‘Hiring’

By Raoul Suarez

A long-time employee that you trusted to run the business, with the aid of his wife and other coworkers, stole and embezzled funds from your company. He managed to fire others who were vocal of the wrongdoing and found ways to also remove from the company those who did not want a hand in the scheme and disagreed with him.

He and his cohorts were eventually terminated from the company after investigations were done. He goes in hiding and his wife plays the victim card during interviews because they can’t live like they used to. She lavished in the ill-gotten gains brought about by the thievery and embezzlement done by her husband but when the racket got caught, she shouts foul.

He dies a couple of years after he got fired but his family members were all set for life with the money he stole. After a decade or so, his widow and his son send in an application and would like to express their intent to work in the company again; despite the cases that have been previously filed against them.

They would talk about the father’s inputs while he was still an employee and the achievements that he had while working for the company. It was apparent, though, that their family used company money to cover for their own parties and social gatherings. They have been telling employees in the company that if not for the father, who hired many more security guards, picketers and strikers would have taken over the company. Some older employees who knew better said this was not true as the chief of security back then reported that while there were unhappy employees at the time, they were no threat to the company’s operations.

The security guards were actually used to harass employees who didn’t want to go along with the nefarious schemes. The harassed employees then started to actually hold pickets and strikes and even more security guards were hired and equipment bought. In truth, the picketers and strikers grew as more security guards were hired and sent to harass and harm the unhappy employees. The father’s widow and his son would have none of that story. They say that the hard tactics of the many security guards were necessary because of the presence of would-be strikers and picketers. They believed that the labor union was also not necessary and they tried to abolish it. In order to spread this version of the company’s history, they would wine and dine some of the company’s employees to agree to their story, using the funds stolen and embezzled from the company.

When he was still in power, the father borrowed money from different financial institutions using the company name in the guise that it will be used for different projects that would help to boost sales and improve productivity. They used a small portion of the borrowed money for the proposed projects, and the rest of the funds were funneled into their personal bank accounts and were also used to finance some business ventures owned by them but named under their friends. While he was able to launch some successful initiatives during the early days of his term, he managed to steal and embezzle more funds than what was coming in. These actions ran the company to the ground with insurmountable debt and the company is still struggling with up to this day.

Now, the son wants to work for your company. His mother would like to be the consultant. He is not remorseful about what happened. He believes that he is actually qualified for the job. He wants to clear his father’s name and wants to be hired in the top management post. Some of his credentials are fake. He was also sent to prestigious schools with the use of the stolen and embezzled company funds. He was not able to finish those degrees in those universities but he claims that he did. Some cases were also filed against him in the previous companies he has worked in. Up to this very day, he believes that his father only did what was best for the company and also for their family; neglecting the fact that his old man was a thief and a criminal who was detrimental to the growth of the business and was the reason why some people lost their jobs because they were illegally terminated.

The son believes he can rectify the situation and is suited for the post. The other employees think that he can be hired because he only benefitted from the ill-gotten gains of his father and was not directly a part of it. Some of these employees who buy into it are new. They heard stories from the other employees who are still working in the company and used to be a friend of the father. These employees do not know the full extent of how the thievery affected the company and how the son also lavished in the excesses done by his father. They’ve only heard stories about the contributions of the father but failed to look into the impact of his greed. There are other candidates who are qualified for the post without a bad track record and a clean slate. This ruckus has created dissenting opinions within the workplace.

What should be done here? Should the company hire the thief and the embezzler’s son? Maybe they should. Maybe they shouldn’t. What do you think?

Asking for a friend.