But you do it too!

[Nekojin]

When I hear that, all I hear is "This is our smokescreen so you don't know we're obviously giving someone else preferential treatment."

Which is a problem with your attitude, not their management. Secrecy in management issues, especially with regard to punishment, is something that keeps them from being sued over privacy/labor laws.

Edit to be clear: The reason I say that the problem is your attitude is that you're assuming the worst of all possible reasons - that they're only maintaining secrecy to hide misdoings, favoritism, and mismanagement, when there are so many, many other valid reasons for the secrecy.

You're jumping to the worst conclusions, and your attitude as a result of that is very likely part of the reason you see apparent inconsistency.

[HYHYBT]

Praise in public, correct/punish in private is a very common and sensible rule.

As for supervisors.... well, broadly speaking, your job is to make sure those under you are doing their jobs. That makes their performance a reflection on you. Not a perfect reflection, and it's only fair that circumstances be taken into account... but beyond an uncertain point, if your job is to get other people to do their jobs, and they're not doing their jobs, then you're not doing yours. And if you cannot be punished for not doing your job, why bother doing it?

[Hyena Dandy]

Praise in public, correct/punish in private is a very common and sensible rule.

It is. Unless you want to have to hire a new manager every time any of them fuck up, it's important that the manager continue to be seen as a legitimate source of authority. Because, well, authority is the manager's JOB.

Thus, you praise the manager in public, to show that they're good workers, and deserve a higher post. You punish them in private because

1) You don't want to be seen as an authority figure over the manager. You don't want it to become a situation where an employee feels free to appeal to you over anything they disagree with the manager on. You CAN'T be involved in every decision.You shouldn't. That's why you HAVE a manager. If the people see you as the 'real' authority, they won't listen to the manager.

2) The manager also needs to be seen as a proper source of authority as someone who knows the rules. If every time they get a rule wrong, the people on the floor see them being told otherwise, the people will stop giving much respect to what the manager says.

[DrFaroohk]

For such private punishments, word DOES seem to travel fast. Everyone knows when Jim got written up last week. Everyone knew when Gina was caught embezzling payroll. Again, it just sounds like a smokescreen. "You didn't punish her like you punished me." "Well, uhhhhh...<thinks>...it's PRIVATE! YERP!"

But if that's not how it is, that's not how it is. Ok. To clarify, are we saying that even though I misunderstand what they mean, it's still MY FAULT for immediately thinking they had the worst intentions in mind?

[Nekojin]

For such private punishments, word DOES seem to travel fast. Everyone knows when Jim got written up last week. Everyone knew when Gina was caught embezzling payroll. Again, it just sounds like a smokescreen. "You didn't punish her like you punished me." "Well, uhhhhh...<thinks>...it's PRIVATE! YERP!"

The simple, blunt truth is that it's none of your business in the first place. If word gets out, there are any number of places that the "leak" could have come from (including the person who was punished), and if the employees ALREADY KNEW that the person was misbehaving, and saw him go into the manager's office, it's not hard to put two and two together.

That doesn't mean that it's your place to argue with management over it.

To clarify, are we saying that even though I misunderstand what they mean, it's still MY FAULT for immediately thinking they had the worst intentions in mind?

If you immediately assume the worst, then you have an attitude problem in that respect. If that's the case, it's probable that you have an attitude problem in other aspects of your job as well. Having a bad attitude is, in and of itself, changing the circumstances - so, for example, if you have a bad attitude and get caught stealing from the vending machine, you're likely to be punished more severely than someone who is good for morale who gets caught stealing from the vending machine. That's not inconsistent - that's management. They're not required to be blind to everything except the current offense.