105 4 CODES OF ETHICS AND CODES OF CONDUCT What would you do? Code Violation After graduation, you obtain a supervisory position at a bank. Mary, one of your 12 tellers, is your best employee. She has worked at the bank for 10 years and is trusted and admired by both coworkers and customers. Her annual performance reviews are excellent. She shows up on time and works hard. Mary is conscientious and a good team player, and she has a wonderful personality. Every day, each teller is required to accurately count his or her cash drawer, report any cash variances, and sign a balance sheet. The Cash Balancing Department is responsible for checking the to make sure they balance their cash correctly and report tellers’ work any irregularities. Another department reviews the (deposit slips, checks, tellers’ work payment tickets, etc.) for transaction processing errors. Together, these two departments verify whether any variance is a cash shortage or a transaction processing error, which is more often the case. Slight cash variances occasionally happen. Not reporting a cash variance and falsifying a balance sheet are grounds for immediate termination. Under your management, Mary receives the of the for two “Teller Year” award consecutive years. So you are shocked one morning when the Cash Balancing Department informs you cash drawer was short $100 and she that Mary’s balanced apparently falsified a $100 transaction to make the drawer appear balanced. You meet with Mary as soon as she arrives at work and audit the cash drawer in her presence prior to any transactions. The drawer is $100 short. the Mary up all night “I have no idea how mistake happened,” nervously says. “I’ve been trying to figure out how the error occurred. This has never happened to me before. I can only guess that I must have given a customer $100 too much cash, but I can’t believe a customer the money, particularly since it could cost me my job. wouldn’t return I was hoping the customer would come back today and return the money. If that didn’t happen, I was going to put $100 of my own money in the drawer at the end of the day. See, I have the money Mary shows you five $20 bills. know this violates right here.” “I our Code of Ethics about always being honest, and our Code of Conduct about reporting shortages. But I just freaked out and report the shortage right didn’t away.” 106 PART II Getting Everyone on Board
105 4 CODES OF ETHICS AND CODES OF CONDUCT What would you do? Code Violation After graduation, you obtain a supervisory position at a bank. Mary, one of your 12 tellers, is your best employee. She has worked at the bank for 10 years and is trusted and admired by both coworkers and customers. Her annual performance reviews are excellent. She shows up on time and works hard. Mary is conscientious and a good team player, and she has a wonderful personality. Every day, each teller is required to accurately count his or her cash drawer, report any cash variances, and sign a balance sheet. The Cash Balancing Department is responsible for checking the tellers’ work to make sure they balance their cash correctly and report any irregularities. Another department reviews the tellers’ work (deposit slips, checks, payment tickets, etc.) for transaction processing errors. Together, these two departments verify whether any variance is a cash shortage or a transaction processing error, which is more often the case. Slight cash variances occasionally happen. Not reporting a cash variance and falsifying a balance sheet are grounds for immediate termination. Under your management, Mary receives the “Teller of the Year” award for two consecutive years. So you are shocked one morning when the Cash Balancing Department informs you that Mary’s balanced cash drawer was short $100 and she apparently falsified a $100 transaction to make the drawer appear balanced. You meet with Mary as soon as she arrives at work and audit the cash drawer in her presence prior to any transactions. The drawer is $100 short. “I have no idea how the mistake happened,” Mary nervously says. “I’ve been up all night trying to figure out how the error occurred. This has never happened to me before. I can only guess that I must have given a customer $100 too much cash, but I can’t believe a customer wouldn’t return the money, particularly since it could cost me my job. I was hoping the customer would come back today and return the money. If that didn’t happen, I was going to put $100 of my own money in the drawer at the end of the day. See, I have the money right here.” Mary shows you five $20 bills. “I know this violates our Code of Ethics about always being honest, and our Code of Conduct about reporting shortages. But I just freaked out and didn’t report the shortage right away.” 106 PART II Getting Everyone on Board