Workplace Delimna

Living in a seasonal resort town there is always plenty of opportunity for part time jobs. One summer I worked at a hotel as a desk clerk manager. That summer I was asked to do something unethical that I was really uncomfortable with doing. The owner of the hotel asked me to lie to the police.

The people involved in the incident were the hotel owner Clara, the hotel general manager Don, the employee in question Carlos, the police officer that called, and of course me. It should be noted that Carlos is Clara little brother. Carlos who was 19 at the time had a suspended license, for drinking and driving, with a provision to travel back and forth to work only. One night during his suspension he decided that he was going to go out anyway. As you can guess he got caught by the police. He told the police he was on his way home from work so naturally the police officer wanted to call the hotel and verify that was true. Carlos called his sister Clara to tell her everything that just happened. So naturally Clara calls me and Don to get us up to speed so when the police call we could verify that Carlos was in fact on his way home from work. Don who is my direct boss hesitantly agrees to lie and I said I was uncomfortable with the idea of lying to the police. Needless to say I was not happy when I was asked to lie to the police, especially when I thought Carlos needed to learn his lesson. I kind of needed the job so I did not want to out right say no, I kind of wanted to feel the situation out to see if I could say no without having to worry about my job security.

So here is the situation; the owner of the hotel is asking either me or my boss to lie to the police and tell them that my desk clerk employee, her little bother, was on the way home from work the night in question. My ethical dilemma was to both conspire with the owner of the hotel and cover for her brother by telling the police that he was heading home from work or not to lie and tell the police that he was off the night he was caught driving. Not only was it an ethical dilemma, but my own values as an honest person were at steak too. Most people were saying who cares; just lie to the police nobody is getting hurt or going to jail, it is just a little white lie. In some regards those people were right; the world was