Ask forgiveness, not permission Dear Board of Directors, During the past few weeks I have been engaging in unauthorized trading. I bet that the Euro would weaken drastically, hoping to make the company at least $4.6 Billion. Instead, we're 5 billion down, as the situation changed. I was going to ask for permission to use all that cash to trade, but I read on a blog that I should ask for forgiveness, after the fact. S…
The policy is not about always getting forgiveness, it's about asking for it when you can realistically expect it to be granted. A company employing that policy should also be very clear about what acts you'll never get forgiveness for, and that would of course include breaking the law like in the parent's (obviously exaggerated) example.