When is a gift not a gift?
Speaking purely hypothetically, of course.
An employee is gifted an item from his / her company. The item is received with no guidelines, advisements, or paperwork; it is mentioned that it is for personal use. The item also happens to be a coveted new product produced by that same company. As such, the item has some temporary heightened value.
The employee decides to sell the item versus keeping it as he / she does not attach the same value to the device as others. The item is placed online for sale.
Days later, the company discovers the item is for sale online. They do so because items are apparently stolen and sold often enough to warrant this kind of sleuthing. In this case, there is no theft.
The employee’s manager calls the employee into an office for a private chat. The item’s online sale representation is displayed. The manager without saying so, in so many words would like the item taken off sale.
Again, there were no advisements prior to the change in possession. Should the employee take the item off sale? If the employee does not, what repercussions could there possibly be outside of the off-the-record score that managers keep?
Hypothetically, of course. This could never happen in real life…