Have you ever ignored your understanding of the law at the request of your boss?

Never. I was bookkeper for several years. Once when I was asked by a brand new manager to maintain two sets of books I called an accountant friend of mine and asked him if it was legal. I left the job shortly afterwards.

I did not ignore it, I stated my problem with not obeying the rules, and the risk it put the business in by not obeying them. His response was for me to get lawyers involved to give an opinion, (which backed up what I said) and then we explored ways to change things.

Oh, hells no. Quite the reverse, in fact. I am frequently called upon to explain to my employers some of the fine points of laws and regulations that pertain to our business so that we won’t run afoul of them. We all stumble sometimes, but I can guarantee that my employers fully intend to comply with applicable laws.

That doesn’t mean that they always want to perform at the highest humanly achievable levels above the requirements of the laws and regulations, but we do aim to conform, at minimum.

At the request of “higher ups” dates have been changed, letters were typed that never actually went out, etc. I was young and it seemed like a game to me. This was during audits of our office.
I would never do that now as I would be afraid of being caught and it is wrong.

It was an unwritten rule that the chicken and other concessions were just made… even if it was 12 hours old.

Once, a shipment that we made to a military installation worth about $50,000 was reported by the customer as “never delivered”, and that they were withholding payment. I filed a “lost freight” claim with the trucking company. About 6 weeks after that, full payment from the Army magically just showed up, so they apparently discovered their error, locating their product.

Our CEO took me aside and quietly asked “Can we just leave the freight claim in place anyway ?”

I said, ‘If I understand you right, you are asking me to commit a felony….”

I of course canceled the freight claim, and the matter was never brought up again….

Never.

On a daily basis, but it is nothing serious, just a few ordinances not complied with.

It is illegal here to advertise your business on the street. It is against the dynamic publicity ordinance, but all business needs advertising, so I have no problem ignoring that ordinance.

It is also illegal to dispose of certain things, such as old light bulbs, used oil, and certain kinds of waste, but under instructions of my boss, to save us 500 bucks a month, I will dispose of the occasional light bulb by putting it in the trash.

Yes, a few times in a past job. I basically was let go eventually because I knew too much and pointed out the illegality and that I felt uncomfortable.

When I was about 17 years old, my then-boss (who was also a 50 year old lech and always trying to get in my pants) had me type up several different W-2s in his name, with different income amounts on them. I didn’t know any better, and had typed a few of them before I realized he was using them to illegally get government-backed loans intended for low-income people to buy homes. He was buying many ‘starter houses’ simultaneously, renting them out and using them as investment properties, claiming he was living in each of them. As soon as I figured it out, I told him to do his own damn dirty work. What a douchebag he was! I should have reported him, ugh.

Since then, I’ve been asked a few times to do unethical or illegal things by employers, and I absolutely refuse.