a department head in another department and the Assistant Director is very close to her :D. When all was said and done, I was the bad guy because I supposedly had a vengeance against ‘D’. You try to do the right thing and you get screwed. Funny thing is, no one every talked to me about the situation. It was just lost in space.
In another situation, our cadets helped the program director build his garage and helped the Bravo Company Director move to another house.
I have a thousand of these type of stories that would make a million bucks for me. But alas, no one wants to do anything because they would probably shut doors and this would hurt the kids. Unfortunately, the Enron type managers know this and it goes up to the highest levels in the Military Department. Anyone got job opening for an honest, Ethical Operations Specialist!