mmm....decaying moral fiber

I am not intending to 'toot my own horn' but I have always attempted to maintain high morals.  I learned early that I was not raised in the same world that my peers were; with time I learned that to be a blessing.  I always try and take the extra step, go the extra distance, to get the job done.  When I view my fellow co-workers doing things the unethical lazy way I do not change mine to complete the job faster, I uphold the quality that is important, because I have faith that it will pay off someday.  When my coworkers show up two hours late, and take long lunches without paying the consequences I don't follow the same thinking that I will get off scotch free, because I will not be able to, my morals simply will not let me.

My moral fibers have been being tested as of late.   When I first started my job an older co-worker advised me to not worry about what other people do, to worry about myself.  He has more or less, appointed himself as the enforcing moral compass of our office.  The enforcing part is really more of a passive action; he just complains and makes snide comments behind the offenders back's.  The acting manager over these lax employees does nothing about these problems.  In his opinion the end result is that they get their job done, and they do, in the end, get their job done.  But how can they be working efficiently if they cut out four hours of their work day because they are late, or at lunch?  One of the aforementioned came in two and half hours late this week, and then left three hours early to go to a dentist appointment that he openly admitted didn't exist, after openly admitting that he intended to come in late.

This happens daily, people come in late, the moral advocate takes time out of his day to complain about the 'offenders' and then work continues, until they leave early, and then the complaining is reborn.  My manager is like the gravity that keeps me in orbit around my morals, but he is gone this week.

Yesterday I was talking to the lead offender, who is just four years older then me, and he justified his lax work ethics by pointing out others flaws.  As I was contemplating taking the day off to drive home for Thanksgiving I thought about my impending sabbatical less then a month away, and how much work I can still complete in that time, and I decided to take half a day off, instead of the entire day.  Those external pressures haven't inhibited my ethics, yet.

How long can one hold out in the corporate world before their morals face genocide?