Business Ethic Answers
In your Career Resource Workbook, on pages 117 - 119, there are four situations. Read each situation and then determine how you would handle the situation. After you have documented how you would handle the situation review the example answers below.
Situation One
According to your company’s policy, quality is the highest priority. You are working on a rush order and have cut some corners in order to meet the deadline. It would take at least another day to do a quality job, but then you would miss the deadline and both the customer and your boss would be unhappy. What should you do?
Understanding that quality is the highest priority, I would explain to the customer and my boss that we would only need one more day to produce a product that they would be proud to use. I would explain that we want to produce the best product, and in order to produce the best product, we only need one more day. If the client were unhappy that we needed one more day, then I would provide some type of discount in order to keep the client happy. I would explain that we understand that deadlines are important but that we also believe a quality product is more important. I would emphasize that we want the client to be happy with his/her purchase.
Situation Two
A fellow employee is being harassed at work and is afraid to say or do anything about it for fear of losing his/her job. You have witnessed several instances of the harassment, and you also fear retaliation from the company if you blow the whistle. You can’t afford to lose your job either. What should you do?
Because I can’t afford to lose my job and I am not the person being harassed I would not blow the whistle. Instead I would provide support to my fellow employee. I would first encourage him/her to tell the individual who is harassing him/her that he/she is uncomfortable with the words or actions he/she is using. If he/she does not stop harassing him/her, then I would encourage him/her to go to his/her manager or someone who can do something about the harassment. I would tell him/her that harassment is against the law and that he/she will not get in trouble for exposing the harassment because the company is legally obligated to take action.