Sara had worked for the Pet Supply Store for nearly three years. She was always on time, worked long hours, and ran numerous errands for her employer. She knew the business inside and out.
Sara took pride in working for the Pet Supply Store and looked forward to work every day. Clients viewed her as a close confidant and a trusted source for information and of course gossip. She felt as if she was an important and irreplaceable resource for the business.
On Tuesday, Sara was called into the office of her employer Jane. Sara was actually looking forward to speaking with her boss – for whom Sara felt she had gone above and beyond her job title by taking work home – to ask for a raise or better benefits. Sara had practiced her proposal the night before and felt confident that the conversation with Jane would go well.
Unfortunately the conversation that Sara had with Jane was very different.
Jane confronted Sara with a number of credit card charges for gasoline that totaled $51.37. Jane wanted to know why Sara had used the company credit card without permission. Caught by surprise, Sara explained to Jane the number of times she had to run errands to the printers, the accountant, and the town hall. She went on to remind Jane that those locations were quite some distance and with her husband being recently laid off from his job times were tough.
Jane was quiet for a few moments and then told Sara that she was fired.
Jane – Trying To Stay Afloat or Penny Pincher?
The Pet Supply Store had seen some better days. The recent downturn in the economy and the inability to keep qualified staff had made life difficult for Jane. Her family had launched the store four years ago with great fanfare and high expectations. The first year they made an amazing amount of money, but with all the costs for starting the store up, they barely had enough left over for themselves. Ever since then, times have been tough and Jane has had to skip paying herself for months just to keep the store open.
Jane finally felt that she had the right team in place for the last two years. Sara was dependable and the customers loved her. Jake was never on time, but he put in long hours and kept the store spotless. Mary was a rock-solid performer that would do anything she was asked of and always over deliver. Jane just knew that 2011 was the year she would make some real money.
On Monday evening Jane reviewed all her banking and credit card statements from the previous month. On the company credit card she noticed some unusual charges for gasoline. She investigated it further and realized that charges were tied to Sara’s credit card.
Jane had been down this road before in her previous career. She knew that small little unapproved charges like this, while innocent at first, typically lead to bigger ones down the road like embezzlement or theft. Jane knew that she had to enforce the rules and fire Sara.
Jane felt sick to her stomach and did not look forward to doing this. She knew that Sara needed the job and was supporting herself and her family. Sara was her best employee and trusted. So trusted that she had Sara babysit her kids, handle some of the finances for the business, and deal with only the top customers.
Jane knew that the conversation on Tuesday would not go well, but that it had to be done. She had to keep discipline in her business. The Pet Supply Store was operating on very thin margins and the little bit of cash could make or break the business.
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1. Take a side -- say who you think is right, and why.
2. Assume for a moment that Sarah is working a scam. Say which of the King and the Duke's scams this most resembles.
3. Choose either Sarah or Jane and link her behavior to a motif from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Be sure to explain your reasoning.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Star employee or criminal?
Please read the below case study and respond to the three questions at the bottom.
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20 comments:
1. My opinion on this situation is jane was right for fireing sara because jane is running a buisness not an curcis. if jane gave sara another chance and left eveything behind sara would get the advantage over her boss and continue doing the scam.
2. The scam sara did was very similar she was trying to get money from her boss just like the king and the duke.
3. If i had to link somone in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it would be sara because the motifes she has in this story resembles the Kng and The Duke because she is a scamer. the motifs she did was civilization vs freedom ans hypocrisy.
1. I think it was a good idea that Jane has fired sarah because if Jane didnt do anything about it sarah would keep useing her to her advantage.
2. The scam that this resembles like the king and the duke does is when they were putting on the play and it only was showing for 5 minutes
3.some of the liking to the Adventures of huckleberry finn and liking it to a motif i woild be jane and the motif would be Hypocricty because in both this and the story some of the characters did the opposite of what they were supposed to
1. I support Jane's side because she has to take the necessary precautions in Sara's mistake before it became a bigger problem. Jane shouldn't take the risk of keeping Sara, even if ''she had gone above and beyond her job title''. If Sara was really the best employee, she wouldn't have spent money on the company's credit card against her boss's consent.
2. Assuming that Sara is working a scam, I think this most resembles the King and Duke's play, ''The Royal Nonesuch''. The King and the Duke trick people into believing that it's a wonderful play, but the audience is later fooled when it doesn't reach their expectations. Similarily, Sara was believed to be the best employee working at Pet Supply Store, but she disappoints her boss, Jane when money was taken from the company's credit card without her permission.
3. I think the motif of conformity vs. nonconformity relates to Jane. She had to make a decision on whether or not to fire Sara. Jane could have kept Sara and given her another chance. However, she conformed to ''enforce the rules'' and let Sara go.
1. I think that Jane was right in firing Sara. It is Janes buisness and it was wrong of Sara to use the company money without the bosses aproval and chances were she'd do it again since she's in desperate need of money.
2. Assuming that Sara is putting on a scam it would be most similar to the king and the dukes play they put on, Royal Nonesuch, because they led people to belive it's a good play but it wasn't. And Sara lead people to belive she's a good employee but she's not.
3. I would link Jane to hyporcrisy because she fired Sara for spending alittle extra cash when she was in need while she was in need of cash too
If I had to pick a side in this story, I would have to side with Jane. The story tells that times are tough just like they are now and people will do anything to get a step ahead. Just like what Jane thought, this is one little innocent mishap that could lead to a bigger costing theft of her money. People like Sara will leach off of other people so they can advance themself's even if they appear to be the nicest person in the world, it's just a trap.
1. I think that Jane had did what was best for her company because if she trusted Sarah too much,some what in the future Sarah would take an advantage of Jane.
2. I believe I can compare Sarah's scam to the first scam that Huck saw the King and Duke did in the circus.
3. Sarah's behavior shows us when she did that scam, it was simlar to civilation vs freedom. This is because I believe that Sara want break her civilation's rule inorder to get something for free.
1. Jane was correct for firing sara because Jane is trying to keep a stable business running properly. With sara scaming money it is hurting the company and will only get worse in the long run.
2.Sara was scaming her boss just like the King and the Duke scammed villages.
3. Jane closely relates to Huck in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The motiff present in this story is confomity and nonconformity. Jane was given a tough situation and had to make a big decision; she decided to fire sara. Huck was also presnted with a big decision and decides to help Jim and get him back.
1. Jane was correct aabout firing jane. Because she is trying to run a stable profitbale businness. Also with jane working there she is hurting Jane's business.
2. Sara was similair to the duke and the king because just like sara scams money from her boss, the duek and the king did from many villages.
3. I would link Jane to Huck because they both are faced with a difficult decision. Also one motiff that would fit this would be conformity and nonconformity. Just like Jane Huck is faced with a difficult decison and he chooses to not turn Jim in as well as get him back.
1) I think that it was right for Jane to fire Sarah. because she used up over 50 dollars of gas. you dont have to use that much money of gas. it was way to much. Even though sarah loves to work at the pet shop, she worked long hours, and ran numerous errands for her work.clients loved her work and ability to work. she used the credit card with out permission.
2) If Sarah was working for a scam this would relate to the King and the Duke because this was when they tricked Jim, that Jim was sent back to slavery, this happened when the king and the Duke tricked them by Jim sighning some papers. and they checked to see if the signatures were the same or diff'rent.
3) A good motif for the story which is linked/related to book is that jane had to make a decision whether to fire Sarah, because sarah does everything right but she made the wrong turn by putting the gas money on the stores card, and it was right for her to get fired, and a good example from the book is because it was Huck's idea wether to turn Jim in or not. a good motif would be comformity vs. non comformity due to hard decions that both Huck and Jane had to make.
1.I think that Jane was right for firing sarah because Sarah never asked Jane for her approval of taking out the money because it's Jane's business and she had no right to go behind Jane's back.
2.I think that Sarh takning out the money was like the king and the duke taking the money from the villages.
3.I would say that this is conformity vs. nonconformity because Jane could have kept Sarah however she conformed to the rules and fired her without giving here a chance.
1.I think that Jane was right for firing Sarah because Sarah didnt ask for Janes permission to take the money becasue it's Jane's business and she didn't have to go behind he back to do it.
2.I think that Sarah taking the money was like the king and the duke going to various villages and taking money for many different reasons.
3.I think that this is like conformity vs. nonconformity because because Jane had the choice to fire Sarah and conformed to go by the rules and fire whereas she could have let her off with a warning.
1. I think that Jane was right with firing Sara, this is because Sara was taking advantage of Jane. I think this because Jane and Sara were so close Sara thought it would be able to slide with Jane that she used the companies money for her own use. This was wrong of Sara because she should have respected Jane and the companies policy.
2. The scam this resembles is the one when "The Royal Nonesuch" I think it is this one because like Sara the King and Duke took control over people and scammed them for their money. The King and Duke told the people that they were going to put on a grand show, but instead put on a very short stupid play, and scammed the town
3. Conformity and nonconformity, because Jane had to pick whether she wanted to do what most companies would have done to Sara, they would have set their rules straight and fired Sara, this is what Jane chose, she was being a conformist. Yet, if Jane chose nonconformity, she would have done this because her and Sara are close friends and wouldn't have wanted to see her go down like this. Sara should have followed the rules and respected what was right.
1.) I think Sara is right because she was a hard worker and only used to company's money to help her benefit the company even more. It was not her fault that Jane had personal financial problems with the company, and that shouldn't be reflected or associated with Sara's efforts to work hard in order to create more success for the company.
2.) This would most resemble the scam when the King and the Duke acted as the brothers of Peter Wilks in order to collect his will. They wrongfully took money that didn't belong to them on purpose, by acting as people whom they really weren't to benefit themselves with no regard to the people who they were hurting.
3.) This most relates to the motif of comformity vs noncomformity because Jane acted as a conformist by firing Sara for breaking the rules, instead of being a noncomformist and realizing that what Sara did was only with intentions to help the company in the long run.
1. I think that Jane is correct in this situation because she was only taking the necessary precautions that her store needed in order for it to be successful. She had to confront Sara before it was too late and things got out of control. Sara might have wanted to take advantage of Jane and her store in the future.
2. If Sara was working on a scam it would most likely resemble the scam that the King and the Duke played on the Wilks's brothers. The King and the Duke pretend to be Harvey and William Wilks in order to steal the money from the will that Peter Wilks had left behind after he died. They tried to steal money that was obviously not theirs to take. Sara does the same by secretly using the company credit card without anyone's permission.
3. The motif that most relates is conformity vs. nonconformity. This is because Sara decides not to conform to the store's rules. She uses the company credit card even though she knows she is not supposed to use it. She is not conforming to the Pet Supply Store's rules.
if i had to side with any one it would be jane because she didnt just fire sara just because she wanted to, she fired her because she was using the company credit card. Sara should know her limits when using the compaines credit card. She shouldnt use the companies credit card for her gas no matter what type of problems are at home. If i was Jane i would have thought that she was taken money as well because of the amounts that was taken. But then i think Jane should give her a second chance and let her know how and what to use the companies credit card on.
I find it interesting that 1 out of 15 comments chose Sara's side. Wouldn't anyone agree that perhaps Sara should have gotten a warning first before being fired? It seems to be the first time she was caught and could have used some training to recognize her mistake and not to do it again.
Sara was after all not conforming to the rules in order to fulfill Jane's orders. Sara was nonconforming to conform.
Was Jane a bit harsh?
Jane certainly had the right to fire Sara -- it's Jane's business, she carried all the risks and expenses of running it, and Sara had stolen from her. However, was the decision in Jane's own best interests?
Sara had been a valued employee who had done a lot of good things for Janes's company -- in the long run, losing Sara would likely hurt Jane more than the relatively small amount of money Sara had taken. Moreover, Sara had taken it in the service of the company.
One of the reasons people choose to start their own companies is that it frees them from having to follow all the rules of a larger company. If Jane had been Sara's supervisor at a large corporation, she probably would have been bound by company policy to dismiss Sara. In this case, however, Jane was her own boss, she had the freedom to bend the rules for the company's benefit. A warning, as Mr. Martin suggested, would have allowed Jane to keep Sara as a valued employee and to remind all of her employees about company policy regarding credit cards. Escaping from the "civilization" of corporate regulations would give Jane this freedom.
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I think that Jane has every right to be mad at sara for what she did. Sarah did take money without permission but she didnt lie about it. Which shows that she is very trust worthy but not good enough to handle the compainies credit cards. If sarah was making a scam against the pet shop then I could resmable this bog to the book. The king and the Duke made up stories for the people in the town to feel bad for them and give them money. Just like sarah, if the scam is true then she would make up a storie to go along with the plan.
Lucas
1.jane was right in doing this because sara had to show that she was the boss and had to keep the company open.
2. this is similar to when the king and the duke did the play and it was not nearly as good as the brought it out to be.
3. this would reseemble hipocracy between both of the stories because sara was being a hipocrite when she scammed jane
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