Business ethics: Scenarios and your responses.

[SeriousStudent]

The neat thing about being honest and telling the truth, is that you never have to worry about keeping your story straight.

It's also easier to look yourself, or anyone else for that matter, directly in the eye.

[_Stormin_]

The person in S2 could be baiting you with false information. You report her, and then she trumps the accusation with definitive proof of her transcript. Boom! Now you look like a liar and scumbag.

Then she was still a liar, and wouldn't be welcome in any company of mine.

[CarlosDJackal]

1) No matter how good your food or service might be; bad reviews will be inevitable whether real or fake. If your food and service is good, the positive reviews and word of mouth will trump the negative ones in the long run.

2) As long as your co-worker is doing their job, what do you care whether or not she has a degree. That is between your co-worker and the company. Besides, unless you know that the lack of a degree is a fact, you really have no grounds for reporting this.

3) I found my first job out of college because I was not hired for the one I interviewed for. They liked me so much one of the VPs treated me to lunch and they ended up creating a position for me for which I was hired. Who knows, maybe the CEO's nephew might decide not to accept the position.

[AKDoug]

1) No matter how good your food or service might be; bad reviews will be inevitable whether real or fake. If your food and service is good, the positive reviews and word of mouth will trump the negative ones in the long run.

2) As long as your co-worker is doing their job, what do you care whether or not she has a degree. That is between your co-worker and the company. Besides, unless you know that the lack of a degree is a fact, you really have no grounds for reporting this.

3) I found my first job out of college because I was not hired for the one I interviewed for. They liked me so much one of the VPs treated me to lunch and they ended up creating a position for me for which I was hired. Who knows, maybe the CEO's nephew might decide not to accept the position.

+1 on all three.

[Alaskapopo]

S1- Never going to ask for a positive review. Never going to beg or plead or offer money or services. I will do what I do to the best of my ability. If people like what I do, great! I hope they spread the word far and wide and often. If they don't, then they don't. And that's unfortunate. But life sucks, get a helmet.

S2- The only thing unethical about this was the business requiring a BA, forcing somebody to lie in order to get the job they wanted and are quite obviously competent and capable of doing and doing well. No sense destroying somebody's life, livelihood, and career over what is ultimately a trivial piece of paper.

S3- I don't know anything for certain about what will ultimately happen. For all I know, the nephew could be struck by a meteorite (or [insert horrific, life-altering tragedy here]) before the hiring process begins in earnest or not long after it ends.

On your response to S2. There is nothing unethical about setting requirments you want as a employer for a job. As an employer I would prefer a more educated workforce. No one is forcing anyone to lie. That is like a car theif blaming the victim for leaving the keys in the car forcing him to steel it. Sorry but that is BS. I know of a department where an officer was found to have lied about his education after he had been employed for several years. He was rightfully terminated. You have to have your integrity.
Pat

[Don Robison]

I know of a department where an officer was found to have lied about his education after he had been employed for several years. He was rightfully terminated. You have to have your integrity.
Pat

Our local department just got rid of one of those guys. He was the number two guy in the department. For full disclosure, fluffing his resume was a minor issue compared to the racketeering charges he was just convicted of at his trial.

[Alaskapopo]

Our local department just got rid of one of those guys. He was the number two guy in the department. For full disclosure, fluffing his resume was a minor issue compared to the racketeering charges he was just convicted of at his trial.

Yea he did not start as a racketeer he started as a liar and it got worse I am sure.
Pat

[MountainRaven]

Then she was still a liar, and wouldn't be welcome in any company of mine.

So how do you resolve the situation? Fire both of them?

On your response to S2. There is nothing unethical about setting requirments you want as a employer for a job. As an employer I would prefer a more educated workforce. No one is forcing anyone to lie. That is like a car theif blaming the victim for leaving the keys in the car forcing him to steel it. Sorry but that is BS. I know of a department where an officer was found to have lied about his education after he had been employed for several years. He was rightfully terminated. You have to have your integrity.
Pat

No, you're right, it's not unethical.

But thanks to employer requirements forcing more and more "educated" employees... a BA is neither a guarantee of competence nor education.

[Crow Hunter]

Is it ethical to tell upper management that she lied on her resume, when you know it will guarantee you the promotion?

This is the problem I have with scenario #2.

It implies that you would not mention that said employee lied on her resume unless you know it will guarantee you a promotion.

I want to be chosen because I am the best candidate for the job based on my skills and abilities, not because I was able to find something wrong with one of my competitors and thereby be the only option left. That, in my opinion, shows a lack of personal integrity on par or exceeding lying on a resume to begin with.

It is up to the company to do a thorough background check. I know when I was hired on in my first engineering job, I had to give contact information for my school so that my degree could be verified. I know they did this because I used to work in the Dean's Office and after they did the check, one of the secretaries emailed me and told me congratulations on getting the job.

If the job "requires" a degree but it can be done adequately by someone who doesn't actually have that degree, it is probably a bogus requirement anyway just created by management fiat. If they don't want to enforce their fiat by at least calling the school in question to ask if a prospective employee actually even graduated from said school, it isn't my place to step in and enforce it, especially for no other reason than advancing my personal career.

[JSantoro]

I have a certificate that proves I already fulfilled my ethics compliance for the year, Lumberg!