Ethics in the workplace

¶ … job at Peterson & Co., a local textile manufacturing firm where I was working as data entry operator. We were required to follow the company's policies in all matters and were clearly told that if we did not understand any part of the company literature, we should contact the senior management. In one such document, it was stated that company had zero tolerance for those who provided false information regarding their work performance. While performance was evaluated on bi-annual basis, we were also required to keep a copy of our monthly time-sheet and present a report of our performance end of each month to our supervisors. Our supervisor was a woman named Sarah, who was competent, intelligent and basically fair. Her assessment of my performance for example was never unjust or biased. I had found her to be an excellent supervisor. However there was one problem. She was intimately involved with one of the employees at the firm, Mark. Mark was also working in the computer section and I was in constant contact with him and thus came to know about his relationship with Sarah. I had known about it for three months and never thought it was a problem since it was not affecting any aspect of our work or performance assessment and Sarah had remained rather discreet about it.

The problem started last December when I noticed that Mark was consistently coming late to work and was leaving earlier than usual but this was going unnoticed by Sarah. Sarah was generally very particular about punctuality and always checked our time sheets to keep track of each employee's office hours. However not only was she ignoring Mark's late arrivals and early departures, she was also ignoring the fact that he was entering wrong information on the time-sheet. This was particularly disturbing to me since we worked in the same department and I couldn't help noticing what was going on. My first instinct was to speak to Sarah about the whole thing since she was obviously doing something wrong and highly uncharacteristic of her. Mark was usually a hardworking employee and I didn't want to jeopardize his job by speaking with senior management. So speaking to Sarah was all I was left with. Finally after two months of, I silent observation, I finally spoke to Sarah. I was shocked to see her reaction. Not only was she totally calm about it, she also tried to talk me out of it by offering to 'enhance' my performance assessment reports. I was upset for days after that but knew something needed to be done and that I couldn't possibly let this happen even though I knew that my speaking to senior management would result in immediate firing of Mark and possibly Sarah as well. But keeping the information inside was also very disturbing since I felt I was betraying or cheating on other employees who worked so hard to stay punctual and spent their office hours 'in the office'.

Analysis

Problem:

The question here is should I speak to senior management and jeopardize jobs of both Mark and Sarah knowing that Sarah has two small kids and that she is a single mother. If I decide not to speak to Sarah, who should I talk to about this problem since talking to Sarah has already proved fruitless? What are my moral and ethical obligations in this case and how can I justify the actions I finally take?

Conflict:

The basic conflict in this case arises from the clash between my humanitarian and ethical values. On the one hand, I don't want Sarah and Mark to lose their jobs because they have both been good employees and good friends besides Sarah is the sole bread earner. On the other hand, I don't want them to take company policies for granted and thus violate the rights of other employees as well.

Ethical Principles:

I am concerned about jobs of Mark and especially Sarah but at the same time, I am also concerned about values of the firm being violated since I have always believed in being honest and ethical in my profession.

A also wouldn't want other employees to feel cheated or betrayed.

A understand I have a moral obligation to the firm and other employees.

Honesty, truthfulness and standing for what is right are important parts of my identity. I would be cheating myself if I didn't speak up and do something about this situation. Since a very young age, my siblings and cousins would look up to me when we found ourselves in sticky situations. They knew that regardless of how much I loved someone, I would always be fair and do what is right and stick with what I found to be true. I knew I would be cheating myself and all these other people who had always looked up to me.

Peterson & co. was an important firm in its region. Even with less than 100 employees, the firm had managed to gain sizeable market share simply because it had the trust of its clients. The clients always knew that with this firm, they would never be cheated. The firm has clear policies on various important issues including entering false information. It would be stupid to claim that we did not understand the repercussions of giving false information in our personal files since the literature was widely circulated among the employees and contents were discussed during most meetings. The firm had been extremely particular about hiring the right people-people who had the same moral and ethical values that the firm wanted to promote.

My ethical obligations:

With above considerations in mind, I have reached the following conclusion:

cannot possibly stay silent on this.

I have to take an action that would uphold the values both I and the company believe in.

A need to make sure that I have exploited all alternatives before the problem is presented before the senior management.

A must understand that one person doing this could eventually lead to other people doing the same thing and if I stay quiet now, I will probably have to stay quiet on all such occasions because I would then be discriminating if I spoke against one employee and not other.

Decision