Other night late a dude offered me $200 to squeeze him into the karaoke rotation. Plenty of times people have flashed me a $20 and asked if this buys them the next spot. This time I had to think about it. Eventually said no.
Ever been in this situation?
:lol:
No. Never been in a position to be offered or offer a bribe.
Plenty of times as a pharmacist, yeah.
I could never manage to get myself into a position to be offered one.
Many, many times during my years in the bar industry. Even a few times in the tour industry.
MY LSE prof tried to bribe me (money, not grades) to buy him a couple of bottles of The Famous Grouse at the Navy Exchange in London. I turned him down, but bought a bottle and gave it to him when the course was over.
Never offered a straight up bribe.
Frequently have to worry about the appearance of impropriety however. I'll let defence counsel buy me a coffee, but nothing more than that.
One time when I worked in small-town Alberta my brother came to visit. We were young, so we walked over to the local hotel for drinks (I lived out of town, so this was probably a 3km hike). This was a town of a couple hundred people, tops. Anyways we walk in, we get offered a beer on the house (my brother and I had had a few already, which is why we walked). We happily accept. We then get offered some shots I think, again on the house. I immediately sober up - 'no thanks, we have to go'. I'm pretty identifiable in that small town, I can't have anyone thinking I owe them.
Quote from: Sheilbh on December 28, 2023, 08:27:56 PM:lol:
No. Never been in a position to be offered or offer a bribe.
This :D
Not that I know of.
But I'm very good at missing out on not very subtle queues and only many years later go "they wanted a threesome! Doh!"
I guess there was the time a software sales company offered free headphones for listening to their sales guy so I did it, the sales guy had nothing interesting to offer (and I wasn't the only decision maker even if they had) and I got no earphones. :(
Never a straight up bribe, no.
I've been taken out to dinner and such by suppliers, which some could consider a form of bribe. But in practice building a rapport with them is part of the job, really.
Yes, but more of the "I'll buy you lunch if you do XXXX for me" variety, rather than straight cash. I'm a nobody myself but I know people in the business that are somebodies, so people sometimes will try to get access through me.
It makes me very uncomfortable and I always refuse, unless the person trying to meet my friends has something that might actually interest them (which has happened a couple times).
I taught freshmen history off and on for 20 years. Yeah, I have all sorts of things offered to me if I were to see fit to re-evaluate a grade.
I am too boring to ever take one.
Quote from: PDH on December 29, 2023, 04:06:41 PMI taught freshmen history off and on for 20 years. Yeah, I have all sorts of things offered to me if I were to see fit to re-evaluate a grade.
I am too boring to ever take one.
When entering the field of academia(albeit a slightly abnormal sphere of it), I was worried this might happen to me. Glad to find it hasn't so far.
Quote from: grumbler on December 29, 2023, 12:01:11 AMMY LSE prof tried to bribe me (money, not grades) to buy him a couple of bottles of The Famous Grouse at the Navy Exchange in London. I turned him down, but bought a bottle and gave it to him when the course was over.
That's a great story
Quote from: grumbler on December 29, 2023, 12:01:11 AMMY LSE prof tried to bribe me (money, not grades) to buy him a couple of bottles of The Famous Grouse at the Navy Exchange in London. I turned him down, but bought a bottle and gave it to him when the course was over.
Don't understand. Why couldn't he pop down to his local corner shop to buy it?
Quote from: Gups on December 30, 2023, 02:27:26 PMQuote from: grumbler on December 29, 2023, 12:01:11 AMMY LSE prof tried to bribe me (money, not grades) to buy him a couple of bottles of The Famous Grouse at the Navy Exchange in London. I turned him down, but bought a bottle and gave it to him when the course was over.
Don't understand. Why couldn't he pop down to his local corner shop to buy it?
The discussion never got that far. I pretended I hadn't heard him say that he knew it was against the rules, so told him it was against the rules, and that was that.
I was offered money (no in those terms) to be the... depository of illegal cigarettes, since we have lots of space. One of the shortest conversation I've ever had.
Professionally, a big local company tried a few times to get my dad involved in their schemes to plant a bidder for public contracts, but he told me he simply refused to bid on this contract instead. They later changed management and they never tried it with me.
Very early in my public service career I was offered to be taken out to lunch by a few companies I regulate. I refused since, you know, conflict of interest. Obviously lunch is pretty weak but who knows? Maybe they might have offered me more if I had taken the free lunches.
Quote from: Valmy on January 03, 2024, 08:19:33 PMVery early in my public service career I was offered to be taken out to lunch by a few companies I regulate. I refused since, you know, conflict of interest. Obviously lunch is pretty weak but who knows? Maybe they might have offered me more if I had taken the free lunches.
Yeah, it's a slippery slope. The next thing you know, they buy you a condo in the city and supply it with the most expensive whisky and wines.
Wait...
:P
No, seriously, in Montreal, this is all the construction corruption began for the city bureaucrats. A few small gifts here and there, a few lunches, then it became more expensive, then it was boat trips - figuratively speaking for the 'boat' - ; obviously, the guys knew what they were accepting and why though they pretended to play innocent at the inquiry.
I often accepted lunch from suppliers, it's part of normal business operations, we sometimes bring clients to lunch too. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna pick one over the other because of the cheap meal.
I miss the Christmas gifts though... I kept the wine bottles and gave the Dekuyper gin to dad, fair exchange :lol:
Oh, does being paid to install Kaspersky count? I still feel remorse about it. Fracking pos software.
Quote from: viper37 on January 06, 2024, 11:23:19 AMI often accepted lunch from suppliers, it's part of normal business operations, we sometimes bring clients to lunch too. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna pick one over the other because of the cheap meal.
Well when I worked for Dell I was given shit from vendors all the damn time but it was just a normal thing in that sector.
But as a bureaucrat it's different.
Years ago we used to hand-delivered chocolates to the court registry staff as a Christmas gift to thank them for all of their hard work during the year.
Most lawyers, who did a lot of court work, did the same thing.
That came to an end when it was viewed as a conflict of interest for court staff to receive such gifts.
When I was an undergrad a girl offered to blow me if I would translate some passages from a book from Latin to English for some art history project she was working on. Does that count as a bribe? I think that might have been her way of trying to go out with me, so I'm not sure. I already had a girlfriend so I politely declined.
See, that's why I studied Latin in school.
Google Translate: :smoke: