You work in the finance department of a medium sized financial institution. It is end of month and employees across the organisation have submitted their monthly expense claims to you.
You can see there are a number of claims from a senior leader for an item not considered to be something the organisation would cover the cost of. You raise this verbally with your manager who says the same person has claimed for it previously and it wasn’t an issue.
Your manager insists you process the expense and reimburse the senior leader. This doesn’t sit well with you but you’re not sure what to do next. The organisation has a speak up program but having never used it yourself, you’re fearful of repercussions and feel it’s quite daunting to go down that route.
What would you do?
- Would you defy the manager’s orders?
- Would you speak to other team members as a sounding board, without revealing details or names?
- What are some of the strategies you might use in this situation? Some of the issues at stake might be:
- The consequences of not speaking up?
- Potential reputational impact on the organisation and to your manager, the senior leader, and you.
We challenge you to create a healthy discussion with your colleagues and post a comment below. You could even encourage them to consider taking The Banking and Financial Services Oath!
Please share your ethical dilemmas with us - we can post them anonymously. You can email your dilemmas to dilemma@bfso.org
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