I have no claim to spirituality, nor do I care much.
However, I believe that sound spiritual health is essential for a sound emotional health, and these two shape our overall health and well-being.
From a more materialistic point of view, when we are spiritually, emotionally and bodily in good shape, we take right decisions and succeed in our professional life too.
Professional ethics is one small, doable set of rules that have a spiritual tinge but need not have the heavy burden of morality or spirituality.
When we are part of a highly competitive, result-maniac corporate world, we are prone to set our ethical values aside for small gains. However, with my own experience and in discussion with senior managers, I have discovered that sticking to some ethical values in the face of greed and inducements goes a long way in one's career.
Let me give the example of moonlighting or doing a part-time job.
Who does not like to earn on the side? The lure is too much to resist when you are a professional with command over your field, there is a huge paying market outside your official employment, and there is no likelihood your getting caught by your employer. If your position is such that even if your present employer fires you, you end up earning even more.
In my opinion, moonlighting or working part-time elsewhere is ethically fine as long as you are not AT ALL compromising with the duties of your main employment, not AT ALL exploiting the confidential/ proprietary resources and information, and not AT ALL divulging any information to your employer's competitors that would hurt your employer's interests. For me, anything less than this would be unethical.
In this case, you can have your own standards of ethicality, However, if you keep your standards low, there is a risk of your inner self pricking you now or later. You cannot avoid that even if you have convinced yourself that you are doing nothing bad in under-performing for your present employer, and your present employer deserves only a low level of output from you in the salary he gives you. Believe me, this will suppress your innate sense of ethicality but keep bothering you and hurting you in unseen ways.
Dealing with ethical dilemmas
The earlier example was when we make a choice ourselves. However, in our business or managerial or working life, we are faced with ethical dilemmas, and some of which can be really challenging.
If you have been employed even for a few years, you might have faced onmany ethically difficult workplace situations. Some of these are a one-time affair while others are recurring or ongoing. Our dilemmas as employees can range from very innocuous-looking and minor confusions to major, earth-shaking ones. Look at these dilemmas, just to recall:
- Whether to use company's time and resources for private web surfing, other works
- How much own past information to share with the employer
- Whether to make personal gain at the employer's cost, within is NOT ILLEGAL
- Whether to retaliate (publicly, as whistle blower or in own unethical ways) if the company is involved in unethical (or illegal) dealings
- If it is OK to retaliate by being unethical if superiors are unethical in their conduct towards employees (e.g. favouritism, discrimination, bullying, exploitation, sexual overtures)
Some of us come with a baggage of what is morally good and bad, which overlaps with workplace ethics. In many parts of India, especially in rural areas, favouring one's kin is traditionally taken as a highly desirable social trait. Of them, getting employment to a kin using one's network is one of the ultimate good one can do to one's clan. On the other hand, this is considered a highly unethical conduct in modern context in which merit must be the only consideration in employment.
Since this post discusses the employee-side of ethics, let me keep for some post the good practices that need to be followed by firms/ employers. What the employees need to do so as not to slip on the ethical road is to draw a line for themselves (which will get revised over the years based on experience, service conditions, etc. but not for the sake of diluting them) and try to stick to that. There will be situations in which you will get self-doubts because you see others making 'successes' by adopting unfair means. You might face peer pressure to conduct in an unethical ways. Even family members might convince you to take a path that you feel is not ethical. You have to remain strong in the face of such pressures, without looking adamant or puritan. You need not take a 'holier-than-thou' attitude and make a public show of your ethical standards. You should take care not to compare yourself with others.
I could make a long list of ethical/ unethical activities in workplaces. However, not to duplicate what has been listed well on other websites, let me give their links here:
***
How ethics in job makes a practical sense more than spiritual?
Comments
Post a Comment