Money Moral Dilemma: Should I report my fare-dodging colleague?

JayD

I have two responses to this question.

The first issue concerns your sense of moral duty regarding the dishonesty of your colleague. Personally I would not become involved in ensuring the demise of a colleague - no matter how anonymously. I would trust the body concerned to sufficiently police their own system and hope that he/she would soon be caught out and face the consequences.

The second issue is the annoyance this person's constant bragging causes to yourself (and other colleagues). Again, I would not represent the opinions of others, ( i.e. I would not say 'everyone here is fed up with ...' etc), but I would suggest you do speak out when this person brags to you again. You can either take a moral stance and say how it is annoying to constantly hear about someone's dishonesty and how their avoidance of paying fares contributes to the increases that you, and other honest passengers, face. Or you could just yawn loudly and say say how bored you are, hearing the same tale so frequently and could they find something more interesting to talk about.

Those are my suggestions.

crazymoose82

Personally I wouldn't get involved. You don't want a strained atmosphere at work. Just try to ignore his bragging and hope he gets fined to the high heavens eventually.

cazpost

I do like the way some posters on here say 'mind your own business,it's noothing to do with you' It has everything to do with all of us !
Fare dodgers are criminals , in the same way that tax avoiders, shoplifters, peole who don't pay car insurance etc are all criminals. They 'cleverly' avoid paying their fair share,which means the rest of us have to pay more.
I'm not sure how easy it is to report someone for fare dodging, but if there is a way of doing so anonymousy I would.
More importantly though,I would have a word with him next time he starts bragging and point out that it isn't very clever to boast about carrying out a criminal act whilst you are at work where management etc can hear you.I woul also have a word with HR or Managers to see what their take on it is

Highmorals?

Wow, what a morally bereft society we appear to have become. I'm no doubt putting myself in the firing line for a lot of abuse but it saddens me to read this thread and see the volume of "do nothing", "karma will get him", "it's OK to steal from the big guys" type responses.

I'm afraid Britain, we're going to the dogs.

Fair dodging is stealing, simple - it's taking goods or services without paying for them. Stealing from the big guy yes, directly, but indirectly from every little guy who has to pay more for the tickets they do actually buy. Would all the people saying it's OK for him to do it if he gets away with it say it's OK to steal a pack of mints from the corner shop - if you get away with it? If you say "no" to that one because that's a little guy outfit then would it be OK to steal that pack of mints from Tescos instead? It doesn't matter whether you steal from the corner shop or from Tescos, they both have to set their prices to cover the cost of stolen goods. Which means we're all paying more than we would do if nobody stole.

As for karma, ha! Yes, he may finally get caught at a random check and suffer some consequence. But bear in mind karma - you reap what you sow - also means that if you allow bad things to happen unchallenged you will get more of it. If he carries on fare dodging and bragging about it then there's likely to be horizontal spread - others thinking "if he can get away with it I may as well give it a go" and potentially vertical spread - he might well think if he can get away with his fare dodging he'll have a go at taking that pack of mints, if he can get away with the mints then.... etc etc. Take the analogy of sowing a field of corn, you can't just sow it and walk away, you have to pull out the weeds otherwise they'll grow and eventually overcome the corn.

Unless all us little guys actually do something to stop the bad stuff in life it will just flourish, we can't all look the other way and expect someone else to sort it out, because guess what, they'll be looking the other way too expecting you to do it!

The other thing that surprises me is that there should be such a high volume of people willing to let this guy get away with it in this particular environment of the moneysavingexpert forums. Aren't you all here looking for legitimate ways to save money? If you cut out all the people taking goods/services for free, fraudulently claiming insurance, evading taxes etc etc then we'd all be getting cheaper goods/services, lower insurance premiums, lower taxes etc etc and saving money big time.

OK, sermon over, I'm taking cover, fire away.

tasty_snacks

I'm with Highmorals? on this one. Stealing is binary.

As for the situation, just tell the person that they're behaving like a !!!!. The ensuing embarrassment should do the trick.

Bollotom

So I see your coat hanging over the back of your chair and take your wallet out and remove a £10 note. Another colleague sees me doing it and you expect them to say nothing as quite frankly it's "Mind your own business". Bet you wash your hands many times of day. The more fares stolen from the railways, the less there is for investment, renewal of stock, recruitment of staff and improvement of services. At least tell him if he brags about it one more time you'll report him. Actually I'm surprised your HR hasn't had him in to explain himself. Might be lots of stock going missing. A thief is a thief. Don't pander to him or you'll be a thief by association. :cool:

tallgirld

Why bother reporting him?

He will get caught eventually anyway so keep out of it and go and enjoy the sunshine!

loranius

So many people are under the impression that "they will eventually get caught".

Seriously? None of you will report crimes then? If you see the same person breaking into cars outside your house multiple times in a month, would you "not" report it because they will be caught eventually? What if it's YOUR car that's being broken into and someone knows exactly who it is but didn't report it because it's "none of their business" and "they will get caught eventually"?

It's the exact same principle for fare dodgers. They cost train companies money/investment money/profit money I don't care which, but the cost of this is passed down to other consumers meaning we are paying for these fare dodgers!

If it will not make the work atmosphere become so awkward that I would no longer want to work there, and I have no special goodwill towards this person, I would report him without delay!

If there is some sort of barrier though, I would report him after I have left the company!

musickurt

sc867 wrote: »

Of course you should! I have reported people in the past and I will always do so in the future. Not only that, but if I see ANYONE dodging their fare I make sure that they are caught, whether I know them or not.

Wow! you do that, really? Haven't you got anything better to do than interfere in other peoples lives?

pennypinchUK

Yep, shop him. What he's doing is against the law, and against all elements of reasonableness. No dilemma here.