At work, we have a warehouse and an office in the building. During the Holiday season, we have a…

At work, we have a warehouse and an office in the building.
During the Holiday season, we have a program to assemble gift sets, which
requires hiring extra help for the season. About two to three months ago, a
lady from the warehouse working on this project told me during a conversation
that $30 was missing from her purse, which she left in the cafeteria because
there was no other place for seasonal help to put their belongings. She did not
make a big deal about it because she had no proof of who took the money. In
addition, she did not speak English and so she did not know how to
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At work, we have a warehouse and an office in the building.
During the Holiday season, we have a program to assemble gift sets, which
requires hiring extra help for the season. About two to three months ago, a
lady from the warehouse working on this project told me during a conversation
that $30 was missing from her purse, which she left in the cafeteria because
there was no other place for seasonal help to put their belongings. She did not
make a big deal about it because she had no proof of who took the money. In
addition, she did not speak English and so she did not know how to communicate
to management what had happened. I asked her if she wanted me to explain the
situation to management, but she told me not to do that because she had no
proof of who did it.

                Only a few people in the office knew that
the company has surveillance cameras in the cafeteria. If I spoke up, it meant
that the culprit would lose their job when caught. I had no idea who took the
money; it could have been one of my close friends at work or it might have been
a person to whom I barely speak. I had an ethical dilemma because if I chose to
just let it go, the person who took the money would get to keep their job, but
it bothered me that someone could be going into someone else’s belongings and
stealing from them. In the end, I went up to management and told them about the
situation. They reviewed the cameras, and in fact, we were able to see who took
the money. The young woman who stole the money was fired on the spot.

Was it right for me to report the problem to management?
Considering all the facts, would you have done the same?

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