A634.7.4.RB - Ethics and Behaviors


Externally, my company portrays its values the same as most corporations do: on a webpage marked “Values, Mission and Vision.” That’s common practice, and it may give visitors a decent idea of what the firm is and what it strives to do, but it doesn’t offer the faintest hint to anyone of how employees actually act, and if the words written down in black and white match the attitudes seen in the hallways and office buildings.
For the most part, I think it’s safe to say that the majority of my colleagues behave ethically and that they avoid the slippery slope of Chuck Gallagher’s “unethical continuum” (Gallagher, 2013). One time that they didn’t, however, happened a couple years back, when a former coworker tried to print hundreds of copies of a flier for her “side-hustle” business on company paper. It’s admittedly not the worst/most unethical thing in the world, but what made it worse was that a printer glitch occurred which duplicated the job she sent to the printer. In the end, nearly 1,000 copies of the flier was printed, and the IT department quickly became aware of the situation.
Now, for the most part, using company paper here and there might not be seen as a problem — and I think that’s the right perspective. Printing tickets, or a recipe, or another type of one-sheet every now is really no big deal. But as Gallagher argues, it marks a point on a slippery slope — in this case, a point that led to 1,000 sheets of non-work-related content being printed using work equipment/toner.
Looking at workplace ethics from a more interpersonal perspective, Dr. Bruce Weinstein examines the power of words in his presentation. The word “sorry,” for instance, is meaningless if it’s not backed by action (TheEthicsGuy, 2012). I agree with that, and I’ve spoken to friends in the past who have felt like they were given lip service by their companies — hinted at promotions/raises that never came, etc. — and it always leaves them feeling low.
In response that, Weinstein encourages people to look at selfless acts from a different point of view — to look at the more selfish benefits. This may seem counterintuitive, but that’s not the case. “Why should we should we be ethically intelligent?” he asks. “It’s the right thing to do. But it also turns out, it makes you feel better. It benefits you. Everybody wins” (TheEthicsGuy, 2012).
In that way, to me, Weinstein is talking about honesty and emotional generosity. No matter what a person’s motivation might be — selfish or selfless — nobody loses by giving an honest compliment. Going back to the lip-service issue above: If a raise is not in the cards for an employee, that’s disappointing, but a manager should be honest about why, and also explain what traits/talents they value in the employee. The employee might not be thrilled that a raise isn’t coming, but at least they won’t feel lied to. They would feel heard, and that, too, is a win.

References

Gallagher, C. (2013). Business ethics keynote speaker – chuck Gallagher – shares straight talk about ethics. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE

TheEthicsGuy. (2012). Keynote speech excerpts from the ethics guy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLxbHBpilJQ

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