What should she do?

Question

Jessica was naturally a little jealous when she heard that Ryan had won the “Sales Rep of the Year” prize that she had been coveting. Since the prize was based on the most sales for the fiscal year, she had assumed the award was hers. She was especially surprised that Ryan was named, since he was not the most ambitious sales rep and tended to slack off on some of his duties. After talking with Nancy, the sales department administrative assistant, Jessica was really beginning to wonder about who earned the award. According to Nancy, Ryan had included some strange customer orders that propelled him to the lead of the sales quota category. Nancy doubted that the orders were legitimate, as this particular company tended to cancel the orders before they shipped. Jessica started filling in the blanks. It would be just like Ryan to convince a customer to give him a large sales order and then assure the customer that the order could be cancelled before shipping. That way Ryan wins the prize, and the customer loses nothing.

Now Jessica has to make a decision. Should she tell what she knows, or keep quiet and let Ryan keep the prize?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, while Jessica’s suspicions may be well founded, that’s all they are at this point: suspicions. It is unlikely that the sales manager would take action without concrete evidence and more than likely Ryan would deny any wrong doing at this point. It could be that Jessica’s best bet is to just sit tight and wait to see what happens. If her suspicions are correct and the orders are eventually canceled, more than likely the sales manager will recognize the wrongdoing. If not, Jessica (and maybe even other colleagues) can bring Ryan’s actions to light. It is unlikely that Ryan will be able to perpetually maintain his myth of outstanding sales; with checks and balances built into the sales system, his deceitful actions will eventually be discovered.