Dealing With Unethical Behavior In The Workplace
Working in an office environment with many employees often lends itself to potential problems
. With different kinds of people, and many different cultures and personalities, unethical behavior can arise from time to time.
Learning how to address it and deal with it promptly can keep your job and your office much more pleasant and comfortable. In many cases, you also have a legal obligation to address it.
It is a sad truth that the employees of just about every business, in every business, will occasionally encounter team members who are taking part in unethical behaviors. Such behaviors include a wide variety of different activities.
Among the most common of these inappropriate business behaviors of employees, are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records.
Though there is sometimes a difference between behaviors that are unethical and activities that are actually illegal, it is up to the business itself to decide how it deals with behavior, legal or not. Many employees find that discovering these wrong behaviors among co-workers actually tests their own values and ethical behaviors.
After all, unethical behavior that is not illegal frequently falls in a grey area between right and wrong, that makes it difficult to decide what to do when it is encountered. Furthermore, different people have different views regarding what is right and what is wrong.
For example, some people feel that it is alright to tell a little "white lie," or to make one long distance call on the company's nickel, as long as they can justify it in their mind. When employees discover other employees doing something that they know is wrong by the company's standards, their own sense of what is right and what is wrong instantly comes into question.
That employee needs to consider how he or she feels about that particular activity, as well as informing about that activity, or turning a blind eye. Even by deciding to do something about it, the employee who has discovered the problem is presented with a number of difficult choices.
Should the employee speak to the individual directly, or should the employee head directly to a company supervisor? If you are close with the person who has committed the infraction, this can be especially difficult to decide.
To make this decision a bit easier, many companies have adopted several techniques that allow for the management of these activities. The first step is to create a company policy, in writing, that is read and signed by each employee.
This erases most feelings of ambiguity when it comes to deciding what to do after witnessing a behavior that is legally wrong, or infringes upon company policy.
The second is to give a clear outline of what is expected of the person who has discovered the problem. It should include the person who should be contacted, and how to go about doing it.
With clear instructions, there will be less hesitation in reporting these issues, and then they can be dealt with quickly and relatively easily, before they develop into overwhelming issues. Furthermore, the repercussions of participating in these behaviors should be clearly stated.
This way, both the person doing the activity, and the witness to the activity will be well aware of the way that things will be dealt with, and there will not be any risk of someone not reporting the problem because they are afraid that the culprit will be unfairly treated. Communication is key in the proper management of these infringements in today 's workplace.
If you have a questions about the behavior of a fellow employee, it is better to talk to a manager right away. After all, if the issue does come to management's attention in some other way and you were found to be knowledgeable of it, you could get in just as much trouble as the employee who was originally in the wrong.
It is better to be honest, and to make sure the security of your own job is safe, rather than to try to cover for someone else. Read your company's standards on what is right and wrong today.
by: Jack Landry
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