Issue with unethical behavior

I am struggling with a fundamental question: how should I deal with unethical behavior?

Now, let me preface this by giving a bit of background information (though not too much as is my style).  I was recently the victim of unethical actions by my direct supervisor and, as numerous such situations do, involved money.  My supervisor twice promised me sums of money based on work I had done, then reneged on those promises without prior notice or explanation.  Of course, I made the mistake of not documenting these promises beyond my meeting notes.

In throes of these two parallel unethical situations, I find myself questioning actions I should take.  At the heart of all this is my fundamental disgust of immoral and unethical behavior juxtaposed with my sense of consequence.  I have several options in front of me: report to my supervisor’s superiors, talk to a lawyer, inform peers, write a letter of complaint to him and my HR department, amongst other things.  However, within nearly all of these is the inherent risk of damaging my future career potential by alienating a supervisor who will be on my employment applications for years to come.  Moreover, any petty attempts on my part to thwart the work I do would have direct consequences on my peers and clients, all of I which I have firm loyalty to.  I don’t think it would be fair to punish him for their actions merely because I have to deal with him wronging me.

But I keep coming back to being wronged.  I have been wronged in a bad way: by someone deliberately unethical and cowardly.  My respect for this person has plummeted and my desire to work with this person is diminished beyond repair.  This challenges my fundamental beliefs, my principles, and my values of fairness, honesty, and the indelible need of leaders to leader.

As you can see this is a fundamental internal struggle.  I have begun to talk to mentors, friends, and family members about it, but I will say none of them have satisfactory answers.  Interestingly, their answers are revealing more about them as people than this situation.  Some of them say turn the other cheek, others have laughed it off, some have said quit, others have said sabotage...and of course their are the rational people who said rest, think, and plan.

I am not sure this post has any real purpose for the reader beyond investigating fundamental ethical struggles in their own lives as I notice my writing here has turned into an exercise in catharsis more than a description of a problem or a seeking of answers.  I wonder how you would handle something like, or how you have handled things like this.  Do you side one way or the other?  Do you believe there is a safe middle ground that protects my ethics and my career...one where I can sleep at night and have a roof under which I can sleep (of course this is not a situation that is that dramatic.)

I guess I feel morally relativistic right now and that is something I don’t want.  My plans for career and professional growth are ones that focus on leadership, integrity, and clear, logical thought and I find myself struggling to reach those points in this instance.

Time to breath...thanks for listening.