What are our Ethical Boundaries?
At the very least, you own your employer an honest day’s
work for an honest day’s pay. Obligations like: your best efforts, obedience to
the rules, a good attitude, respect for your employer’s property and a professional
appearance, seem clear cut. However, where does your obligation to your
employer end? Where would you draw the line, for instance, in the following
situations?
- Writing your resume so that an
embarrassing two-year lapse won’t be obvious
- Telling your best friend about
your company’s upcoming merger right after mailing the formal announcement
to your shareholders
- Hinting to a co-worker (who is
a close friend) that its time to look around for something new, when
you’ve already been told confidentially that she’s scheduled to be fired
at the end of the month
- Saying nothing when you witness
one employee taking credit for another’s successful idea
- Preserving your position by
presenting yourself to supervisors as the only person capable of achieving
an objective
- Buying one software package for
use by three computer operators
- Making up an excuse, fourth
time this month, to pick up your child from school (or tend to an ill
parent) and miss an important business meeting
- Calling in sick because you’re
taking a few days off and you want to use up some of the sick leave you’ve
accumulated
- Taking leave (around three
weeks) for your post graduate papers
- Skipping
office to help your newly-wed sister shift into her apartment
The ethics involved in these situations may seem perfectly
clear, until you think about them. Wherever you are and whatever the
circumstances, you owe your employer your best efforts. And time and again, it
will be up to you to decide whether those efforts are ethical.
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