Although I have been in the workforce for more than 40 years, things have never ceased to be amazing to me.
You have those who insist that they never lied and never did anything to add distrust to the company. You know that person, they cannot wait to tell everything they know and swear up and down that they never did a thing. They will look you in the eye and lie when the truth would serve them better. These seem to be the people who are always trusted by either gullible management or management is using them to allow information to "escape" while being free to disclaim any knowledge. These people are disposable and somehow end up lasting longer than they should. They appear to be dumb as dirt but probably know exactly what they are doing.
There are those who see no usefulness in lying. They live in truth and are willing to accept the consequences of their actions. For some reason, because they are willing to admit their mistakes, management has little use for these people and looks for ways to drive them out.
The dichotomies in the small town business world are endless. Truth-tellers are run off or terminated while liars and deceivers are kept, coddled and made to feel important.
It is not surprising that those who are creative and sit around and "think" are given priority over those who work their tails off and give their all to the company. It is as though the creative stinkers (that maybe should be thinkers - maybe not) are the ones who keep the company running. They forget about the slaves (I am sure that should be employees) that work from dawn to dusk maintaining files, computers and paperwork. What they don't realize is that the customers will sometimes not pay if they do not have the proper paperwork and that means originals. "Duh, where was that thing filed?"
Sometimes administration becomes so consumed with sound-proofing the walls, they forget about the ceilings and they never even think of surveillance within their own offices. Those cameras really are tiny. You can even hide microphones in telephone systems, picture frames, etc. Those things can be hidden anywhere and they can be quite cost-effective. Did you know you can put one in a computer or a laptop and it broadcasts without anyone knowing what is going on? You really can do that. It takes a long time to find the item and it takes even longer to find the software. It can be embedded in your normal every day software and operating system. They can be in light switches or just anywhere.
When that is done, it gives anyone ample opportunity to glean all kinds of information to give to the IRS or Sales Tax entities or the NLRB or even to ICE or those dreaded unions. We all know how much you guys like unions. We also know how many deals have been made with unions to get them to lay off. After all, there is only so much room and the area can only handle so many nefarious characters. You can't have leaches sucking on other leaches. That just wouldn't work, now would it, boys?
Then you have all the money. Where does it come from? Better yet, where does it go? It is easy to lose track of all the transactions. You really do have to know where to look.
I once worked for a company who had an owner's son that built his house and bought all the construction materials through the company. The only problem was that the little fellow never reimbursed the company for those purchases and they were found during an IRS audit. You could see the sweat and the scrambling to get checks deposited. And of course it was simply an over-site. It was interesting to watch. I can think of things that will be more interesting though.
Nothing like someone going to sign up for retirement and they tell him the amount and he says those sweet words, "But I made more than that! They paid me cash!" Then come the audits and more people are found to be lacking and the fun begins.
I imagine since the government watches for key words for terrorist activity, they could also look for key words like tax evasion, tax fraud or failure to pay overtime or other such catch phrases and then they would have to start looking and I'm sure that once they start looking, they just can't give up until they find something.
That's a fantasy that I have. There could never be anything like that happening in the real world. Or could there? All companies are totally honest and would NEVER think of lying, cheating or stealing, would they?
Just like an owner wouldn't cheat on his wife while condemning an employee for thinking about it. Nothing like that would ever go on here, now would it? We're all just one big happy family. Or are we?
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