For a couple of years, I worked as an assistant manager at a gas station in my hometown of Randers, Denmark. The location of the station was perfect, and this was proven every day by long lines and big sales. The way the job was scheduled was that the person on duty would always manage the station single-handedly, standing behind the desk, running the cash register. Every day, several thousand dollars was secured in the gas station’s safe. Six people worked the gas station—all around the age of 18. The key to the station’s safe was hidden in the back, and only the employees and the manager knew the hiding place. The manager would take the money stored in the safe and deposit it at the local bank every third day, but one week this action was postponed a couple of days because of a holiday. Therefore, a large sum of money was accumulating at the station. One employee was aware of this fact and revealed it to her friends. At the same time, she agreed to tell about the hiding place for the key, and within a few days her friends broke into the station, found the key, and stole close to $19,000. The employee and her friends had figured that the insurance company would pay for my manager’s loss and therefore all parties would be satisfied, except for the insurance company, who, they thought, would not really be affected by the loss. They claimed, “Everybody knows how rich these insurance companies are.” The bottom line of this story was that the insurance company did not pay, because the key was hidden in the same room where the safe was kept and this apparently voided the insurance. The ethical question in this story is this: If you knew that no one would discover the employee’s irresponsible decision to tell about the hidden key, and that the insurance company would reimburse the manager, would you also have done the same thing if you had received a fairly big portion of the money? In this case, I assume that the insurance company could easily afford the reimbursement, which means that all parties should be satisfied (and you would get a little richer).
1. What are the ethical problems in this case? Is it a situation unique to business in Denmark?
2. If the employee’s decision to tell about the hidden key was never discovered, could her action somehow be justified as just an innocent revelation? Why or why not? Identify the ethical principles involved here.
3. Imagine that the employee’s revelation was never discovered. Would you have chosen to do as she did if we assume that the manager got reimbursed? Many of us pay a lot of money in insurance premiums, so why not get a little back?