Business Ethical Dilemma One As the Regional Vice President s Assistant, I am his right hand. I ve been working for Harry for about five years. In these five years our company has changed owners three times and each time Harry gets a promotion. This time the parent company is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri and we are now a publicly traded company. In the cellular phone industry rapid changes are nothing new. Things had been going well but now Harry seems to be more and more agitated when he deals with this new parent company. You see, Harry is used to being listened to. He is exceptionally smart and knows the cellular industry well. When I started five years ago we were small potatoes, and the phones were just a bit smaller than bricks! Harry was in charge of three markets and our staff fit into one small office, about thirty altogether. Like I said, every time we have been bought, Harry gets a promotion. Each time Harry gets a promotion he makes sure I receive a generous pay increase as well. We are now in charge of twenty-five markets across the United States, even Alaska! Our current staff is around three-hundred. One day I made the mistake of asking Harry what was troubling him. He told me, these new corporate folks are morons they just don t get it. Our success was no accident. Up until this new company bought us, Harry was allowed to make all decisions as long as he kept within budget and did not do anything illegal. Now this new company was telling Harry what to do, when, where and how. He is their puppet. Harry voices his opinion, believe me he is not afraid to do that; unfortunately, it is falling on deaf ears. Harry feels like the parent company is doing exactly the opposite of what he suggests. It is very frustrating to see our success start to dwindle and feel hopeless about it. When they started a new marketing promotion based on survey data from subscribers in California, Harry
hit the roof. You can t base all marketing decisions for the company on California customers. This is pure madness. Californians do not think or act like our subscribers in the Midwest. Midwesterners don t act like our customers in Alaska. This is ludicrous! I heard his part of the conversation through the wall separating our offices. One day Harry asked me to look into purchasing information on new license areas coming up for auction. I spent a few hours looking into the data and told him what was available. He gave me his credit card and told me to purchase the database. We looked at markets that were underdeveloped just like our first markets were at one time. Over the course of a few months Harry eluded to building his own company. He always joked about taking the management team with him, including me. One day it finally occurred to me that the database I helped him purchase and some of the research and other work he was having me do was not for our parent company. I was helping him with his aspirations of owning his own business on the current company s time. I am very loyal to Harry. He has been very good to me. The new owners did not want to give me a pay raise because I was making too much money already for an assistant. These owners do not care about us in the field. They think they know it all. Yet, I had this creeping feeling I was into something I should not be. What should I do at this point? Page 2 of 9
Business Ethical Dilemma Two I have been in the cleaning industry for twenty years. I ve owned my own small cleaning business for half that time. I was approached by a friend, Ted, to come work for him at a local, private property management firm with its own cleaning division, Empire Realty. I thought about it carefully and told Ted that I would do it as long as I could keep my own cleaning company. This should not be a problem since I knew Ted s wife, Sonia, has her own little cleaning company as well. We made a gentlemen s agreement that I would not go after any of Empire s accounts, nor Sonia s accounts, and that my current accounts would be off limits to Empire and Sonia. I know Ted has a busy life but as my boss I really need him to show me the ropes. Instead of training me in on his job, he has been spending time venting to me about his family issues and his dilemma about switching careers. I ask him work related questions and he tells me he will get back to me. He is so focused on the carrots the President of the company is dangling in front of him; he forgets that I have a lot to learn. Not only am I trying to learn his old position, but both supervisors quit when I got hired and we are always short staffed. As I was reviewing the issues that are causing problems for the cleaning division, I noticed that the turn-over rates were extremely high, even for this industry. What is really suspicious to me is that it is always the dependable workers leaving. Where were these employees going? When the latest good worker gave their notice I asked them where they were going. This employee told me they got an offer from a company called Squeaky Clean. What? This Squeaky Clean is Sonia s business. I thought Empire s employees were off limit to my business as well as Sonia s. Page 3 of 9
Some major bids were coming up. One of the larger bids I was invited to attend was at a local medical clinic. If I could get this account for Empire, it would be huge! Maybe it would be large enough that they would actually pay me a decent salary and I could let the Empire take over my accounts so I would only have to focus on one job, not two. I should have known better. Who was at the bid? None other than Sonia! What should I do at this point? Page 4 of 9
What Actually Happened? Dilemma One I was naïve. This was my first job out of college and I was so grateful finding a job in town rather than transferring to a large city. At the time, I really did not understand that the things I was doing on company time were an issue. After all, I was a salaried employee. It was not costing the company anything as I work until all my tasks are finished. What were a few minutes of using the company s computer really hurting? Harry has been good to me and he is my boss. If Harry asks me to do something, it s my obligation to do it unless of course it is illegal. The local management team is very tight nit. We were all becoming unhappy with the stupid changes the parent company was making. It was no secret among the management team that Harry was trying to develop his own company and wanted to take us all with him. It was the Thursday night before Labor Day weekend, I remember clearly because it was our fantasy football league night and we were all getting together after work to do the draft. I had a few things to finish up and then I would catch up with everyone at the bar. I pulled in the parking lot and Harry was waiting for me, pacing back and forth while he was on the phone. The pacing wasn t anything new, but he looked as though someone had passed away. He got off the phone and came over to me before I could get inside. Charlotte, they know said Harry. Know what? I replied. Charlotte, they (the parent company) found out about my plan to develop my own company. Somehow they found out, and they fired me. WHAT? They fired you? I said in shock. Needless to say, I did not sleep well that night. Harry called me in the morning before I left for work. I could tell he was worried. He was not worried about himself; he was worried they were going to fire me as well. He told me if they ask me anything that I was just doing Page 5 of 9
what my boss told me to do. I was upset, if only they would have listened to Harry and let us run the markets like we always have, we wouldn t be in this situation. When I got to work that morning there was an email from the President of the company that stated that Harry was fired for his actions and gave the detail of why he was fired. It also stated that while they do not believe anyone else was involved they were still investigating this matter. No one else was fired. They did not even question me or any of the management team. We still are not sure how they found out about Harry s plans. The company stated that during an email scan they came across Harry s unethical practice of working on his own, potentially competing, business while using company time and property. Harry threatened a lawsuit for defamation of character due to the detailed email that came out about the circumstances around his dismissal. I don t know the details of the settlement but the company did pay him a generous severance package to keep it out of court. Page 6 of 9
What Actually Happened? Dilemma Two I talked with Ted about the conflicts of interest I encountered. From our conversations I got the feeling this was a do as I say, not as I do situation. He never did make time to train me in properly. I never pursued the conflict of interest with Ted any further and ended up resigning from the firm to continue focusing on my own company. Ted is still with Empire, working his way into the President position. The new Director of Cleaning Operations still reports to him. Sonia still has her cleaning business and it continues to grow. I often wonder if the President of Empire knows what is going on. Maybe he does and just does not care because the cleaning operation is so small compared to the rest of the company. It will be interesting to see what happens with Sonia s business if Ted ever does become President of Empire. Page 7 of 9
Summary I have learned a lot since these dilemmas occurred and from doing this exercise. First, if something does not feel right if the little voice is screaming danger then I really must listen to it. I could have easily been fired for helping Harry and probably should have been. Fortunately for me, they realized that I was just doing what was asked of me. At the time I really did not realize what I was doing was wrong nor how it impacted the company. After attending this class and reflecting on that part of my career, I now understand the magnitude of the situation. Second, I have learned that you do not have to do what is asked of you, even by your supervisor. If it is illegal or unethical, I do have the right to say no without worrying about serious repercussions. My moral compass has changed, for the better, over the past several years and I believe it will continue to become better as I mature. Next, working for friends really is not a good idea. It is difficult to maintain an unbiased professional relationship with friends. Would dilemma number two turn out differently if they were not friends? I believe so. I think the person in the subordinate role would have gone to someone and told them what was going on. However, it really surprises me that Ted is still getting away with this huge conflict of interest. There are others within the company that know about his wife s business. Finally, if there is a conflict of interest between parts of my life, I will find a way of resolving them. There is no way I could have gone to work for another company that I am potentially competing with and felt good about it. In fact, when I was hired into the position that I currently hold I made sure my supervisor knew I had a business and that I was getting out of it to make certain there were no conflicts. Page 8 of 9
Source: Lovejoy, T. E. (2009, October 17). (C. A. Lovejoy, Interviewer) Page 9 of 9