Tattle-Tail

You just got a new job at Bruster's Real Ice Cream shop, and you want to show your boss how dedicated you are.  You work extra hard and make sure you're never standing still long enough to not be busy.  You're always doing something - cleaning, stocking, helping customers, making cones.  Your manager sees, and you have a reputation for never "letting the grass grow under your feet" and for being a hard worker.  She trusts you and tells you everything.  She tells you that the pies are only supposed to be in the freezer for a certain period of time.  Inspection is coming up and some of them are older than they should be, or some of them don't have dates.  She tells you to simply change the dates of the old pies and put recent dates on the pies that aren't marked - no matter how old they are.  

What do you do?

What about this one - same work place.  There's a girl there that out-ranks you by miles.  She even trained you.  But you notice that her work ethic is in the pits.  She spends 99% of the time at work at the back desk on the business's phone talking to her mom or her friends.  The rest of the time she's doing the easiest (and slowest) job - the slowest way, by the way - and makes sure that she takes care of every customer she can so that she can get tips (because she knows you're not socialist and that you won't take what you haven't earned, so you don't split tips).  

Do you tell your manager?

One more:  You're sitting in class.  It's the first big test, and you know you're ready, but you're still nervous.  You've done the flash cards, you've drilled the terms.  You get the test and breeze through it.  You're on the last page and you have to list 5 reasons for something - you only remember 4.  You KNOW the last one, but you just can't bring it to the forefront of your brain!  You sit back and think.  Then you notice the person next to you - your friend that you studied with right before class - ok, "studied."  He looks over casually, then writes on his paper.  You brush it off, resign to not knowing the answer and resting in your bonus question, and leave the room, your friend on your heels, having finished at the same time.  When you walk back in at the end and everyone grades their tests, you see that your friend has all the same answers as you - even the same wrong guess for the last question that you couldn't remember.  Every short answer is written word for word.  Later you find out that he's had the same thing happen with another one of your friends in another class.  You know he cheated - but you don't want to say anything.

Who do you go to?  Or do you?

There's a horrible name for little kids.  They all hate it - we all did when we were little, too:  "Tattle-Tail."  A tattle-tail was someone who always told on other people.  No one got away with anything because you would always tell Teacher or Mommy.  The same goes for older people, too, though not in the same way.  High school students, college students, young employed adults, even older adults - they may not call you the name, but they sure will have the same attitude as the name-calling child does when you tell an authority what they've done.

So what do you do when you know someone did wrong?  In the work instance, when the manager basically told you to lie to the state?  Do you flat out refuse?  Or do you change the dates on those freezer-burned pies?  What about the fellow employee?  Do you tell the manager that this employee is a lazy bum and should be fired?  What about your cheater-friend?  Do you tell the professor?  Do you tell the dean/principal?  Or do you just keep your mouth shut and pray it doesn't happen again?

I think there is a time to stay quiet and a time to open up.  In our first incident, I think it would be wise to speak up to the manager personally - just out and tell her that you won't lie.  You will gladly remake pies to fit the proper dates, or you will simply take the responsibility.  But you will NOT lie.  The second situation - the non-working employee.  I think you should talk to the employee first, then, if there is no change, talk to the manager.  Don't point fingers, but maybe say that there is someone who is not showing proper work ethic, then ask what to do about it.  In the third instance, I'd say go to the person.  And if nothing happens after that, or if the person will not listen to the point you don't bother talking to them in the first place, simply pray about it.  It's tough to watch someone do wrong and get away with it, especially when you know it will only hurt them in the end.  But sometimes you have to let people live the consequences of their mistakes.