Reflections on Unethical Choices in the Workplace

In every career, there are moments of ethical ambiguity that can elicit a mix of laughter and regret. Today, I want to share a light-hearted yet thought-provoking incident from my own experiences in mentoring young entrepreneurs.

As part of a community initiative, a group of second- and third-year associates and I took on the rewarding challenge of guiding a high school Junior Achievement team. The project tasked these students with creating and running a small business over a couple of months—an excellent opportunity for hands-on learning.

Our team decided to venture into selling fruit baskets. The plan was simple: purchase bulk fruit and baskets, assemble them, and deliver the finished products to homes in our local community. However, we soon encountered a significant hurdle. Junior Achievement had established rules that, while well-intentioned, hindered our ability to operate effectively. One of the most prominent constraints was the prohibition against accumulating any debt.

While this rule was designed to protect the integrity of the program, it posed a real challenge in practical terms. Essentially, it meant we couldn’t incur any liabilities—making it nearly impossible to procure the fruit without upfront capital. The classic conundrum presented itself: how could we purchase fruit without funds, and how could we raise funds without assuming liabilities?

Determined to make our business work, we devised an unconventional solution: we required customers to prepay for their fruit baskets. This meant that, while we technically had no liabilities, we were promising deliveries based on customers’ upfront payments. From a business standpoint, this arrangement was quite efficient.

Here’s where things took a turn towards the humorous, if ethically questionable. As part of the mentorship experience, we were tasked with creating weekly financial reports to submit to the Junior Achievement office. Honesty in these reports was paramount, yet our structure posed a dilemma. If we presented our actual cash collections and deferred revenue, the regional office would surely be displeased. However, we also needed accurate records to track payments and fulfill our deliveries.

Without any malicious intent, we found ourselves maintaining two sets of financial records: one for internal purposes (“the real books”) and another to submit to the regional office that would essentially evade scrutiny. The irony struck us when we collectively realized, after several weeks, that we were engaged in this double Accounting practice—with the students actively participating in the process!

By that point, with only a few weeks left in the project and the method proving effective, we made the