Myself and another guy went to a tech junket that was by invite only and they gave away a laptop to one person from each company who attended. My boss tried to take the laptop from the other guy saying “that was a gift and you need to turn it over to me”
I’d already cleared it with our corporate conflict of interest ombudsman - if I’d accepted it, it would have been an issue because I had purchasing authority, but other guy was “just” a tech who couldn’t sign off on anything or even make recommendations to anyone other than me, we didn’t have an existing business relationship with the vendor, and we’re not obligated to conduct any business with them as a result of the gift.
I told my boss to take it up with head-of-department (whom I’d copied in on the ombudsman comms.)
Other guy kept the laptop, and boss got ‘audited’ for gifts received (they pulled his emails) and was demoted into a position he wasn’t able to handle (more technical than he was capable of, but on paper should have been able to do) and pushed out of the company soon thereafter.
Same in ours.
Myself and another guy went to a tech junket that was by invite only and they gave away a laptop to one person from each company who attended. My boss tried to take the laptop from the other guy saying “that was a gift and you need to turn it over to me”
I’d already cleared it with our corporate conflict of interest ombudsman - if I’d accepted it, it would have been an issue because I had purchasing authority, but other guy was “just” a tech who couldn’t sign off on anything or even make recommendations to anyone other than me, we didn’t have an existing business relationship with the vendor, and we’re not obligated to conduct any business with them as a result of the gift.
I told my boss to take it up with head-of-department (whom I’d copied in on the ombudsman comms.)
Other guy kept the laptop, and boss got ‘audited’ for gifts received (they pulled his emails) and was demoted into a position he wasn’t able to handle (more technical than he was capable of, but on paper should have been able to do) and pushed out of the company soon thereafter.