Trouble Speaking Up

[CTuck]

Within the last few years I worked for a man who I had told that some of his employees enjoy helping themselves to the booze at the bar after he left and we all closed. To set the stage, I was the last person out and when I told him what was going on he told me to call him when people weren’t leaving. A couple times I went up and aked them to leave, because they were taking their sweet time. I just couldn’t bring myself to call my boss in the middle of the night to have him deal with these people, largely because I was scared of the backlash that would await me from my co-workers. There was a lot to this job that was terrible for me. I often just looked away from people getting high and drunk, and that tore me up because these things that are seriously wrong and I wanted to do something about it. I never did because I had feared losing my job, which I needed to support myself and my family. Mostly I was just scared to tell EVERYONE at work that I wouldn’t be taking that behaviour lightly. My boss gave me two ways of dealing with them: call when they don’t leave, and don’t let them back in. I failed in both of these, not entirely, I had my moments, but there were many failures. My point is that I did try to amend the situation somewhat, but I have so much guilt about my complacency in many other instances. I’m very to-myself and non-confrontational, and never would want to correct anyone out of fear of their reaction. I’m confused on where my obligations lie in all situations such as these, but much more concerend as to whether I have reparation I need to make to my former boss. Some have couseled me to be vigilant in my not cooperating with sin, but be prudent in how you deal with other peoples’ sins. It may not be right to risk homelessness by calling the cops because your boss and co-workers do drugs at work. Some say that we have an obligation to do all we can when we see someone doing something seriously wrong. If that’s the case, I feel sick to my stomach because there’s just so much of this stuff happening. Prayers and thoughts welcome.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Is this a current or past job? If current, look for another job. Your boss sounds like an idiot, which is not your fault. You don’t specify if you are some kind of manager/supervisor or not, but you seem caught in a morally bankrupt environment, without the authority or training to change it.

 

[mountee]

I will gladly pray for you, especially asking God to give you the way to solve this issue and not lose your job.

 

[CTuck]

Thank you, and yes this was a past job, about six months ago was my last day there, and I was just the dishwasher, but I closed the restaraunt myself at the end of the night. I also see this probably shouldn’t be in Social Justice, so if a moderator wishes to move it that’s fine.

The problem I’m concerned with is that I feel guilty, like I owe my boss some recompense. It seems to me that although I did try to amend some of the wrongs going on due to theft from my co-workers, most of all alerting my boss that it was happening, I backed down from many opportunities to stand up to them directly and potentialy divert them from doing it. My boss wasn’t perfect, but I feel he was taken advantage of more so because I was a coward.