Examples of Ethics as an Employee
Hi and سلام to All
In this post, the use of the male ‘him/he‘ is used for easy reading and can be replaced by ‘her/she‘ depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
I have been asked by reader to give examples of situations I have been in that have or may have impacted upon my ethics.
I must comment here that not all of you will have experienced all of them but I am sure you have experienced at least one.
The first example goes back to my time in the military where I was a corporal; I was in charge of a platoon and was responsible for their health and well being as well as their discipline. During an inspection by the commanding officer, he noted that the one toilet bowl was a bit 'grey'. I checked it and the bowl was stained but not dirty, so, the toilet bowl would never be 'white'. I informed him about this to which our Lieutenant took exception to. After the inspection was over, the commanding officer said that it was good and to continue. The Lieutenant on the other hand, must have thought it had cost him his name 'good' versus 'excellent'. He told me to punish the platoon by taking them for a forced march (20 Kms) and to drill them for at least 2 hours after the march. I disagreed with him and told him so, I even refused to do it and ended up in front of the commanding officer who stated; 'Ferreiro you are an un-commissioned officer who will take orders from officers and carry them out EVEN if you do not agree with them.' I again refused to do it and asked for a transfer to another unit (32 Battalion) which was approved. I left the unit 3 days later. I actually saw the Lieutenant a few years later to his surprise when I was a sergeant, he lost this time as we were working with mature soldiers aged 25 and up which you treat differently to soldiers who are 16 thru 18 years. He tried the same stunt, telling his platoon sergeant to punish the platoon, again the sergeant refused and took it to the Regimental Sergeant Major who agreed with him, the end result is that the officer ended up doing a lot of extra duties to teach him about leadership. I do not believe to this day that he did.
The second example skips a few years ahead when I worked for a supplier. I was responsible for a security tool called ESM from Axent Technologies (who were later bought by Symantec). We were tasked by the client to perform a comparison test between 3 products which measured baseline security compliance to a standard, these being; Axent, Computer Associates and Digital. In the review following a testing methodology, it was found that the CA product was not up to scratch and may meet 30% of the client’s requirement. The Axent and Digital products were very much the same mainly due them both being created by Raxco which developed tools for VAX VMS. Both products would meet at least 90% of the client’s requirement. The sales person who was responsible for the account, told me to bias the report to show that the Axent product was better. In doing so, he could make the sale. I disagreed and he went to the MD who also told me to do it. Again I refused and told them I would give them the report and that they could change it to suit their requirements. Needless to say, the client had actually expected me to bias the report and when they received the report were pleasantly surprised that it was not. The MD had chosen not to change the report as his name would have had to be put on the report. We got the sale as the opposition were tasked to do the same investigation and they biased their reports. We received other work from the client and the company made money. I resigned from the company and cited the experience as one of the reasons. The MD promised me that it would not occur again, but once bitten twice shy.
The third example skips a few years ahead to when I was a manager at a big company. The company made a great deal of money so I thought they would have a feeling of better responsibility for compliance. In this instance, I found that some people are motivated only by money and not what is ‘right’. ‘Right’ in this sense being the fact that you do not contravene laws such as Intellectual Property and Copyright or report back to management about instances that are cannot be proved. In this case, I was told not to answer a vendor’s request for licensing information on their product. Along the same lines, I was told not to tell management about a report that I compiled showing the serious lack of licence management and the associated cost to ensure licence compliance. I was also told by management that I was to do an investigation into an employee to prove that they had done ‘something’ wrong. After doing all the checks and verifying the balances, it actually identified that the manager’s ‘friend’ had planted the evidence against the employee. When I reported this with facts and figures, the manager told me that I must have been wrong and that his ‘friend’ would not do anything of the sort even thought the evidence showed differently. I was moved to another division so had nothing else to do with the manager again other than to audit his operations and raise comments and associated risks. I have since left the company after understanding that even in a large company ‘ethics’ is based on how much money ends up in your back pocket. I have since heard that the company is under investigation by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and that they face legal litigation both civil and criminal.
The last comes from a project that I was involved in where the client was informed that the contractors knew what they required and to accept the deliverables. When prompted by the lead consultant and myself about best practices and frameworks such as 27001, eTOM, COBIT and TOGAF we were told to keep quiet and do the work which we were tasked to deliver. When asked to design a solution which following all practices requires the client’s input, we were told to ‘just deliver’ and not to trust the client. Again, this is against all principles of client engagements for each of the multi-nationals involved in the project with perhaps one not even having one. The lead consultant was removed from the project for I quote ‘bringing the consortium into disrepute’. In a later meeting, I was informed that the solution must meet the client’s requirements of a 360 degree Information Security view. When I prompted the consortium of what was required to deliver this, I was told by the multi-national that this could be discussed and that they would ‘HACK’ their product to deliver a 360 degree view even though it was not able to do it. I have since left the project.
There are many other examples that I could use but I believe that highlight what I have been saying in my posts.
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
I just cleaned my desktop from dust
سلام عليكم جميعا 
توي مخلص الحين من عملية تنظيف الدسك توب حقي من الغبار (طلعت اوادم من الدسك توب موب غبار) وحبيت اشارككم بنتيجه التنظيف الا وهي درجات الحرارة قبل وبعد.. طبعا التنظيف اللي سويته شامل للدسك توب كله يعني المراوح اللي فيه وهي 6 مراوح بالاظافه الى المعالج ومروحه المعالج واخيرا وليس اخرااا المذربورد وكرت الشاشه الا وهو انفيديا 8800 جي تي اكس .. طبعا انا انظف جهازي تقريبا كل سنه وعمر الجهاز تقريبا 3 سنوات
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Ethics as an employee
Hi and سلام to All
‘In this post, the use of the male ‘him/he‘ is used for easy reading and can be replaced by ‘her/she‘ depending on who is reading the post. For the ladies out there, I make a profuse apology.
The subject I am posting today is what I have experienced in my careers in the Military and into IT then management and finally GRC.
As all of you know, when you work for a company, you get to know many people both in your department and outside. You can also see how they react to circumstances whether good or bad and how they handle themselves under stress and finally what their values in life are.
If we look at people who work in IT, the majority of us want stability and routine and to be in the know of what will be happening in the company. When I was in the Military, our primary focus was to look after our 'buddies' and ourselves and to follow 'reasonable' orders. How you differentiated them I still don't know, but we survived, some didn't but most did. The amazing thing was, we had things we would do and things we would not. We learnt very quickly to treat others right and to learn from our mistakes, why? One of your buddies could die if you did not. I believe that the Military has not changed in the past 20 years or so. You can see what the soldiers of all nations are saying, maybe not through their words, but through their deeds. And no, I do not mean the soldiers and officers who abuse their positions of trust with civilians and prisoners alike.
When we look at life out of the military, you see different scenarios in different professions. Take a lwayer for instance, he is legally bound to protect his client whether he is guilty or not. If the lawyer knows his client is guilty of the crime, the lawyer must go to reasonable means to get his client found not guilty/the case thrown out of court or remove himself from the trial.
Now look at directors of companies, their 'only' contract with the company they work for/with is to increase revenue and/or profitability. Why do I say this? They have a legal obligation to make sure that the company performs, failure to do this could result in them being prosecuted either criminally or civil (a great motivator if not the only). Another motivation is the nice 'bonus' they get at the end of the year based on the performance of the company. Look at the current Credit crisis and you should see what I mean. Watch the documentary 'The-greed-game' from www.freedocumetaries.org (http://www.freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=275) to see how this could happen.
As mentioned previously, a person gets their ethics from more than one place, the foundation is laid by our parents and as we go through life, we either add to or remove from it depending on the situation. One of the entities that we learn 'business' ethics from is management in the company you work for. Why? Simple, they are the people who pay you and give you your bonus and/or can hire/fire you. So, everything you do at work should be focussed on what management want you to do, or rather, what the company requires. Failure to do this WILL have an impact on your family, finances, career and personal outlook on life.
So, where does the ethics come in, you work for a company as an employee or contractor/consultant and are bound by the company's rules and regulations. This is both good and bad, good because you are earning money to support your family, bad because you are being sucked into the corporate (company's) culture and everything that goes with it. You may be called upon to do a task that you do not agree with or don't like. What do you not like about the task? Is it personal or professional or both? If it is personal, is it against your principles, ethics or religion? If professional, is it against your ethics or 'professionalism'. As previously mentioned, ethics is relevant to the position you are in and the situation you find youself in. What are your options? Do the task and shrug it off (Nuremberg comes to mind), or tell management that you would prefer not to do the task for reasons a,b,c?
Having been in this situation many times in the past and I am sure to be there in the future, it is difficult to make the decision. As a consultant, the choice is easier, as an employee NOT. As a soldier it was easy as well, we were clothed and fed and the worst that could happen is to be court martialled and go to military jail. Not so in the civilian job market, failure to do the task could impact on your (amongst others);
- Name,
- Family,
- Job status,
- Future earning potential and
- Career progression.
You could move from been employed to unemployed quite quickly especially if you annoy your management by saying you will not.
There is a way out of this, unless the task is against your religion. Mainly, make management aware of your concerns (in writing) and request that they agree in writing. This takes you out of the hot seat and puts them in it. As a manager, they need to then either confirm your concerns and tell you to continue or taking into account you concerns, tell you to continue. Remember, no one may tell you to do something that is illegal under the laws of the land, not even the police. So, with this piece of paper in hand, you do the task. I do not believe that you have lost or forgotten your ethics but rather have placed the ethical decision on the person who pays your salary and allows you to eat every day and have proof of their decision.
In my humble opinion, as an employee, you can keep your ethics and your job by transferring the ethical decision to a higher authority. Believe me, management starts thinking when they are presented with the concerns of their staff about a task.
REMEMBER: A religious decision is another thing that is personal to yourself and NOT management, they employed you (maybe knowing your religion) but it was not the deciding factor (or was it?). How you handle this, I don't know and can not give you any advice other than to think it through and find someone to talk to who has been in the same situation or has helped others make a decision along the same lines.
Another decision you will need to make; knowing the ethics of the company you work with/for. Are you willing to continue working for them or to seek alternative employment. The decision does, as always, rest with you and your family.
Just a parting note, a few weeks ago, my daughter asked me why I was not going to work everyday like I used to (which has impacted my family to the extent that I will again have to leave my home country [ZA] and seek employment overseas), I asked her 'how can I teach you about ethics if I did not live them?'. Even at 7.5 years, she said I could not.
My next post will be about 'Is there ethics in business?'
Cheers and Wa Alaikum As-Salam until next time,
Enjoy the rest of the week and may you and yours travel safely.
- The primary function of a supplier,
- The primary function of a consultant,
- The differences between client and supplier,
- The differences between supplier and consultant,
- The differences between client and consultant,
- Ethics as a consultant,
- Ethics as an employee and
- Is there ethics in business.
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