Hi,

Dishonesty (or honesty) is a subjective item, since we tolerate a lot of integrity issues day in and day out. Gone are the days when honesty used to be a toggle ~ a person is honest or not.

You have to consider your present situation of business continuance etc. Let me share a specific instance that I faced in my professional life with you:

I joined a company as boss of a old timer (who has close proximity to the CEO) at the behest of another board member. I proposed dismissal of a dishonest employee who was taking money from candidates and the board member agreed with me. After this incidence, strange things started happening in my back and I had to quit within 3 months! I later learnt that the old timer was indeed behind the dishonest person, and turned CEO against me in a war which I fought to lose!!

My advice, therefore, is this: If you are an employee of the organization, report this to the appropriate authorities (remember to state only facts), and leave the rest to them. On the other hand, if you are the owner, just sack the dishonest person after ensuring that you really have the facts (to ensure that he was not "set up").

Hope this helps.

Regards,

K Raajaram

From India, Bangalore
Dear Mr. Raaja Ram,
I truly appreciate your life experiences because i had experienced similar one. I regret to say that, those(not everyone but in particular) who claim to be HONEST, LOYAL, COMMITTED, DEDICATED EMPLOYEE, etc are found be DISHONEST. Such employees are engaged in buttering up bosses and nodding their heads all the time, stating as if they agree for everything. These are the employees who are held responsible for making their bosses GO WRONG, eventually becoming STRONGER, STUBBORN & ADAMANT.
Indeed, such things are happening in organisations because, most of the BUSINESSES doesn't give scope for ETHICS and the BUSINESS OWNERS only believe in MAKING PROFITS. If one follows ethics, there is no scope for such person to be a part of that business process.
Good Luck.
With profound regards

From India, Chennai
Assuming that you cross checked his honesty credentials thoroughly and came to the conclusion that he is dishonest, you should take immediate action against him as per the practice prevailing in your organization. Tolerating dishonesty would spread a negative message to other employees. As the saying goes "nobody is indispensable" and you have to make alternate arrangements to train someone else. His superior should assist the new person till he is fully trained.
From India, Bangalore
Dear Ajay,
There is no scope of any leniency in the matters relating to integrity. If the issue is related to integrity there must not be any second thought about taking firm and immediate action as any delay would only be viewed as lack of resolve on the part of management even in such grave issues and no management can afford that. so in my opinion take quick firm action. Losing a good worker is always a bad situation but you have to draw a line somewhere. Only make sure that you have full irrefutable evidence of his dishonesty else you may be making a grave mistake. Best Wishes. Shalabh Capoor

From India, Delhi
Hi Ajay,
Call the dishonest worker in your private room and instruct all other staff members not to come into your room for about half an hour. Than ask the person why is he behaving in such a manner..is he not satisfied by behavior of Top Management as Top Management many times tells lies to Employees. If this is the case then the worker is not dishonest .. Dishonest is the Top Management..and Top Management should change their attitude if they really want to succeed..

From India, Raurkela
Dear,

Dishonest activities have exhaustive meaning:

1) An employee arrives at office at 9.00 a.m. and signing the attendance as if he arrived at 8.30 is dishonest

2) An employee (payroll executive) marking “present” - intentionally - to favour his colleague who is actually on leave

3) An employee writes Rs.60/- towards auto charges in his conveyance sheet where he actually spent Rs.45/-

4) An employee submits a forged pay-slip (from his previous employer) in order to push for more bargaining

5) An employee submits bogus lodging bill or corrects bill to claim more money from company

6) Selling scrap material without the knowledge of the organization and making money out of it.

7) HOD sabotaging with sub contractor and allows him to submit bills for the jobs which never been carried out

The list goes on like this…

Issues like the ones above, are dishonest actions by an employee.

Take for example, the first one. No one can deny punching different time in the attendance is wrong. But this actually will not call for dismissal. However, other activities seem to be serious and when you travel down, you would find other actions are more serious in nature.

I assume the person you stated falls somewhere below in the above list.

Then, if I were in your position, I would show him the way. It is matter of attitude. Whatever position he holds, however skilled he may be, if he is proved to have done something like 5,6,7, he deserves no mercy.

No one in the organization is indispensable. If your production / process is going to suffer, you must be prepared for it. What would you do, if the same employee decides to quit or something UNEXPECTED thing happened to him. What would you do in such situation? If your production is going to be affected if you sake him, means you failed to develop second layer responsibility. This can happen in any department.

Being a “Star performer” or “Super performer” does not give him clean chit. If you do this, it is going to send wrong signal to others and they would also follow such things and get away with it.

I know in an automobile giant a Quality Control Inspector having put 33 years of service in the company (in 1986) , had to lose his job (and huge terminal benefits), when he was caught red handed carrying a gum bottle (worth Rs.2.00 ) at the security gate.

You would have read articles in LLR wherein a bus conductor collected Rs.1.50 from a passenger and failed to issue ticket, was caught during vigilance checking. Corporation terminated him and higher forums and courts ruled and justified management’s action.

People who engaged in such activities lose “confidence” of management. It is always assumed that such people would have been practicing this for quite some time and caught on one particular day. It is a question of his integrity and credibility.

If I were in your position, I would have shown him the way. You decide whether you need to retain him, or otherwise.

Thanks,

V. Balaji

From India, Madras
Dear Ajay,

You have to find out whether the employee has been dishonest since very beginning or at some later date. In case he became dishonest from any later date, it is a matter of great concern. In the latter case please go into the reason of the person getting in to dishonesty. In such a case you have to take him, his superior and colleagues into confidence in a very tactful way and try to solve issues generic to this nature. In case the employee is dishonest otherwise please check out if this is an opinion or a conclusion based on some material facts. In case it is an opinion then whose opinion- whether of his superior or what? and try to find out the basis, adjudge the same yourself and if the same is found without a base please try to convince the concerned that the opinion is without a base (as per your findings) and the same merits to be reviewed lest it affects the morale of the employee concerned and his output and watch if things are going positive on the part of the opinion makers so as to take remedial measures, if necessary.

If there are relevant facts in support of the contention of one being found dishonest, please collect relevant information with full facts spread over a fairly reasonable time and confront the employee on one-to-one basis tactfully and try to impress upon him your appreciation of his being a very good worker and that there are some of his actions which do not go well with his performance and there is an ample requirement for the employee concerned to correct else he may lose his job disgracefully which will, on the one hand affect his reputation while on the other hand it will be harmful to the well being of his family. In case of his getting out of the job in the existing company the other company may look for the existing company for a reference check on him which will again hurt him. After this counselling please give him a reasonable time to correct observe his work and conduct. In case there is still no improvement, it will be prudent to take suitable action to check him out.

Regards

S.K.Johri

From India, Delhi
Dear all,

Having seen the responses of all, I would like to add the following:

1, Dishonest has to be clearly defined from your organisation point of view. e.g Misunderstanding of the communication, misintrepretation, wrongful practice of company policies. These are all the areas where there is a scope of viewing the action/understanding of the other side as dishonest.

2. Fraud, theft, sabotage, damage to the property, intentional act causing punitive loss, passing of the business. formulas to the people unconnected to the business, misappropriation of company assets, properties, misleading the people for private interests and against the company interests. These are all the areas where the laws are clearly in favour of employer.What is required in this context is clear proof before the law when the decision for termination is challenged, for the workers side. If the person is on management no question of any laws.

If you HR person by now there should have been a proper enquiry or investigation quickly done with.

Take a call boldly with clear professional approach. I appreciate the views expressed by Mr Shaik Abdul Khadir.

Regards,

V. Rangarajan.

From India, Pune
I have following questions 1. What makes ou say he is dishonest? 2. Are you his direct boss or or you from HR? 3. How do you assess he is intelligent? T Sivasankaran
From India, Chennai
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