Ethical Decision Making In The Work Place – Part 2
Written by Paul on December 5th, 2007
In my last posting, I discussed and asked for input regarding the appearance of a firefighter abusing sick leave. Allow me to add a little twist to the scenario. Let’s imagine you were the off duty Captain that saw the firefighter at the home supply store. You decided not to confront the firefighter or mention this incident to anyone else.
On your next duty day your Battalion Chief calls you into his office and informs you that both you and the firefighter who called in sick were both seen at the store. He indicated he is trying to gather facts and wants to know what you know about the incident. What do you tell him?
Would you cover-up? As with Watergate and President Nixon, sometimes the cover-up ends up being worse than the underlying offense.
The bottom line is each of us can be as ethical with our decisions as we are willing to be. We need to think about our decisions in terms of simply right or wrong, how it impacts relationships, our credibility and our reputation.
My mother use to tell me to stop, and look both ways before I cross the street. That is also a good thought to have before making a decision. We should stop, think, and ask ourselves if we are making a good choice. The following are some questions to ask ourselves.
- Is my decision in line with the organizations mission statement?
- Will my decision affect others?
- Is there another option?
- Could I jeopardize important relationships?
- Is it the ethical thing to do?
It’s often said that our choices reveal our character. It is also said our choices shape our character. In turn our character shapes our destiny.
So, how would you define character? I believe that character is simply ethics in action. Successful leaders focus on building a sustainable ethical culture that nurtures and promotes integrity, competence, accountability, respect and discourages dishonesty and encourages trust and respect. I believe the officer of character would say something to the firefighter at the home supply store.
This is certainly easier said than done. There is no such thing as the perfect fire officer or perfect firefighter. We all make mistakes. We say and do things we regret. The important thing is that we learn from the mistakes we make.
I believe it would be the Captains duty to approach the member and ask him what he was doing there? A proper response would be to remind the member of his “duties” when off sick, to care for himself in a manner that would allow him to recover quickly and hasten his return to duty. Shopping would not meet that obligation, so the Officer should instruct the member to return home and do his “duty”. When the Officer was confronted by the Chief, he could then explain that he spoke with the member, gave him a verbal reprimand, reiterated his obligation when off sick, and sent him home. Upon his return to work he issued a “Notice To Improve”. That, to me, would be a situation handled by the Captain, case closed.
My contention in this case involves the “ethics”. In my 36 years on the job I saw many instances of the ol’ “double standard”!! One case in particular that drew my ire was an engineer that was spotted in a gas station by a staff assistant and noticed that he had items in his vehicle that indicated that he was leaving town. He reported it to His Chief, who in turn filed paper on the Engineer. The Engineer received 3 days off. That was appropriate, EXCEPT – The very staff assistant who “ethically” reported the incident had just completed “scheduling” SICK days for a Captain who was getting ready to retire and wanted to use them up because he was over his maximum!!!! This was done in the very same Battalion office where the Engineer received his time off!!!! One was acceptable and the other was not???? This type of double standard needs to be totally eliminated before there is any discussion of the “rank & file” ethics. Let’s hold the entire Department to a higher standard. Thats what the public believes and that is what they deserve. This is not a “job”, it is a “career”, built on sweat and sacrifice of one individual to help another who cannot help himself. I believe that each and every member, from the Chief Engineer to the youngest Rookie feels this desire to give of him or her self and already holds themselves to that higher standard. If they don’t feel that inner sacrifice, they should find another “job”.
posted on December 18th, 2007 at 11:08 am