All employees need to make sure that they act scrupulously whilst they are in the workplace especially.
People Management (‘One in four admit making false expense claims, study finds,’ 29 August 2014) reported the following:
‘A quarter of employees confess to making false expense claims at work, according to a new study.
‘One in five of them reported feeling no guilt about their actions, says the survey of 1,000 UK office workers by webexpenses, with one in four agreeing with the statement: ‘The longer you stay with a company, the more likely you are to bend the rules.’
‘Perhaps surprisingly, 70 per cent said their expense claims had never been queried or rejected by their employer.
‘Men are worse offenders than women, with 28 per cent confessing they had made false or exaggerated claims compared to 22 per cent of women. Those aged between 16 and 24 were more likely to break company expenses policies, with almost one in three admitting they had done so at some point.
‘There were notable discrepancies between sectors, with 72 per cent of those working in arts and culture sector confessing to a false claim, compared to just seven per cent in the legal sector.
‘Expenses fraud may be the tip of the iceberg, according to separate figures released earlier this year by fraud prevention service CIFAS. It reported an 18 per cent year-on-year increase in the amount of fraud attributed to insiders, with the average length of tenure for a miscreant standing at 6.5 years.
‘KPMG’s 2014 Fraud Barometer also reported a hike in employee fraud, highlighting a case where a local government t employee attempted to steal £162,000 by using disappearing ink on apparently legitimate cheques.
When they were signed by senior executives, she replaced the vanished payee names with her own.’
There is the commandment ‘You shall not steal’ (Exodus 20: 18, see also Deuteronomy 23: 24), which is the result of God’s redemption (verse 2). Paul encouraged the early Christians: ‘He who has been stealing must steal no more, but work, doing something useful with his own hands.’ (Ephesians 4: 28)
The important thing is that we are not working for organisations, but we should be working for God who is our ultimate boss, who knows if we have been stealing (whether it is goods, time or anything else whilst we should be working: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Jesus you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favouritism.’ (Colossians 3: 23 – 25)
We are to show honesty at work, including not stealing that which belongs to our employer.
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