Ethics In The Work Place

Ethics in the Workplace

"Ethics are personal and, at the same time, a very public display of your attitudes and beliefs. It is because of ethical beliefs that we humans may act differently in different in situations" (University of Phoenix, 2007). Poor ethical choices in the workplace can truly hurt people. Poor ethics can damage their career, happiness, and quality of living. Not only can these actions hurt the individual who has made the bad choices, but also most often it hurts the innocent. This essay will provide two actual case studies; one of positive ethical principles and the other of poor ethical principles.

Ethics are the driving force behind good business. Every ethical choice made by a professional can and will have a much different outcome than any unethical choice. Bad ethics can ruin many aspects of a business and as (Gaye-Anderson, 2007) states how quite easily the lives and professional reputation of the employees can even be severally damaged (para. 3). Everything from morale to motivation can be severely affected by poor ethical choices. Customers will take their business elsewhere. Employees will abandon ship. Other, competing businesses reap the benefits of the bad moral choices. Ultimately, the entire business can be brought down by one poor ethical choice.

Good employees see others not following ethical guidelines and it causes them to lose faith in their coworkers. Bad employees see the same thing then believe they can get away with it. Both scenarios can cause horrible things to happen very quickly. It is even worse when employees see management take the wrong path. Managers are the ones that should be setting the example. That is like a five-year-old watching his or her parents take illegal drugs; they will do the same thing because they think it is normal.

After a two-year hiatus I was eager to start my new job. I enjoyed spending the past 700 days of uninterrupted joy with my daughter. Being a house wife did not work out. I missed the hustle and bustle of the nine to five. After six long years of employment the company I worked for went out of business and closed the doors permanently. I received a generous severance package, and that is why I was able to not work for so long, but that was only supposed to last a year. I spent the next year looking for a job. Just when all hope was lost the perfect opportunity came. It was an afternoon shift job; perfect, I could spend the days with my daughter and work at night. How could I be so lucky? I accepted the position and a week later Wayne joined the team. Wayne was around the same age and his home life was about the same as well, so I thought to myself wonderful, we have things in common we will get along fine, and through the learning process we did. Time past and he and I began our night shift positions, he worked on his project and I on mine. Because we were new, questions still accrued. What I did not know was that although we helped each other out, management received a different story. Wayne would send secret e-mails to management, saying that he was basically the best thing since slice bread; he was a one man show, I even suspected him of sabotaging my work; I was a paranoid mess. This went on for months before I knew what was going on, and the only way I found out was that one of the Supervisors forwarded a "Thanks for all your help" note to everyone on the e-mail and include me. While reading through the minutes I discovered all the credit he had been given to Wayne himself for things, I did! Clearly committing plagiarism, I brought this to management's attention and nothing was done about the lies. I did not want to complain too much because I did want to sound like a crybaby and lose my job after all it took me two years to find this job, I did not want to start all over again. This went on for years and Wayne's career climbed the ladder while mine remained the same.

My anger towards Wayne grew more, and more, and the credit was still being stolen from me. One day I had a conversations with an older gentlemen, (I must have looked very upset) and he said to me. Wayne never stole anything away from you, you have no reason to be so anger with him; you should be anger with yourself. "WHAT"! I said. He goes on to say “you should be angry with yourself; all Wayne did was promote himself”. What did you do? He questioned. You can not be upset with someone for taking charge of there career. After thinking about what he said, it was as if all the anger I was harboring for years was washed away in an instance. He was right, if I wanted my career to go somewhere I had to network and promote myself. I was so focused on what Wayne was doing to me I was letting opportunities slip through my hands. I was so blind, thinking I was being professional by staying quiet about my dilemma, I had problems; and my body language said it all. Over the next seven years I took control of my career and used a different approach by applying Justice, honor and moral rights. Wayne may have a bigger pay check, but I have gained the respect and trust with my peers making me a valued employee.

The next situation was not handled well by any of the parties involved. It all started about three two and four employees ago. The inspection area of my workplace is a rather small area. I would say 30 feet by 40 feet. This 30 by 40 foot section is then divided in half by a wall. This wall is very thin and every spoken word can be heard through it with out straining your ears. There is a walkway on each end of the dividing wall so both sides of the inspection area can be accessed. The inspection area employs two people; one on each side of the wall. One of the ladies had been employed by this company for 30 years, the other lady was a new hire. The lady that has been employed for 30 years has been known to have a dirty mouth. Not to mention she starts rumors and would blatantly ignore new employees. For the sake of this story we will call this employee Sarah, and the new employee Amy.

Amy was still in training when she heard Sarah swearing and going on about her. Remember the two inspection employees are divided by a wall, a very thin one at that. Sarah would talk and swear and go on about Amy. This went on for about three months. In the third month, Amy was working and packaging up some parts. Amy was not packaging them the correct way and Sarah new it. She new this was wrong because she witnessed Amy packaging them, but continued to walk on by her. Later on that day, Amy went home and Sarah went over to the other side of the inspection area. She took the parts Amy had packaged up and left them lying all over the table. The following morning Amy came in to work and saw the parts lying all over the table. She asked Sarah what was wrong and she said, "You