Leaving an Unethical Job?!?

I’m becoming vindictive in my job, a sure sign that a change is needed. My problem, as my loving husband points out, is that I’m too nice or have a conscious, which ever. Driven by moral and ethical dilemmas I was raised with I have refused to lie on reports, cheat on evaluation standards and steal my other co-worker’s projects. Because such practices seem to be common practice at my firm, I find myself only doing average and rarely winning contests or competitions with my co-workers.
Two weeks ago I found an example where one of my co-workers clearly was lying on projects and entering false information into their reports. No one wants to be a tattle-tale, but when your coworkers are threatening your position because they are clearly lying…you feel the need to point it out to your management. So I did. My manager had a conversation with my coworker in which she pinned me as a snitch and then joked about the situation as though it were nothing. As a result I was handed my colleagues projects to clean up, while she dug through my leads with renewed vitality looking for new projects. Any reporter in their right mind would be furious! It was clear any journalistic ethics and morals had been vanquished from my position long ago. As I was plotting my revenge and thinking that eggs were cheapest at Wal-Mart, I decided that recourse was past me and I simply have to move on. If my supervisor and boss both refuse to address ethical and moral business practices, then it’s best for me to leave the company all together. It’s no easy decision to come to and not a good situation to be in, so when do you decide to leave a position?

My decision focused around these questions:
1. If one of my co-workers is involved in unethical businesses practices; is there channels set-up for recourse or a way to keep such practices in check? When my manager and boss handled the situation poorly, it left me feeling helpless and out of options. When my boss sided with their unethical behavior and then told me to follow suit, I was given few options but to start job hunting.
2. Does the unethical behavior affect me and if so is there anything I can do about it?
My colleague’s willingness to falsify reports escalated the company’s expectations and made it harder for me to meet those unrealistic expectations. In order for me to keep-up with my colleagues numbers I would have to participate in unethical practices, something that I didn’t feel comfortable with and refused to partake in.
3. If I continued working with unethical co-workers would their behavior affect my performance and/or long-term goals? Since many of my firm’s projects are group projects, I had to place a great deal of trust in my colleagues. Something I was unable to do given the circumstances. I also wanted to make sure that I upheld my integrity and character, because honestly that is all a reporter has at times.

Now that it has been two weeks, I’m proud to report even given the dire economy I have several job prospects on the table and I am looking forward to a brighter future. If you should stumble across this blog and suffered a similar malady, I would love to hear your story. I don't think unethical or immoral behavior profits anyone. Perhaps I’ll dedicate another blog about how to use vacation time to interview with other firms!?!