Real-Life Decision Making
You are a retail merchandiser in a ladies clothing store. One of your tasks
involves dressing the mannequins that are used in store and window displays.
Quite often, vendors provide you with free samples of clothing to use on the
displays.
After the display period, about six weeks, you remove the items from the
mannequins. Store policy says that you must discard any of these free samples
after you have finished displaying them.
The hottest trend in fashion this fall is thick black tights. You have
been displaying some particularly nice tights, but today you must remove them
and assemble a new display. You think about what a waste it is to throw these
perfectly good tights in the garbage. You consider breaking company policy
and taking the tights home.
Your supervisor has explained to you that there are good reasons for the
policy. For one thing, how do you decide who should get the free items? The
sales clerks would say they are just as entitled to them as the merchandiser.
Also, allowing employees to take free samples home tends to blur the line
between what is company merchandise and what is not.
You think to yourself, "But really, what will it hurt? I'm just taking
something that is going to be thrown out anyway. No one will ever know."
What do you do?