Volkswagen Engineers Were Told To Cheat On Emissions Tests Or Be Fired

Not click bait. There would have been no motivation for the engineers to cheat and risk a global-wide implosion of the company were it not for a top-down, Gestapo mentality.

I find it reprehensible how many VW fanboys are defending intentionally criminal behavior of the Piech-down unlawfulness of VWAG. Piech needs to be imprisoned for certain.

This goes WAY BEYOND GM's ignition key issue for criminality.

That's not new , in case is that real everybody know that , this happens in a lot of big company , everybody feel scare of theirs bosses. Let them fix the problem , as I know they don't have death people like others brands with recalls , I am pretty sure if they inspect others engines we going to be sorprises about the result which engine pollute more.

According to articles I've read, VW engineers were NOT told to cheat. Specifically, they were told by high execs to find a way to meet targets, or "I'll find someone who will." So people fearing that they'll get fired quickly chose instead to engage in illegal and unethical practices, knowing that they risk getting caught later and possibly losing their job later. It was a matter of "I believe I'll be fired very soon, but if I do this illegal/unethical thing, I *might* get fired later."

Information is coming out that makes it clear that VW was (and possibly still is) ruled through a corporate culture of intimidation and fear. So even though there's no evidence to prove that engineers were specifically instructed to cheat, the results ended up being the same. Furthermore, the execs did NOT issue the "make it so or I'll find someone who will" threat with a "but no cheating or unethical stuff" proviso, so it could be argued that they knew cheating, legal and ethical breeches were possibilities, and they turned a blind eye to this.

This is a good example of "the ends don't justify the means."

When you are in a corporate world and a professional, you are not specifically told what to do. You should understand in between the lines what is being told.
"Under pressure from above, and worried for their jobs", clearly tells me that the engineers were forced to get this done one way or another.

monster: I agree with your statements. I just draw the distinctions between (A) engineers were instructed by executive(s) to cheat, versus (B) executive(s) issued directives that could not be met with the know-how and/or technology available to employees at the time, they were unreceptive to this information, and they used a systemic culture of intimidation and fear to meet their objectives without concern for how those objectives were met. Therefore, the exec(s) could reasonably expect it would be done with legal or ethical breeches.

If we focus on "A" and dicker about whether employees were actually instructed to cheat (and try to prove that), then we miss the bigger picture. We are also diverted from the very plausible scenario presented in "B", that being that even though exec(s) might not have instruct their employees to cheat, by ruling through fear and intimidation, and by creating a corporate culture in which employees could not reasonably be expected to dissent or to report anomalies or irregularities, then the executives are deeply responsible for the outcome -- the scandals we see today -- which execs have attributed solely to a few of their employees.

The hits just keep on coming. Someone is going to jail.

FUNNY...that's what GM told their engineers! That's what OBama told GM!