Please if you cannot see the difference in these situation; there really nothing here to discuss.

Same principle: low level employees being put in a no win situation by upper management.

Here's another. I used to work at Radio Shack. RS carried several products which could be used for bugging a room, tapping a phone or obtaining cable TV service without paying for it. Of course, the company would not pull these products from the shelves, because they made a profit on them. At the same time, the company put pressure on the minimum wage sales staff to put as much money as possible in the drawer.

Once a year, corporate in Fort Worth would send out a memo about "products capable of being used in an illegal manner", which put the entire burden on the minimum wage salesman to determine if the product was to be used illegally. And if the product is used illegally, even if the purchaser didn't tell the salesman, the salesman would be subject to prosecution for "aiding and abetting", while corporate hid behind that annual memo from legal.

Steve