Carl, a branch manager at a restaurant, was responsible for arranging weekly work schedules for about ten employees.  His subordinate, Charles, hoped to get weekends off to spend time with his family.  However, the restaurant recently launched a popular dining promotion, and Carl planned to increase staffing on weekends to accommodate the higher customer volume.

To secure his desired weekends off, Charles devised a plan.  Knowing Carl was passionate about collecting watches, Charles gave him an expensive watch for his birthday, hoping to win his favour and receive preferential treatment in shift scheduling.  Touched by the gift, Carl made an exception and granted Charles his requested weekends off when arranging the work schedule. 

Since then, Charles frequently requested Carl to adjust the shifts so he would enjoy day off on weekends.  Carl found himself in a difficult position.  Having accepted the watch from Charles, he was unsure how to refuse his ongoing requests.

Rachel, a customer service officer at an airline company, was well aware that Christmas was a peak travel period and that she was likely to be assigned night shifts during the season.  Rachel then  privately treated her supervisor, Rosanne, who was responsible for arranging the staff duty roster, to dinner to pre-celebrate Christmas at a decent restaurant.

During dinner, Rachel gifted Rosanne with two concert tickets of an idol she knew Rosanne was interested in as a Christmas present, claiming these tickets were a gift from a friend.  She then asked Rosanne if she could avoid scheduling her for night shifts during Christmas when arranging the duty roster.  Rosanne felt hesitant about this, but Rachel repeatedly assured her that no one would know about their arrangement as long as they kept it as a secret.  Rachel also emphasised that concert tickets were not cash and that accepting them would not violate any laws.

Upon her return to Hong Kong after a few years in the States, Sandy worked in La Fonda, an architect firm.  She had her first degree in Hong Kong but left for the US with her boyfriend soon after graduation.  Her performance in the firm was brilliant and the portfolios she submitted were excellent.  When her senior Kelly resigned, her unit head Antonio considered recommending Sandy for promotion to take up Kelly’s post.  Sandy was full of hopes.

Antonio was about to nominate Sandy. One evening, he was talking to his cousin Gamma who just returned from a long stay in the States. Gamma had been doing a doctoral programme in Architecture in the University of Vermont. Antonio causally mentioned to Gamma that his prize staff, Sandy, also worked on a second degree at the University of Vermont too.  Antonio thought that Gamma and Sandy might have met in the University because their years of study coincided. But, to Antonio’s astonishment, Gamma could not recall a Chinese lady studying Architecture during his seven years’ stay at the University, particularly as he worked part-time in the Registrar’s Office.  If Sandy had studied there, Gamma would have remembered her.

Antonio was flabbergasted and determined to look into the matter. When he went back to the office the next day, he sent for Sandy at once.  He asked Sandy if the credentials she submitted to the firm were in order. Sandy guessed what he was getting at and blurted out the truth.   

It was a sad story.  Sandy was about to be married to her boyfriend in US when she found out that he was dating another girl who could help him to get US citizenship. He tore her heart into pieces. After a few years of living only on the money sent from home, Sandy finally decided to turn over a new leaf and went back to Hong Kong.  She built up a portfolio of her own work which was in fact copied from overseas designers and made up an academic and professional history for herself.  Then she landed the job at La Fonda.

Antonio did not know what to do.  Should he expose the fraudulent past of Sandy?  Was it his duty to make sure that the firm was not cheated? Would this destroy the career of Sandy who had been a star in the firm?

Sandy had promised to work hard if Antonio kept her secret for her. Could Antonio do that with a clear conscience?

In a construction project of a commercial complex valued over $500 million, the main contractor employed ten foremen to monitor the work of sub-contractors.  A site engineer of the company, who took charge of the foremen, was responsible for the overall supervision of the project.

The salaries of the foremen and other workers were calculated on a daily basis.  Each  of  them  was  required  to  punch  an  attendance  card  when reporting on and off duty every day.  The attendance cards and the punching machine were placed in the engineer’s office so that when the foremen and other staff  reported  on  or  off  duty, they  had  to  punch  the  cards  in  the engineer’s office.  The engineer was responsible for ascertaining that his subordinates personally punched the cards.  At the beginning of each month, the engineer was responsible for calculating the salaries of his subordinates based on their individual attendance records for the previous month.  His calculations and the punched cards were then sent to the Accounts Department of the company for processing salary payment.

As the family of one of the foremen, CHAN, was in the Chinese Mainland, CHAN would seek every opportunity to travel there to visit his family.  One day, CHAN went to see the engineer and requested for three days’ off.  CHAN, however, requested the engineer not to record his leave but instead punched the attendance card for him so as to show that he was working on the three days.  In return, CHAN offered the engineer $500 for assisting him in punching the attendance card and turning a blind eye to his absence.

The engineer turned down the offer and reported the matter to the ICAC.  Eventually, CHAN was convicted for offering a bribe to the engineer, contrary to Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) and was sentenced to imprisonment.

Clint was a construction engineer at a private housing estate construction site. He had spent most of his time mingling with foremen and construction workers.

Bobby, a site foreman, was working with Clint on the project.  Bobby had an assistant, Chui, who had been his right hand man for many years. On the day, Chui fell ill and Bobby took over the routine check of books and accounts.  He suddenly saw the names of two workers whom he did not recall seeing on the site the day before marked into the attendance book.  He thought it was a mere error of entry but to make sure, he summoned the two workers to come and see him.

When the two workers showed up, Bobby was amazed to see that they were totally unabashed.  They admitted outright that they had been absent the day before and that their chums had clocked in their attendance cards for them.  They were even brazen enough to put forth a number of points to justify what they had done.

They claimed that attendance at work did not necessarily mean that the progress would be faster.  The guys needed time-out and rest in order to restore their strength after their leave days and therefore they could work hard to compensate for the day lost.  The productivity would be higher.  And they had never let Bobby down, had they?  This had been a system drawn up by the workers and everybody knew about it, seeing it as an incentive to their work or even a bonus.  Bobby was aghast.

Worse still, the phone rang at that time.  It was Clint.  He wanted to check out with Bobby about the expenses and asked him to file the site accounting report.

Bobby was at a loss as to what to do.  He wondered how much Chui was involved in this.  If Chui was in the know all along, then he himself would be an incompetent fool not to realise that this was going on under his nose. On the other hand, he did not wish to antagonize his men.  What should he do?

Should he report to Clint and blow the whistle?  Or should he stand by his men, including Chui?   Would it reflect badly on him either way?