Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input:  I have a female coworker named “Steph”. Steph and I have never really seemed to get along, but we work well together. We have clashed a few times over a myriad of issues, but we mostly make it through the day, and are both experienced in our field.

So anyway, one day an auditor came in for a surprise inspection, and unfortunately, I was dinged for a few items. No big deal really. My supervisor educated me on it, and I learned from my mistake. During this time, I thought of a pretty neat idea that all my teammates could participate in, so that we don’t repeat the errors I was dinged for in the first place. I would make “swear jar” type or contest in which all employees had to throw in a dollar every time a particular infraction took place. It was fun and everyone seemed receptive to it, and in about two weeks we had about $15 in the jar. It was undecided what we would do with the money, but for sure it was going to be for something fun for the whole team, like a pizza party or a team outing.

So one day I come into work and I notice that the jar was empty. I found out through some coworkers that Steph emptied the jar, and spent the money on “sodas for lunch.” Apparently, our supervisor bought everyone pizza one day, but no drinks. Steph was a little upset about this, so she used the jar money on beverages for the team. I was visibly upset about this and approached Steph the next time we worked together to ask to her to please return the money. She replied “Well, our supervisor neglected to buy us beverages for the pizza, so I used the money for that”. I reminded her that the jar money was not for that purpose, and to please return the money. Steph then replied “Once our supervisor pays me the money she owes me for the party rentals, I’ll return the jar money” (At this point I should mention that we had our Xmas party at Steph’s house. Apparently she rented some tables and chairs for the party, and our supervisor was supposed to pay her back for the rentals, but never did.) I told her that I have nothing to do with that, this is a separate issue, and she still refused.

Time goes by, she got reimbursed for the chairs, and I repeatedly asked Steph to return the money, and she still refuses. For what reason, I don’t know. I tried everything, reasoning with her, publicly shaming her, etc. Finally, after many months, (seriously) I had enough and told our supervisor about Steph taking the money, and refusing to pay it back. Finally, after a lot of back in forth, Steph returns the money. But now, quite a few people at work are upset at me for “making a big deal out of it” and getting Steph in trouble. I personally don’t care about the backlash, and it’s the principle of the matter that matters to me. Some of my coworkers even told me “I can’t believe you made such a big deal over $15” And now I am second guessing my decision to tell my supervisor.

Am I the asshole?


making a coworker return a "small" amount of money she took without asking