Point taken. Still, stealing shit from people "because they deserved it" speaks volumes about that person's character. And we're not talking about just accepting a tip that's too much, etc., we're talking about actively deceiving someone to rip them off when they're mentally incapacitated. What can I say? I'm a pretty straight up guy, and don't steal shit from people, whether they "deserved it" or not. Never mind someone who was drugged out and drunk and unable to fend for themselves. If someone does that kind of shit, never mind proclaims it to the world, boastfully, in a public forum, they lose any respect I may have had for them. It rubs me the wrong way, and pisses me off. That's just how I'm wired, I guess.
Here is an opposite situation actually. I prescribed a narcotic to a guy who was passing a kidney stone. Now I have never had a kidney stone, but I have seen big tough guys brought to their knees so can only assume how bad it hurts. So the pharmacy calls because the guy was on some type of anti-addiction medication (can't remember what it was) so was refusing the fill it. In the pharmacists defense, the guy didn't disclose to me that he had problems with addiction and jumped pretty fast when I asked if he needed pain meds. I am kind of torn about it, my responsibility is to treat the guys kidney stone and not police his addiction. So obviously I feel obligated to treat his pain because that is the appropriate treatment for a kidney stone, but don't want to be the one starting him back on some downward spiral. So I suggested Ultram, no go because it is "opiod-like", even though it isn't a narcotic, according to the pharmacist and can't he just take some advil instead? Finally convinced her to fill the Ultram. I was kind of surprised at how strongly opposed she was. I don't know if this is really an ethics issue. Hell, maybe I was the one in the wrong and that guy is going to end up face down in the gutter because I prescribed him 15 Ultram. And I just had to laugh about the stories about ripping people off in other ways and it is the story about charging $5 for a beer that the customer doesn't drink is the one that gets people all up in arms.
A few months ago I was flying out of JFK and both of my bags were overweight, which was a $50 fee per bag for the airline I was flying on. The skycap literally asked me for a bribe to put my bags on. I guess the scales don't report to any sort of central computer, and once your bag has the right tag on it and is on the conveyor belt, it goes where it's supposed to go. $20 later and my bags were on route. No two ways about the ethics here, but also no way I'd give an airline $100 when Jamal the Guy Who Has to Work Outside in Winter only wants $20.
Totally hear you on the bribery thing... and really have no issues with it. It's a meeting of the minds between those involved... you have an option (for the most part). I've bribed cops in Mexico when we were caught speeding in rental cars without our drivers licenses. "Uhmmm... is there anything we can do about this here, without having to go to the police station?" $50 later and we were on our way. I've even bribed customs officials in a Central American country $5k to get some computer gear imported. We had $500k of servers and networking gear stuck in customs for almost 2 weeks waiting for "clearance" (whatever that means), when I finally convinced the customer that a little bit of grease helps the wheels. I handed over an envelope at 2pm as a "process expediting fee", and at 10am the next day a couple of trucks showed up at our co-location centre with our gear. Mind you, I think we over-bribed, as we were supposed to arrange for our own transportation and yet they ended up providing it, and the manual labour to help unload it. And all of our shit was there, even. I will admit that I was scared shitless for that one, and had visions of being in some foreign jail for years. It all worked out for the best, though, and there were smiles all around. EDIT: Just wanted to add, in answer to a PM, that the company involved was a Costa Rican based gambling company that was setting up shop in Curacao, so the US-based legalities (FCPA) weren't an issue.
That is a tough situation. I think I probably would have done the exact same thing you did, for the same reasons. If I was a doctor/PA/NP I would be more concerned about his pain at the time. If he is recovering from addiction then he should have made that clear from the beginning, and I feel like there should be someone else involved (social worker or addiction counselor) to help make the decision about whether or not he can handle narcotics. From the pharmacy's perspective, we/they are much more worried about the large number of people who try to get narcotics illegally, be it fake prescriptions or trying to cheat their insurance or whatever. The pharmacy I work at in particular has a huge problem with that.
HA, this thread is is timed perfectly as I got fucked over big time from my previous employer. I worked for him for 9 months and everthing was going good, I was told I was doing a good job and what not, got a key to the shop, stayed late almost everynight and was there early in the morning most day. But last week on Thursday I got hurt at work, two pieces of rusty metal flew in my left eye. So I finish out the work day, think nothing of it, that they will just come out on there own, then work all day the next day to the point where it hurt so bad I had to go to the hospital. I brought it to my bosses attention that day, and he even suggested that I go to the hospital. So I got to the ER, they got one piece out and the give me a tetnious shot, but they cant get the other one they tell me to come back. I go back a day later (Sunday), they still cant get the other piece of metal out so now I have to go to a specialist. The hospital gave me a WSIB form to take into work, so on Monday I brought that in and the boss flipped out. He said and I quote "I can;t believe you told the hospital you got hurt here, now I got to pay for your hospital trips." Then he kicked me out of the shop. I should have expetcted that because he said a few times in the past "the main rule [at work] is if you get hurt, you didnt get hurt here" but I always thought he was joking. The next day (Tuesday) I go into work after I go to the specialist where I got my eye scraped and deburred, he was bitchy and throwing things around all day. I made it through Wednesday but Thursday at about 3:00pm he called me into the office to talk to me "about my employment situation." He layed me off because he said he wanted to get someone else in because I was going back to school even though a week before he told me he was happy that I could work part time for him when I go back, and we even made up a schedule of what hours I could work. Anyways he gave me two weeks severence, but didnt pay me for the last week I worked. What Im wondering, and Im hoping someone here can answer is am I entitled to two weeks severence working for less then a year there? I want to get my last weeks pay, but I dont want to go back in there and my old boss to say he payed me for the one week I worked, and an extra week because hes a nice guy. What Im wondering is what would you folks do in my shoes? Would you call the Labour Board on him? He hardly follows any Labor Laws, hell, there's 7 major infractions I can think of off the top of my head. One of my good friend's older step-sister sister is a Family Law Lawyer and I just told her what happened when we were shooting the shit yesterday. She said she wasnt 100% positive but that I was entitled to 2 weeks severnece for working there under one year, and one week extra for every year I work at the same company if I get layed off. Therefore I should be able to collect my finial weeks pay. What do you guys think?