To: Brian Cowie, Company Founder

From: Daniel Ibarra

Date: March 14, 2016
Subject: Concealing the use of company funds for personal gifts for fellow employees
On Friday afternoon, an email was sent throughout several offices in the Marketing Department
of our firm by the Office Manager, Jorge Diaz. The email reminded all recipients to work at their
absolute best every day because he, Jorge Diaz, could potentially stop by their office at any time
of the work day. Diaz also noted that a personal gift from him would be given to any employees
he felt deserved it the most during his visits. The email insisted that it be kept confidential within
the department because gifts to fellow employees for their work was not necessarily permitted.
Through this memo, I want to emphasize the importance of fairness in the workplace and the
chances of Diaz actions being a part of something much greater and far worse.
I have only been working here for four months and have been a recipient of these types of emails
before. I find it to be unfair and hazardous to the workplace when gifts are given away without a
specific criteria or unbiased judgement. I am also concerned that there is no existing company
authorization for the specific use of company funds for personal gifts to fellow employees. I am
only now bringing this up to you because I have finally seen Diaz hand out a gift to someone.
The individual was a coworker of mine in our office and the gift was an iPad mini. I found that to
be super expensive, especially if he is secretly using company funds to pay for it. If he is so
willing to spend that much money on a gift for his employees, I feel that he must lack the
responsibility in not utilizing company funds in other unethical situations such as maybe
purchasing himself gifts, for his own hard work.
In order to avoid the consequences of favoritism within the workplace and further
unauthorized spending of company funds, I recommend initiating a company gift policy
and immediately investigating the matter with Jorge Diaz.
A company gift policy is useful in making it well known and legal that practices such as
employee rewards can be conducted. According to Inc.com contributor, Tim Donnelly, experts
say it's important to clearly communicate your gifting rules to employees to make sure they're
not caught off guard. The policy needs to be monitored and enforced company wide without
giving top executives a free pass. In other words, Donnelly is claiming that in order for a
company gift policy to work, it must be known throughout the company. More than anyone, I
believe you as the company founder, should know gifts are being rewarded to employees, which
is what makes this situation all the more erroneous. Diaz even stresses the importance to keep his
emails about giving personal gifts to employees confidential because of its disallowance by the
company. I therefore kindly advise that if at some point you do condone your companys
Marketing Department or any other department, to apply a reward for its hardworking
employees, establish a gift policy first and let it be well announced so that each and every
employee knows about it.
Without an expressed written criteria on how a reward can be received, favoritism can sprout
within the workplace. In this scenario, only by the eyes of Jorge Diaz can an employee be

deserving of a personal gift. I remember seeing the faces of my other coworkers who did not
receive a gift but worked just as hard as the one Diaz gave an iPad mini to; they were far from
pleased. Edward Fleischman is chairman and CEO of The Execu|Search Group which is known
for being a workforce management solutions firm. In his commentary, The Dangers of Playing
Favorites at Work, Fleischman claims An organizations reward structure must adhere to a
transparent framework that managers practice and employees understand. Without this structure,
favoritism can begin to take root in the workplace, which negatively impacts a companys culture
and its bottom line, acknowledging the poison favoritism injects into the morale at work. It is
obviously unfair how Jorge Diaz conducts his employee reward system. Aside from the bigger
issue that he is doing so without company permission and with company funds, Diaz is also
creating a series of conflicts within the Marketing Department offices because employees are left
feeling unfairly unrewarded due to some other agenda in Diaz selection process like favoritism.
The transparent framework Fleischman alludes to, coincides with the gift policy solution I
mentioned earlier. If the company as a whole is aware of how gifts are earned, the consequences
of favoritism can be avoided.
As I am sure you know, this matter should not be taken lightly because aside from the funds
being misused on personal gifts to employees, they may also potentially be used as an extra
monetary gift for Diaz own hard work, determined by himself. I remark this possibility not to
create a rumor but to give you a concrete reason as to why you should care about what Im
telling you, in case my previous reasons havent been enough. If Jorge Diaz is so willing to
reward employees with expensive personal gifts without your knowledge, whos to say hes not
willing to use company funds on himself without your knowledge as well? Also, if this
possibility holds to be true, it would be a case of embezzlement against your company. As stated
before, Jorge Diaz is aware of his misuse of funds because of the fact that he does not want his
emails containing information about it, to be shared beyond the department. Should this
information be known to the public, your company as a whole may be penalized with the burden
of being defamed as an unorganized and untrustworthy company to existing and potential
investors.
Just to inform you as to what embezzlement actually is, I want to share with you what I found
after researching it for myself on FindLaw: Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment
and corporate settings A person is often given access to someone elses property or money for
the purposes of managing, monitoring, and/or using the assets for the owners best interests, but
then covertly misappropriates the assets for his/her own personal gain and use, this is an example
of embezzlement. As you can see, FindLaw defines embezzlement as anyone with access to
someone elses money that uses it for his/her personal use. I think this definition correlates
exactly to the possibility I warn you about. Jorge Diaz is a manager with access to The Paper
Mill Stores company funds and may be secretly utilizing it on himself since he secretly utilizes
it on others without company consent. This is why I stress you investigate this matter further.
For all these consequences, I highly suggest you use your power as the company founder and
initiate a gift policy should you ever allow gifts to be given to employees as rewards. I also find
it necessary to immediately investigate the Marketing Department Office Manager, Jorge Diaz,
as he may be secretly and unlawfully robbing your company of its assets.

Thank you for reviewing my report. I would be happy to share any emails or information
regarding this matter with you should you request it. If you have any questions, feel free to email
me back or call me at the telephone number provided below.
Best,

Daniel Ibarra
Marketing Department Intern
Tel: (818) 123-4567
Email: daniel.ibarra@email.com

Works Cited
Donnelly, Tim. How to Set an Employee Gift Policy. Inc.com. N.p., 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 07
Mar. 2016.
Embezzlement - FindLaw. Findlaw. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2016.
Fleischman, Edward. The Dangers of Playing Favorites at Work. Fortune. N.p., 04 Aug. 2015.
Web. 14 Mar. 2016.