My Co-Worker Is Doing Something Ethically Dubious at Work. It’s Going to Get Him Fired.

Good Job

June 09, 2026 1:00 PM

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Good Job is Slate’s advice column on work. Have a workplace problem big or small? Send it to Laura Helmuth and Doree Shafrir here . (It’s anonymous!)

Dear Good Job,

I work at a national chain furniture store part-time so that I can get a discount. (I just bought my first home and am slowly furnishing it.) I have an ethics question about behavior I’ve noticed from one of my colleagues who works at the store full-time.

He is very generous with discounts with some customers. If he likes them, he will give them the “teacher” discount or the “senior” discount or the “military” discount, even if they are none of those things. I’ve seen him say to customers that he’s adding a discount with a wink. I’ve also noticed on a few occasions him ringing up a floor model with a damaged discount when it isn’t. I am not really interested in snitching on him; the company is massive and I don’t think he’s actually hurting anything. But I do think that it’s possible that his discount pattern would be obvious to anyone looking at the sales coming out of the store and that he will get caught that way. Should I warn him? Or should I mind my own business? Again, this is a part-time job for me, so I’m not that invested in the business. It’s more that I think he’s doing something stupid that is going to get him fired eventually. But also, what do I know?

—Personal Discounts

Dear Personal Discounts,

The fact that you’re even considering mentioning it to your colleague shows you’re a thoughtful person. So I think you could easily do either of the two options you’ve presented, and it depends how close you are with this person and how comfortable you feel saying something to him.

In my opinion, minding your own business is a perfectly legitimate choice, particularly since if you’ve noticed it, then it’s likely that other people have also noticed that he’s offering up discounts and for whatever reason they have decided to quietly let this one go. However, if you do feel called to say something to him, I would frame it very casually, not like you’re trying to snitch on him but that you are genuinely concerned he could get in trouble (which is a fair concern!). You could say something like, “I’ve noticed you giving discounts out, and I’m not going to say anything to anyone, but I just feel like if I’ve noticed, then others might too,” and leave it at that. Then you’ve done your due diligence and anything that happens afterwards is really not your concern. And I should also say that I don’t think the way that you’re sort of justifying what he’s doing (“the company is massive and I don’t think he’s actually hurting anything”) is really going to hold water, anyone’s personal feelings about stealing from big corporations aside.

—Doree

Classic Prudie

Last week, I was doing some work on our shared desktop computer while my husband’s personal email was still logged in, which I didn’t realize until a notification popped up, and I caught sight of his ex’s name. This is the beautiful, sparkly, outgoing woman who swooped down and took his virginity when he was 27, dated him for six months, dumped him out of nowhere, and broke his heart.

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