Two recent cases of employee misconduct at Meta and EY, involving what may initially appear to be relatively minor infractions, demonstrate that integrity still matters. As I tell my kids, if I can’t trust you with a small thing, how can you be trusted when it’s important?

Meta terminated several employees, including at least one earning over $400,000 a year. Were they stealing? Producing false records? Lying? Yes, yes, and yes. Meta’s investigation uncovered a long-running practice among the terminated employees of abusing a $25 food voucher/credit system.

News also broke that EY reportedly fired dozens of employees for virtually attending two mandatory video training courses simultaneously, purportedly to save time, or so some claimed.

Could both incidents of misconduct have resulted in sanctions short of termination? Perhaps. But if you don’t enforce the rules—especially those that have been flaunted over a long period of time or those related to training, which, if neglected, could lead to greater harm down the road—why have rules in the first place? How often do we hear about employees becoming frustrated with others who break the rules, or managers who know about the misconduct but ignore it because it seems relatively minor in the grand scheme of things? Such conduct inflicts severe damage to morale and productivity.

Termination shouldn’t typically be the knee-jerk reaction for most rule violations, but if the behavior is repeated or poses significant risk to the company, termination must be an option.

Consistency in investigations, and more importantly in outcomes, gives credibility to a company’s claim in its code of conduct that “everyone is treated the same, from the CEO to the maintenance staff.”

Misusing company resources, failing to act as good stewards of company assets regardless of their value, and trying to scam the system reveal all you need to know about the integrity of those involved. They put themselves first and neglected to consider how their actions affected their teammates who do things the right way, ultimately harming their companies.