Posted on: Monday, December 2, 2002
AT WORK
Letting small things go makes unethical acts seem acceptable
By Amy Joyce
The Washington Post
Admit it. We sit back, horrified by unethical actions at big corporations such as Enron and WorldCom. But what about you? Have you ever falsified records and then justified your action because "it'll help all parties involved"? When your immediate superior tells you to take the gift a client sent you, despite company policy against accepting gifts, is your boss wrong? Or are you wrong for listening to the boss?
What about small things, such as taking office stationery home for your children to use when they play "teacher"?
OK, that last one is picayune compared with what officials at Enron and elsewhere stand accused of, but perhaps our actions, tallied together, can lead to larger issues.
Little infractions can lead to larger breaches in ethics — and so gradually that we don't realize how bad things have become. What does our own little pushing of the ethics envelope do to our organizations, and to ourselves?
We draw many fine lines at work — and cross them every day. It's difficult to figure out when stretching the rules is OK.
Lee WanVeer, director of advisory services at the Ethics Resource Center, says that companies and employees break rules routinely. The 2001 National Business Ethics Survey, conducted by WanVeer's organization, found that 30 percent of employees observe others violating the law or their organization's standards. Twelve percent of respondents see co-workers who break rules, steal, commit fraud and lie to employers.
"They aren't always the huge headline types of things," WanVeer said. "It is the small things that can become commonplace that create a culture of acceptance in the name of expediency or customer service. But that can lead to larger infractions, which was the case at WorldCom and Enron."
One common issue in offices everywhere is gift-taking, WanVeer said. Many companies have a policy about accepting gifts, but then, one day, an employee is in a situation where a deal could be lost, or a client could be insulted, if the employee does not accept the gift.
"In your mind, this is a good reason to break the rule," WanVeer said. But, WanVeer added, disclose the situation to your boss. That way, your superiors know what you're facing and why, and they can address it. If you don't disclose, he said, "it hurts you and creates another link in the chain of small events" that lead to an unethical workplace.
Some infractions aren't so small, but the people involved have a way of justifying the practice anyway. One individual remembers that when working at an interior design firm in Florida, his bosses cheated artists out of cash, justifying the practice as good for the organization — and for the artists, because selling the art exposed their work to the public.
The company was supposed to buy original art at one price, then mark it up for clients and split the difference with the artists. But several of this person's bosses would tell the artists that paintings were for their own homes, so the artists wouldn't ask for the money from the markup.
"You have to be wary of rationalizations," WanVeer said. "The little lies we tell ourselves to give ourselves permission to do what is wrong" can cause major damage. In this case, the bosses are rationalizing so they can do what they want. The employee is probably rationalizing that he shouldn't say anything because he might get himself in trouble.
