Professional Workplace Dilemma Paper

Ethical Issue

I have been working at Spectrum Community Services for the past 10 years. There I am a high behavioral group home manager. I manage over 20 staff along with over 12 mentally and developmentally disabled men. When I first started I was not attending college and was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I got a job through Spectrum Community Services not expecting what I got myself into. I handled disabled individuals throwing objects at me, biting, hitting, kicking, spitting, etc. This job is a very stressful and high intensive job. I have been told that for someone to work with these types of individuals, it takes a special person because not everyone can handle that kind of stuff. I was promoted to Manager 5 years ago, and still attend the same job at the same home. About 4 ½ years ago I needed to go to the office to make copies and print things off, due to our computer at the home being down. When I arrived at the office I sat down at a cubical and heard my boss (Quality Coordinator "Jeanne"), and the Case Manager (Rob) talking about me (I forgot to mention that this is right around the time I applied for the Manager position at this home), the hard thing to believe was that when I first sat down I said hi to Jeanne and Rob. They then continued to gossip about me and about my past write up's, any issues that Jeanne may have had with me, and about the way I handle issues with staff. I sat there stunned for a minute and could not believe what I was hearing; it was so hard to believe because they have said nothing to me about some of the issues they were talking about. To top it all off, there were not in a private conference room, or office they were right in the middle of the office where there were several people around hearing every word they said. I walked around the cubical and said "I'm sorry I guess I must have missed the email that we were having a meeting, I guess we can continue this in a private conference room, where we are not being unethical!" Both Jeanne and Rob looked at me and Rob walked away, and Jeanne called me into a conference room to have a "Meeting" with me, I said "Well if you guys can talk about me out in the open why can't we talk about how you guys are gossiping about me right out in the open?" When I entered the conference room Jeanne had a completed write up filled out and handed it to me, I asked why I was getting written up? Jeanne stated "because you sat there and listened to the conversation which was unprofessional." I said "How it is so unprofessional for me to hear you talk about me when you are right out in the open, where other people can hear you. Plus if hearing you talk about me is unprofessional, then how would you explain gossiping about me not being unprofessional?"

I do not believe that there was a difference in power or authority. Jeanne held both the power and had the authority. Jeanne holds the position of handling all staffing issues, along with home issues, and is the Home Manager's boss. Rob holds the position of handling all clients' issues, and money. Rob had neither reason nor right to try and hold any type of authority to talk about any past issues with me. Jeanne does have the right to talk about them, BUT in a private conference room. Jeanne has the power and the authority to do so, but in a professional and ethical way. The biggest reason that I had gotten so upset was because Jeanne and Rob were breaking confidentiality with my personal profile. They did not have the profile, but talking about what was in it is the same as opening it up and showing everyone what I had did. I had felt humiliated, I felt the size or a pea, and I felt like after 5 years and I was still not