Ethics in the Workplace

Good ethics is essential in the workplace to have a good, working environment. Many companies now enforce ethics training, in hopes that the good ethics will rise above bad ethics. But in too many cases that does not happen.

It is important to enforce good ethics in the workplace so that trust may be a result. Employers must be able to build trust around their employees and visa versa. Employees must also be able to trust fellow employees. When bad ethics are being displayed by an individual or group of individuals, it is hard to gain trust in the workplace. Without trust, the bad ethics multiply.

Pretty much any workplace individual is able to provide examples of both good and bad work ethics, whether they committed both, or form watching others in their workplace. We have provided examples of both, from personal experiences in a workplace environment.

While in the army, I saw a great display of both good and bad ethics, though one display of good ethics stands out in my mind. My platoon was deployed to a small island chain called Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. We were deployed there, as our unit was every year to work on construction projects. The main island, Kwajalein is owned by the United States Government. We won this island in WW2 and there are items buried all over the island and in the water from the war. The replicas are worth quite a bit of money. A small US citizen workforce and military retirees live on the island. Islanders from the rest of the chain are brought over by ferry every morning to work as housekeepers, cooks, etc. These islanders are very poor and depend on the small wage that the US government pays them.

One day, an islander's shanty that he took breaks from the sun in, blew down in a mild tropical storm. It was right next to the building we were constructing. For the next couple of days this islander took his siestas in the sun or rain without asking for any help or shelter. When our weekend off came up, my platoon sergeant asked for volunteers to stay over the weekend and help reconstruct the shanty. Of course, freedom sounded better than work to most people. There were two of us that volunteered, three total to include the supervisor. We worked all weekend, hand digging because our equipment operators had not volunteered. While digging, we came across a WW2 replica, a boot with the dog tag attached. It was sad sight, but one that the government would pay quite a bit for. We sat down and talked over what to do with this replica. Because we were working, we could just turn it in. The second choice was to not take the credit and allow the islander to. We chose the second choice and he was paid for this replica. This may have been a personal choice between the three of us, but I have always considered it a good ethical choice on our part. Because we were working, our supervisor could have taken the credit, but instead used his better judgment and allow the credit to go to the islander, who's little bit of land it was on.

This example may have been good ethics. Bad ethics are also a part of the workplace and happen often. Next is an example of a situation that ended on a note of bad ethics.

In my job as an Accounts Payable specialist I deal with debits and credits, not so much the credits. We developed another department call (DFV) Due from Vendor, which are the dealing with the credits. There was a lady (Dina) whom I will describe as "sat in her ways" whom took care of these credits. Dina would at times put her work off on others, because she felt she could get away with it, until she tried it with me.

On one occasion she brought back to me a credit that I had already done my research on before giving it to her and she asked that I do more research on it. All she simply wanted was for me to look up the invoice and the credit that washed against it in a file cabinet that is between the whole department and very accessible to anyone. Well I gave it back to her and explained that all she had to do was go look in the files.

Then there was another situation, I picked up her mail for her and gave it to her. Well I guess she already had and