Have you ever given a second thought before taking photocopy, from office copier, of your son's school project? Have you ever thought before asking someone to fill the blank bills that you have to submit to claim your tour expenses? Have you ever felt guilty before presenting the business plan, made completely by your subordinate, to your managers; and pass the same as your masterpiece, the outcome of your efforts?...

If your answer is "yes" than you are among the rare breed of employees, standing on the verge of extinction who still know the wafer thin margin between the ethics and privileges at workplace. A recent survey by reputed staffing company Teamlease has released startling facts about (un)ethical practices by employees in India's top 500 Companies. I am not reviewing the report here but try to tickle your neurons and make you think about some of your actions which may be breaching the boundry of ethical practices at worplaces.

In this era of Globalization, Business Ethics must be pivotal to any companies policies; be it HR policies, be it dealing with vendors, be it interacting with customers and getting business...the list goes on.

Information about competitors' business may be too tempting for you to think about ethics at that moment but ethical behaviours can't be comartmentalize as per your convenience. Consistent unethical practices in any part of your worklife make you insensitive towards ethics in other areas of your life, even in your family life. Ethics are not actions but a way of thinking and living for you. Unethical in one area definitely makes you more prone to be unethical in other areas.

Employees engaging in personal work in office hours is one of the biggest challenges for the companies worldover. Chatting with your old college buddies, chatting with your web-friends, visiting job sites, making family album in your desktop, plunging in stock markets in office hours are all fall under this category. Be conscious before engaging in these activities. You have been hired and paid by your employer not to give you nice cabin with AC so that you can fulfill your personal obligations confortably. Certainly not!

You must have come through many "parasitic managers" in your worklife. See and make sure that you are not one amongst them. As per Wiktionary, a parasite is "A useless person who always relies on other people's work and gives nothing back." Parasitic Managers always take unfair credit for subordinate's ideas. They always pass on subordinate's work as theirs. Beware about this practice and discourage by talking to your manager one-to-one. This is highly unethical to devoid of due credit and reward for one's work. Besides encouraging utterly unacceptable practice, otrher suicidal consequences from the organization's view is highly demotivated and frustrated employees. A single parasitic manager at senoir level can make unimaginable damage to the internal health of the company and encourage dirty politics at all levels.

Fudging expense reports, working reports etc. are other big challenge for organizations. Just think about the difference that extra unethical money makes to your life; it'll be nothing compared to the price that you pay for losing your conscience. Always claim as per your eligibility. For any deviations do take your manager in confidence. No manager will deny your reimbursement for the work done to achieve organizational objectives.

Abuse of perks are also most prevalent unethical practice among managers. Claiming telephone expenses without having telephone, fudging fuel bills, fudging food bills, claiming self improvement allowance without engaging in any such activity, claiming salaries for class IV staff provided by company without having a single staff...the list is very long.

The scope of unethical practices are being defined from organization's perspective. What is ethical for one may be the opposite for other.

I'll continue this article...meanwhile I invite your views on the same...