foreverserenity

Join Date 06/2004

+76

Ethics and You – where would you draw the line?

Can you be impartial and do your job?

I’ve not been in any highly secretive jobs where I had to have clearance from anyone above the person that I’m working for. Then again, I do remember once when I was temping for an agency and putting myself through business school, I had to be bonded in order to work on Wall Street. So I guess that was a high security risk alright.

I have also in the past work with people who handle other people’s personal financial information and the information within must be kept confidential at all times. I’ve been privy to conversations that I as the Assistant must keep mum about because it is expected of me to do so. I could not go to lunch with friends and blab all over the place about who I know would get a raise, who wouldn’t and who was about to be canned! Nope, there were ethics involved and I had to respect that. Especially when some of those people called to chit chat and ask in their cleverly intellectual fashion to see if I know anything. Nope, nothing out of me, what did they think, I was born yesterday?!

Take the case of a current co-worker, in a position of some importance being (the man-in-charge Assistant) enquiring from private companies we did business with to hire her daughter who was currently unemployed. One such business did hire the daughter and that relationship did not go well! How can anyone in their right mind do that? Isn’t there some ethics involved here? She just didn’t see anything wrong with what she did!

Today, I read with much interest an article about a couple of Journalists and questions about their ethics. A journalist was recently fired because of her contribution to a politician, then the blatant posting of a photo of herself and said candidate on facebook.com, where she also encouraged her friends and anyone else reading, to support that particular candidate; a cartoonist lost his job because he made a contribution to his candidate of choice, then said that he “didn’t give a rat’s ass” about his employer’s ethic policies; and an Ethicist who writes for a local newspaper, and whose column was about to be picked up by the New York Times, lost his big opportunity because of his contribution to a political organization.

These are people whose job it is to be impartial because of what they do, because they may show favoritism to the very people or organization they will have to report about. How would they remain impartial? This is the reason they were fired.

Do you think this is right? I do. Because how are they going to do their job to the best of their ability when they have what seems to be some deals with a candidate or political organization that they are covering? It’s definitely a matter of how moral an individual is and the principles involved because of the type of job they do.

The same goes without saying to anyone who is in a position where some kind of moral code has to be in place in order for them to do their job. I’ve been with companies, present one included, that ask their employees, the ones who are in a professional capacity, to sign a type of ethics contract stating that they do not accept gifts or they are not working for other agencies that might be a conflict to their current positions or the company. I believe that doing this is definitely a good policy for any company to have. Especially if said company award contracts as a part of its business.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard of people in a certain position taking advantage of a situation because of the position they are in. How can anyone really be honest when they put themselves in situation that would be deemed questionable?

143 journalists! I had no idea that so many journalists made political contributions and some saw nothing wrong with what they did. Bill Dedman, Investigative Reporter for MSNBC wrote an article that I’m linking below. The second link is to the article that detailed who, what, to whom, and how much. Nothing is secret (or sacred) anymore. I guess these journalists forgot about that!

Link

Link

misc

Locked Post

Advanced Search

Watch this post

Do not email me updates for this post Email me updates for this post

Successfully updated karma reason!

look at that list again. notice how many are food critics, entertainment beat reporters and other journalistic endeavors that don't have squat to do with politics.

whereas some (a minority) of these reporters probably should steer clear of donations, most of them don't work in political journalism.

and also, note that some of these people's contributions don't really reflect their perspective. joe scarborough gave to republicans, yet he's probably one of the bigget critics of this administration on the air.

i was gonna write about this the other day, but after i looked at it, it seemed more hype than hip.

Successfully updated karma reason!

look at that list again. notice how many are food critics, entertainment beat reporters and other journalistic endeavors that don't have squat to do with politics.

Yes, although some do and most don't, the media company they work for do have to be looked at in a fovorable light.

whereas some (a minority) of these reporters probably should steer clear of donations, most of them don't work in political journalism.

They should all steer clear of it, however, this is where the question comes in where should they draw the line between their personal and business ethics.

was gonna write about this the other day, but after i looked at it, it seemed more hype than hip.

I guess it's how you write it!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Re: the Boss's daughter. I dont see that as unethical, just bad business sense. In the respect that should something go sour (as it did), the boss then has a dilemna. She cannot very well abandon her child, yet there is going to be bad blood between the daughter and that company that she has to deal with both on.

Successfully updated karma reason!

it's really very simple, you work for an organization that has a policy that says. No political donations allowed, you have a choice, either follow their rules or quit and find another job with someplace that lets you donate to who you want to. THE END!

Successfully updated karma reason!

Re: the Boss's daughter.

Make that the Boss' Assistant's daughter! And yep, it did, because she turned out to be a not too good worker for one reason or another, nice girl, just can't seem to hold a job!

I agree with you on that Elie. Some would question though I'm sure, why they cannot do what they're asked not to especially since they might do it on their personal time and it is their money. As you say though, don't do it, and that's that!

Successfully updated karma reason!

I don't really have an issue with a journalist making a political contribution. We already know that the media is slated one way or another.

I have a problem when the politicians make contributions to the media.

The assistants daughter issue. I've seen people fired for less.

Successfully updated karma reason!

have a problem when the politicians make contributions to the media.

That would definately be questionable!

The assistants daughter issue. I've seen people fired for less.

Me too, but nothing happened with this situation.

Successfully updated karma reason!