Did you ever fail to act courageously in a work-related situation? If so, why? Would you act differently today? If so, how? Do you believe possessing some degree of courage is a necessary part of behaving professionally?
Your response is due by midnight, Monday.
Teaching Notes
You must become the flame on the candle. - Thich Nhat Hanh
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
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Is Media Ethics Education DOA?
It sounds like a joke Jay Leno would tell during his opening monologue on The Tonight Show. Hear about the graduate students at the prestigious journalism school? They got caught cheating on an ethics exam. Ha ha ha. Except that’s actually what happened at Columbia University
No one admitted cheating despite pressure from the school’s administrators and pleas from classmates, who feared the scandal would damage the market value of their degrees. Meanwhile, the teacher of the course, New York Times columnist Samuel G. Freedman, refused to comment. But if the disgruntled posts on RateMyProfessors.com are any indication, his students hadn’t exactly been soaking up knowledge. “Maybe he could e-mail his ‘speeches’ to the students instead of making everyone suffer through the most wasted class in j-school. . . ,” one read.
There’s an old cowboy saying that goes, “When your horse dies, get off.” Journalism ethics education is a dead horse. Or else those aren’t vultures circling in the sky.
No one admitted cheating despite pressure from the school’s administrators and pleas from classmates, who feared the scandal would damage the market value of their degrees. Meanwhile, the teacher of the course, New York Times columnist Samuel G. Freedman, refused to comment. But if the disgruntled posts on RateMyProfessors.com are any indication, his students hadn’t exactly been soaking up knowledge. “Maybe he could e-mail his ‘speeches’ to the students instead of making everyone suffer through the most wasted class in j-school. . . ,” one read.
There’s an old cowboy saying that goes, “When your horse dies, get off.” Journalism ethics education is a dead horse. Or else those aren’t vultures circling in the sky.
A Question for Socrates
The question of how ethics is learned, or even if it can be, is as old as Western philosophy. In Plato’s dialog Meno the title character asks, “Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way?” Of course, Socrates, being Socrates, resists giving a definite answer. But we can’t. The sad fact is, students had better get an effective ethics education now or they may never.
Last summer I conducted an ethics workshop for some reporters and editors at the Poughkeepsie Journal, a small daily in upstate
But what I remember most is the air of defeat that clung to the staff as we sat on hard plastic chairs in the break room discussing the cases. I could hear in their voices the bitterness and cynicism of employees forced to follow corporate policies they despised. Recently, for example, the paper had started running display ads on the front page and section fronts, a much more grievous ethical lapse, their mumbled asides suggested, than anything the case studies might have to offer.
I don’t want my students to ever wear the gray, defeated expression I saw that day on the faces at the Journal. But given the downward direction in which the media are moving, and fast, how in the world can I prevent it from happening?
Teaching Media Ethics by Telling Stories
A friend of mine who teaches at a big Midwestern university recounts in class the events of her first week as a reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune. She was sent to Duluth to cover Democratic presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey on the campaign trail. When they were introduced, Humphrey vigorously shook her hand. “Oh yes, Susan,” he said, “I read your stuff all the time.” He couldn’t have read her stuff, though; she hadn’t written anything yet. “Just a few words,” she explains to her students, “but words that taught this fledging reporter a great lesson about pols and the little lies they tell.”
I usually find occasion during the semester to quote I. F. Stone’s dictum, “Every government is run by liars and thieves, and nothing they say should be believed,” to make the same point. But Susan’s story makes the point better. That’s because it has existential force. Her story vividly captures in a way a secondhand quote can’t the realities of a reporter’s life.
Some might think telling “war stories” is a waste of precious class time. I’ve a colleague who didn’t want to fall into the “trap” of regaling students with stories ad nauseam (“which, let’s face it, is easier than teaching or grading,” he said). So one semester he kept track. When he toted it all up at the end, he was surprised that he’d used less than an hour - out of 45 – talking about his newspaper experiences. And yet, he admitted, it was his stories that students seemed to remember most.
“Stories teach us how to live,” Daniel Taylor said in his essay, “The Ethical Implications of Storytelling.” What he meant was that stories preserve our experience for contemplation and evaluation. Although not all stories carry a heavy message, there’s an entire category of stories, so-called “exemplary tales,” that are told to convey a moral.
Our war stories are potentially just such tales. They can provide evidence, in ethicist John Barton’s words, of “how real human beings live through various crises and trials and remain human.” My colleague who kept tabs on his storytelling has described his stories as cautionary. Most, he said, deal with “screwups I learned from.”
But sometimes the storyteller and the audience can’t agree on what exactly the moral of a story is.
When Susan was a cub reporter on the Tribune, she interviewed the Beatles, who were on their second tour of the States. She got into their hotel room by dressing up as a waitress in an ugly, mustard-colored uniform and accompanying an actual room service waiter upstairs. Ringo took one look at her little plastic name tag – it read “Donna Brown” – and snorted, “What kind of name is that?” The waiter nudged her in the side. “Tell them what you real name is,” he urged. She did, as well as her reason for being there. Rather than throw her out, the Beatles politely answered her questions. They even let her phone for a photographer. The next day her story ran on the front page, with a photo of John sitting at a table and looking up at her and laughing as she poured coffee in his cup. She still has a glossy print of that photo somewhere.
Many of Susan’s students think she’s nuts for not having the photo hanging up in her office. They also think she’s nuts for saying she’d never participate in the same kind of stunt today. To her celebrity-struck students, disguising herself as a hotel waitress to get an interview with the Beatles seems soooo cool. They lose all sight of the fact that it wasn’t a story of vital public interest that demanded undercover methods.
Susan intends one lesson when she talks about her hard day’s night, but her students, living in a paparazzi-saturated culture, draw another. “It may be a lost cause,” she remarked to me.
Or maybe not. Negotiations over what the point of a story is can be part of the point of the story. In the process of negotiating, we test different interpretations, try out different themes. This is helpful. This is educational. Lawrence Kohlberg, the Harvard psychologist famous for his research on the stages of moral development, contended that “the teaching of virtue is the asking of questions. . . not the giving of answers.” Stories don’t necessarily have to yield clear moral rules to be of value. It’s enough sometimes if they just give us something to think about.
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When I began interning at the company I’m with now, I recognized a phrase on their Facebook site that rubbed me the wrong way. The post featured an event for Women’s Day where young women were shown assembling different parts of computers. Its title, “Women can do it too,” is where I felt uneasy. It’s clear that the headline undermines that women can most certainly do any sort of computer engineering task that any man can do, or anything for that matter. Ironically a post meant to highlight women in a positive way, I saw the headline as a direct result of gender inequality.
Despite this, I didn’t draw attention to change the post. My reasoning begins first with timing. I had just been given the opportunity to intern with the company. The second issue—the Facebook page was not something I was given task to look into. Also, I had just read a Forbes article that spoke all about gender biasing within the workplace and the unfortunate realities that come along with it. The article was complete with first-hand women’s’ experiences of gender inequality. One woman’s opinion seemed to stick with me in this situation.
What she basically exclaimed was that with her experience, timing was everything. Starting out as a female newcomer and critiquing male superiors could label you as a bitch. Unfortunately, despite the fact that your supervisor may come off like he treats you as an equal, it is a subconscious reality that men can automatically label you as difficult to work with because of your gender.
While obviously, this isn’t true in every situation and I may have given too much weight to this one woman’s experience in my decision, I chose to play it safe. That being said, I have gotten to know my supervisor better and would have definitely attacked the post sooner.
I do think courage is a necessity of professional behavior. In my circumstance, this company’s Facebook was portraying them in a biased manner—definitely not something a successful company with many female employees would want. As it turned out, the post wasn’t knowingly meant to be sexist. Is that the real problem here, though? That men are not conscious of the sexist behavior that they take? This “unfortunate subconscious reality” should not exist in the 21rst century. Women should not have to take special measures to be seen in the same light as an aggressive man instead of a bitch.
About a year ago I had been employed at the Rite Aid Pharmacy located on Main Street in New Paltz, and worked under a manager who had a habit of lying frequently to alleviate themselves of some responsibilities. The way they did this was by submitting falsified weekly schedules every week, which bought them more time later in the week to post the actual hours for the employees. This kept her out of trouble with corporate and nobody ever complained.
Although this seems harmless to a degree it brought along a mass amount of problems for everyone else. Instead of receiving the times as mandated by law on Tuesdays, they would wait until Sunday to finish the schedule, less than 24 hours before the new work week began. Complaints about missing important plans and commitments was common in the break room, because every week this tactic would manage to inconvenience one or more people. I was sometimes applicable to this and as a result missed family events and suffered difficulty in school when I would need to rearrange my schedule.
At the time I held my tongue for one reason - my financial needs. At the time this job was my means of affording food and household needs and it was my first time living on my own. As is almost always the case with a person facing an ethical dilemma in the workplace, I had my survival to consider. Unfortunately as a result this caused me to miss many important family and social events, not to mention the frustration it continued to cause the employees.
Had I had the chance to change my actions I would, even if it was just by calling my manager out. I resisted back then because I was trapped by tangible needs that came to override my desire to follow my moral compass. What I failed to realize then was that A) no pharmacy job is worth being screwed over to convenience a lazy manager and B) that I was contributing to the same mentality the rest of the staff did. By not fighting back I contributed to the idea that those above could abuse others for their convenience.
Courage in the workplace is vital because it is the nature of being a professional to have to put everything aside to pursue what is right. Times that require courage are those in which something important is at stake, a reality any working adult will face sometime or another. Having the ability to acknowledge the need and ignore all risks for the greater good is a quality that all professionals need to avoid ever taking liberties (financial, ethical, etc..) at others' expense.
When I was 16, I worked at a Dunkin’ Donuts. At times, the job was extremely hectic with a line of customers snaking to the door and us still expected to fulfill orders with a smile. One time, a customer ordered a decaf coffee. In my rush, I accidentally poured regular coffee into her cup. I didn’t stop her because I was afraid of being reprimanded by the woman as well as my boss for holding up the line. In retrospect, I should have called her out to stop her so I could correct my mistake. In reality though, I just let her go. Today, knowing that there are a multitude of health concerns behind people ordering decaf vs. regular, I absolutely would have stopped her and offered her a new cup of coffee. Even if she were in a rush, I believe she would have appreciated my honesty.
I absolutely believe that courage is necessary for behaving professionally. To me, behaving in a professional manner means you are respectful, honest, and confident. If you have no courage, you may be able to follow rules but you are of no asset to whatever organization or group you’re working with. You need courage to speak up against wrongdoings and ethical dilemmas so that you can correct them.
Although I may fail to act courageously in some aspects of the word, I think I act courageously in most work-related situations. Over the summer I work at the New York Renaissance Fair, which involves working with some shady characters. While some of my coworkers may have stolen money or wasted company time, I always stayed focused on what I was supposed to be doing. It would’ve been easy to follow along with the rest of my fellow workers and skim some money off the top and get away with it, but I would have rather earned my money. This type of courage, although not much, is not an easy one to uphold in social situations. In this case it was not only a matter of peer pressure, but also of my own ethical code. So even though my ethics may not be so strong in other situations, in a working environment my ethical code is what keeps me on track in my daily work. To effectively succeed in a work environment, individuals must not only resist the urge to follow along with the poor behavior of their coworkers, but they must also resist taking the easy way out. For this reason, I believe that it is necessary to possess some amount of courage to focus on getting the job done instead of concentrating on their selfish desires.
When I was about 16 years old I worked at a key foods super market. The job was fun and I was excited to come into work; of course it was my first job. I was a hard worker and always did my best to sell merchandise and put a smile on people’s faces. However, there came a time when they were looking to promote someone for a bookkeeper position.
One of the managers began training me for the position and said it was only ideal to promote me due to all the hard work I did and the amount of recommendations I received from customers. I was excited and could not wait for my new position. One day, I came into work and I overheard one of the managers talking to another manager and said, “we cannot choose her because she is a girl and is not able to fulfill the tasks needed that only men can do.” I was so hurt by that comment and could not believe that at 16 years old I was going to encounter a situation where I would be discriminated by my sex.
The issue with this situation was that I could have stepped up and act courageously and defend myself, but I failed to do so. Instead, I did not say anything at all. When the manager told me that I was no longer going to proceed with the new position and made pretend like I wasn’t furious inside. Instead they gave the position to the janitor because he was a male.
I failed to act courageously and that caused me to allow someone to discriminate me due to my sex. I failed to act courageously in fear of losing my job and although I still had a job, I felt like I lost part of my morals. I do believe possessing some degree of courage is a necessary part of behaving professionally because in a work place there’s always going to be uncomfortable situations. But most importantly, I think there is a limit to acting courageously when it is time to stick up for yourself and not allowing someone to discriminate you.
Last summer, I worked at a retail store near Grand Central. It was a small store filled with many things. At times, there would be two people in the store working. Sometimes even one person is guarding the whole store if someone goes on break. The problem that the store had was that there was a lack of security. It was easy for people to steal in the store and not get in trouble for it. There was no security guards, sensors, or cameras to indicate if anything was taken from the store.
There was an instance when someone came to the store looking around. I didn't think anything of it. Soon enough that person grabbed a few pair of earrings and left. I didn't know what to do, before I can run after them, they were gone in the mist of the people in New York City.
In my job, no one taught me what to do in case someone steals. I told one of the workers and they just shrugged it off as if it happens all the time. They told me not to worry about it and act like it didn't happen. Just a few weeks, the store managed to lose a luggage!
I have failed to show a hint of courage and say something to the thief. I failed to report it and I failed to tell someone else the next day. If I was working at that retail store today, I would keep a closer eye on people. Sometimes I wonder if I could have been wrong that day and the woman didn't actually steal anything. I had this fear that I would have been in trouble because I let the thief leave the store with the jewelry.
I believe you have to have a sense of courage when you're in the workplace. There are rules set in place, but if you don't agree with it, you should be allow to voice your opinion. In a tough situation, people should be allowed to make the decisions. It can either benefit or hurt a situation. In my instance, courage would have worked perfectly. If I would have stood up and spoke out, change would have occurred.
When I was 14 years old, I was hired by a summer day camp counselor. During my time as a counselor, I would witness instances where some of my fellow youth counselors would talk about the campers and even the co-workers. This really bothered me because they would go back the next day and talk to them like everything was okay. It makes me really uncomfortable when people talk about each other. The unified atmosphere that the program administrators tried to instill in their workers was not how the workers acted.
Unfortunately, I chose not to say anything because I felt that as people we all have our frustrations with people we come into contact with frequently. This is the reason why I chose not to confront my co-workers about me being uncomfortable. Gossiping in the workplace has become the norm in the workforce where employees find it as a way to release information (whether true or not) that might be frustrating to the person. I am also very non confrontational so I did not want anyone to start trouble with me. So,I stayed quiet.
Courage is a part of behaving professionally because your workplace should represent your beliefs and morals. When faced with a dilemma you should be able to confront the problem that makes you uncomfortable. When you have courage you know what makes you feel uneasy and how/when to act on it. Although, I chose not to act on what was going on in my situation, I now know to not be afraid of speaking up when something makes me feel uncomfortable; no matter how many times I may second guess myself.
I fail to act courageously every single day that I work as a janitor for my town's youth organization. In order to get along with my coworkers and not arouse the opinions of the priests I work with, I chose to pretend that I have a girlfriend. I don't think I'd be fired immediately if it was known that I had a boyfriend. The people are nice there but they have a lot of prejudices and would certainly feel uncomfortable. Not only that, but my brothers and my mother depend on their jobs there and I wouldn't want to bring them any trouble. By not standing up for equal treatment and leading by example, I fail my community. This isn't the only ethical test I fail. I've seen people directly and indirectly steal from the poor, but I say nothing because they are the ones that keep my family fed.
I still work there and will continue to until I can live and work elsewhere. I will not speak the truth to them until my family has severed ties (which may not happen).
I think we live in a culture where norms are decided by fear mostly. Because of the perceived need to be constantly employed and provide for oneself, most people behave in unethical ways. The problem with most real world examples of courage is that courage often leads to alienation, unwanted attention or the loss of opportunity (mostly in employment status). We'd all love to be Edward Murrow and stand up to Joe McCarthy, but we like to ignore the consequences of Murrow's actions, which I believe would be far more severe in modern day.
I think more than half of the workforce in our society should not be referred to as professionals, but that word lost its meaning years ago. Today, a professional can be anyone who is employed. This employment can often come at the cost of putting one's head down and remaining silent when ethical questions arise.
I have been a waitress for the past four years. In my time in the restaurant business, I have learned A LOT about how to act in certain situations. I have learned that I need to choose my battles.
One of the worst things as a server is dealing with people who just don’t know correct tipping etiquette, especially when you give great service. I would like to think I am good at my job. I really enjoy it and I think that definitely shows in whatever your doing. There was one particular time I remember when I was serving a table of regulars at my first waitressing job. I was serving them drinks all night, joking with them and having a good time. They did not complain once and seemed to be enjoying everything. When I finally dropped their bill, it was around $130. They tipped me $3. I was so confused and actually felt hurt by the lack of tip. I couldn’t understand what I did wrong. I actually lost money from this table considering I had to tip out the bartender and the busser for making my drinks and clearing my table. I did not have the courage to say anything to the people at the table about leaving such a horrible tip. This happened about two years ago.
About 3 or 4 months ago, I had a similar situation happen. I was serving a table of four who had racked up a bill of about $150. They left my $10. That is approximately a 6.5% tip. Unacceptable in my eyes considering I knew I had given them good service. They told me how much they enjoyed their dinner and were raving about the beers (I work at Bacchus Restaurant in New Paltz.) When I picked up the bill and saw the amount of money they left me, I walked right up to them and asked if there was something wrong with my service and if there is anything I should change because they left such a small tip. I could tell they immediately felt embarrassed and apologized thinking they had left more money. They gave me another $20. If I had not gone over and said something, I would have walked with a shitty tip and probably would have dwelled on it for a day or two. Instead, I stuck up for myself and confronted the situation in a professional manner.
I do believe that possessing some degree of courage is an important part of behaving professionally. Like I said before, you do have to pick your battles, but if you really feel disrespected, I think it is important to be able to have the courage to stick up for yourself.
I will be the first person to admit that I had no courage as a kid, especially in work situations. I stood back with no back bone in almost every situation that I encountered, because when I did stand up for the right thing, my friends would call me annoying. For me, the most important aspect in my life was the social one, and I tried so hard to impress those I was surrounded with.
A specific example that I can remember where I did not act courageously where I know that I should have, was when I bartended for Joe’s Crab Shack. It was a new job for me, and having newly moved to the area I wanted more than anything to make friends. I originally interviewed for a waitress position, but was told I was going to bartend because I fit the criteria. Already feeling pressure in an environment that I had never experienced, I wanted to make the best impression.
About a week into training I went into the liquor room to mix some of the batches we made for pre-made drinks. Because I needed to go in and out of the room, I kept the door open (usually was locked). Out of the corner of my eye, I realized a couple of guys coming into the closet who weren’t bartenders, who had been there months before I was hired. They grabbed a couple of bottles and continued on their way. I knew that some of the cooks had access to the room, because some of the dishes were made with alcohol, so I brushed off what I had seen. About two weeks went by and my boss called a staff meeting to tell us that multiple bottles were missing from the liquor room. Immediately I knew who was taking the bottles, and because I was new, was called into my boss’s office separately to discuss the matter. I denied I knew anything, and reassured him that it wasn’t me stealing from my work place.
Shortly after I was called in, the culprits were caught, and I was once again called into my boss’s office. At that point I explained the situation, and apologized sincerely for not speaking sooner (or at all). This taught me a very valuable lesson. As an ignorant 18-year old, I thought that it was never my place to say anything and call people out for doing wrong, but now at 23 am dedicated to a totally opposing theory. I know how important it is to be courageous, and to act morally because that’s how I was raised, and that is the right thing to do. Now in my early twenties, I strive to do the right thing and make the world a better place, even if the situation seems a little bit scary.
This past summer i was a head councilor for a group of 20 eight-year-old girls. One of the weekly activities in which the camp provided was Mixed Martial Arts. In previous summers this activity was perfectly fine until i realized the instructor this summer was someone who didn't know what it was to tech eight-year-old girls MMA. His ways were unethical, telling my fellow councilors and myself to allow the girls to cry when they lost a match, teaching them that winning was everything etc. At times when he needed a councilor to demonstrate something with him he would do it in a way as if he were working with a professional MMA fighter, throwing us down harshly, at times hurting us. Here and there he would make sexual references to me which i found completely and utterly repulsing and inappropriate not only because he was an older man but also because it was in front of my campers. This man was anything but professional.
The moment i realized enough was enough was when one of my campers was playfully doing some MMA moves with him and he decided he didn't want her to continue so instead of using his words like a grown man he decided to act like a child and push her away, knocking the wind out of her. I was no longer going to allow him to act this way towards me, my fellow councilors or my campers. I went to the director of the Day Camp and complained to him. I told him if he wanted my campers to go home and complain to their parents about a grown man hurting them he can sit back and do nothing about it but if he cared about the saftey of the children he would do something about it.
Till today i am not sure what the verdict was after the Director spoke with the MMA instructor but I never lost sleep over speaking up about it. I was proud of myself for not sitting back and watching such unethical things happen. If I didn't speak up no one would have and if that happened i garuntee another child would have been hurt and I would have regretted not saying anything.
There was a time in grade-school when I would accurately be described as a coward. "Don't rock the boat" was the social mantra I followed to ensure a comfortable existence in the shadows where I felt safe. However, without the superhuman ability to turn invisible, I was still vulnerable to scrutiny despite my best efforts not to be. I bore the brunt of the aggression projected toward me with silence and a stone-faced expression. I can't remember when this changed, but eventually something in me snapped. It wasn't due to a desire to renounce cowardice but rather a release of subdued rage at the injustice and unfair acquisitions suffered by others. I have always been able to withstand whatever flak was thrown my way without speaking up because I feared confrontation and knew that at that time any problems I faced where trivial at best, but for others, such a rationalization was outside the scope of their maturity and knowledge. I empathized with this and saw that these individuals, for whatever personal reason or belief, were incapable of fighting for themselves and were willing to accept the sentence given to them. I didn't need to know these people personally to feel afflicted. I saw part of myself in them and, never having a defender of my own, assumed the role myself. I was able to find courage by fighting for others and by proxy learned to fight for myself. I had always had a strong moral conscience but it often belonged to a minority opinion causing me to believe that as such it was likely wrong despite my convictions to the contrary. My change was not inspired by classroom cruelties alone; civil and human rights injustices around the world at the time sparked a furious flame inside me. No one had stood up for these people, and as a result they suffered. Cultural and self-preservation variables aside, I wondered how the onlookers could stand to live with themselves knowing what their inaction had caused. It may have been the ignorant idealism of an non-oppressed first-world citizen, but that didn't change my feelings later in life. Today, I act with the same fervor (arguably more so) in every environment I habitat. I am unafraid to voice my concern against anything that opposes my moral ethics. As a result, I find I regret very little of my actions, no matter the personal consequences the actions may have. Is courage necessary to behave professionally? No, you can easily get by with your head down submitting to the status quo. The question you should ask is: are you morally comfortable foregoing your beliefs to live without conflict? I personally am not, and I make damn sure to let others know. Suffice the say, journalism is a pretty fitting career path for me.
Working the past couple summers are a golf course, I was routinely faced with situations where I wanted to be courageous, because there were multiple times that my “conscious was violated,” but I did nothing.
I think the question being posed is interesting because from my experience, and from what I’m gathering the experience of others, professionalism should be reached if courage is demonstrated and the result of those efforts are maintained. But in work environments, it’s often that many people aren’t courageous because they are scared of making waves and being unprofessional; sometimes professionalism is synonymous with not wavering from the “professional” standards that are already implemented, and that is sad. We have talked about this is terms of newsroom’s being founded in certain ethics they may not actually be ethical, but in reality this can be applied to almost any sort of job or career in one way or another.
At the golf course, owned by a man, run by a man, and attended to mostly by men, there was an underlying concept by any young women who worked there that they had act very feminine, and not be uncomfortable when talked to in a condescending way by the male staff or costumers. My boss, who was from Turkey, was very touchy and called the women staff things like “love” and “baby.” In all of these cases, my mentality was “oh, that’s just the way things are when you work at a place like this,” justifying that actions of other so that I could remain professional and keep my job. But the environment wasn’t professional at all, and the courageous thing to do would have been to speak my mind, voice my discontent for the way things were, and create an actual professional atmosphere.
In this way, I think, yes, courage is necessary to create a professional working environment in the eyes of everyone involved. Yet, because the concept of what is or isn’t professionalism isn’t universally shared, I think that’s what makes it so hard to be courageous in these situations. If I could go back, would I say anything? As fucked up as it is, I don’t think so. I think having that job and making that money would take precedent over doing the ethical thing and creating a truly professional atmosphere. And maybe that’s just me, but I think it’s a problem that’s been going on forever and we are only starting to work toward the solution. To be blunt, I think people care about their jobs and money more than they care about being respected or doing the “right thing.” I also think people are more inclined to speak out and be courageous for the benefit of others, and not themselves. I think people, including myself, need to have more respect for themselves and what they do, and not validate unprofessional environments or unethical nature with a job title or salary. I think that would lead people to being more courageous.
I work as a property/landscape maintenance foreman for a townhouse association with over 350 private homes. Naturally I interact with a lot of residents on a daily basis. Most are of little consequence to my job, which during the spring and fall clean-up periods often consists of monitoring the two community garbage/recycling sites to ensure that no one illegally disposes of furniture, building/garden materials, or other items that cannot be thrown into a garbage dumpster.
Unfortunately, policing two areas of that size while keeping up with the routine work of trimming hedges, planting flower beds, and other special projects means that homeowners often violate the bylaws unobserved. It's my job to try to determine who the guilty party is, so that the board of directors may issue them a fine or a summons.
Naturally, homeowners don't take kindly to being prevented from committing their illegal acts, or being followed back to their homes, so confrontations can be sticky situations. I regularly defer those homeowners who have taken exception with me to the board of directors or my supervisor, thought neither were directly involved with reporting them. It's kind of a cop-out, I admit, but I do have strict orders not to involve myself in an altercation/dispute with a resident of the community, and thus I am exempted from having to provide an explanation to homeowners who are livid with me for catching them.
That being said, I can immediately summon to mind an occasion in which my integrity/courage was called into question. Not by my employers but by myself. I was investigating the illegal disposal of two couches and a mattress, which cost the association over $200 to have removed by the garbage company, and discovered that the culprit was a feeble old woman with stage 4 lung cancer who hired me to plow her driveway in the winter.
I immediately understood that she herself could not possibly have placed the furniture there by herself due to her condition, and must have hired someone to dispose of it for her, who clearly ignored the bylaws. Having sympathy for her for the obvious reasons, I decided not to report my findings. The woman did not receive any disciplinary action or a fine, and she passed away a couple of years ago.
I could never quite determine whether I was courageous or not. I felt caught between a rock and a hard place, since I know both the association's bylaws and the particular circumstances surrounding the event. As an absolutist, a part of me nags at myself for having taken the initiative to grant an exception without reporting my findings. Yet the other part of me, the situationalist, says that it would have been entirely cowardly to issue a summons to an old woman who quite certainly did not commit the crime herself.
I like to think that I showed courage in acting against a system I felt would not produce a morally or ethically just result, yet at the same time I'm disappointed in the lack of respect I showed for a system I am charged with upholding.
I think that courage is an essential trait for anyone of character, regardless of profession. So it bothers me to think I may not have shown courage in my work, because that would mean I didn't show character either, which would be unacceptable.
Last summer I had interned for a IT department for a local government in which we would have to record, edit, and broadcast Town Board meetings. As expected, with in any government involved job I came across multiple situations that went against what I believed was the right thing to do. Without giving away too much, I was faced with multiple incidents's where I believed it was the publics right to know/see something I had caught on camera where the elected officials/ people I worked for deemed it inappropriate and wanted it edited out because it may harm how they appeal to the public. While this went against my own personal ethics and beliefs, as an intern, I felt that my loyalties had to first rely on my employers.
I believe courage is situational. Sometimes it takes courage to do the right thing while sometimes it takes courage to do the wrong thing. Courage is something that is hard to do and should mirror your beliefs and morals. Dilemmas in the work place are probably one of the most difficult situations to show courage because your job and career relies on you following instruction and not always acting out and courageously.
Looking back, though I failed to act courageously I learned that in the work field you will come across situations that you may feel uncomfortable with and it is up to you as a person if acting courageously is worth risking your job for. If the situation is so badly against your personal ethics then it may be right to act courageously and stand up for what you believe in. In my situation, since it was just a internship, I chose to not act courageously and do as I was told. The situation did teach me that that would not be a place where I would want to permanently want to work in the future because it caused me to go against my own morals.
This past summer I got an amazing opportunity to open up shop within a local store in New Paltz. I took over half of this man’s store, and he not only supplied me with extra inventory to sell, he did not charge me for rent. I knew he always took a liking to me, but I thought it was due to my passion and skill. I also thought he presented me this opportunity because of that. That was not the case.
Although most of my time working there consisted of me being alone, he would oftentimes come in, or text me, saying various inappropriate things. They were subtle, but definitely noted. I brushed off most of them because they didn’t bother me too much, and I didn’t want this amazing opportunity to disappear. However, I did not act courageously and I didn’t stop him when I should have. The situation only got worse. I started to feel really uncomfortable when he was around me. He was always talking very closely to my face, and crossed many boundaries.
It finally concluded when he did not resign his lease, and I was not able to keep my store any longer. I stopped by the shop to pick up the rest of my stuff, and he was there. I was trying to leave, but he kept on trying to make conversation with me. Our goodbye hug was awkward, and I should have stood up for myself and told him how uncomfortable he made me feel. I wasn’t going to see him again anyway! Well, I got home, and checked my computer to find a message from him saying that he wished our goodbye hug was a goodbye kiss…
The whole time I have known this guy he never acted professionally. And I realized that in a sense I didn’t either. I do believe possessing a degree of courage is a necessary part of being professional. Of course his courageousness was downright flirtatious and inappropriate. For me, however, I shouldn’t have let him talk to me in such a way. He definitely deserved to be put in his place despite the opportunity he gave to me.
I have failed to act courageously in a work related situation but I just didn’t know what to do, I felt guilty. I am the head counselor of a summer nursery camp at the Riverdale YM-YWHA in Riverdale, Bronx NY. My position required a lot of leadership qualities. The assistant counselors followed everything I did and usually were told what to do by the camp director. One of my assistant counselors would take longer breaks than everyone else. Our lunch breaks were 45 minutes long but this assistant counselor would take an hour and half. If it was a different setting I wouldn’t mind, but dealing with 3 year olds from 8am-4pm is not easy, therefore it was frustrating when there would only be 2 counselors for 18 three year olds in one room for a whole hour and a half. At this point this was happening at least 3 times a week and the other assistant counselor was also getting frustrated because she would always leave on time and come back on time, and she also would have liked a longer break but that is not how things worked. I always felt bad to bring it to the attention of the director because I did not want to jeopardize my assistant counselors job. I also didn’t tell the assistant counselor that there was an issue with that because we were so close in age and I felt uncomfortable telling someone a year younger than me what to do. Until one day, during his break one of the children got hurt badly and we had to bring him in the ambulance to the hospital. Our safety protocol indicates that in case a child is hurt the head counselor should be with them the entire time no exceptions! An hour had passed and he was not back and the director asked me where he was because my other assistant counselor was alone. She got very upset when she came to find out that I had been allowing him to continue doing this and not bringing it to her attention, she was also upset that I had never mentioned it to the assistant counselor. If I could act courageously today I would, because the ethical dilemma here indicates that I was not courageous enough and I was putting my credibility as a great head counselor at risk. I believe it is very important to some degree to be courageous because it is necessary in behaving professionally. This is because if you are able to hold a great position in a major company you have o be able to determine whether a good job is being done or not and how to handle the situation. Throughout all of the case studies we have studied in class we have come across a lot of them that portray ethical dilemmas that stem from not doing a courageous act. In order to be a professional, a good professional, one must always speak their mind to an appropriate degree. Communication is key and it can avoid a bigger ethical dilemma.
Over winter break, I worked at an office where my mom has been employed for over 3 years. The ethical dilemma occurred on my second day, Christmas Eve. The office was having a Christmas party with pizza, pasta and catering galore. I'm pretty outgoing so I had no fear in starting the lunch line. One of the men at office, a baby boomer with a drinking problem who has been married 3 times, Mike, decided to make a side comment. At the time, I wasn't aware of his personal lifestyle but he said to me, "Come on, you're a woman. You should be serving us the food, not inviting yourself to be the first to eat." Alexa Gold, the wind-up toy, the chatterbox, was silent. Most of the surrounding co-workers were used to Mike's brutal sense of humor and responded very casually, as if to brush it off in a "Haha, let's eat!" kind of way. After I grabbed my food, I rushed to my mom's cubicle. Her and her friend, Diane, explained, "That's just Mike. He's not all there." WHAT? How could we make excuses for this kind of behavior. Over the ONE month I worked at the office, he said other horrible statements like, "Maybe we'll get a Spick who isn't a criminal to drive the truck, though that's hard to find." I think I didn't say anything because I was young, temporary and new. So many angry parts of me that I didn't know existed came to life whenever he was around. I think this feeling is universal in work settings. It would be ideal if the world didn't work this way but unfortunately, it does. The courageous solution starts with our generation becoming employed and learning how to step up on our justice game, even if it threatens our positions. It'll be interesting to see what happens in 25 years when our "Equality" generation (which is a good thing) holds the CEO, boss and various leadership positions. Will things get any better or will a lack of justice and fear still exist?
At the end of my freshman year here I applied for the Student Manager position in the Athletic and Wellness Center. I ended up getting the job and was super enthusiastic about it when I came back for my sophomore year. My responsibilities were very authoritative; I was often the top of the line in control in the whole building at any given moment. While on duty, all other student workers reported to me and I was in charge of making sure their responsibilities were being carried out. I was also in charge of making sure all the rules and regulations of the buildings were being abided, so basically making sure that the daily operations of the gym as a whole were going smooth and as planned.
I quickly came to realize that I could slip under the radar in many situations. I do not have one specific example where I failed to act courageously but rather a trend in my first few months that characterized me as the “boss” I was, rather than the boss I was supposed to be. There were a few times where an employee called to my attention that someone had not presented their identification at the front desk in order to enter the gym, which is what everyone needed to have. In this situation I was required to tell them to leave and deny their access to the facilities. Just to avoid confrontation I casually brushed off these incidents and allowed them to come in, even if it meant I was not doing my own job. I was very relaxed with all the other student workers, even when it was quite obvious they had realized I was not going to be saying anything.
This was all changed and it made me into a better leader, for but for those few months I didn’t quite understand the concept of me having the ultimate power. I was supposed to be the regulator and the one in charge, but yet I was scared to really assert my power. I failed to have the courage to do my job properly and if I had never changed the way I acted in that job I am sure I would have been quickly let go. It took courage to step up and make sure I was leading the building the right way by using the right steps, the same courage I had lacked in the start of it.
Behaving professionally is all about courage to me and exactly why I consider myself a professional now, in whatever it is I am doing. Having courage does not exactly mean to follow rules and abide by the norms, but rather in my opinion having courage means to have the motivation and ability to get done what you are liable for, in the best way you can. People with courage take things under their responsibility and handle conflicts, events, and tasks with an incredibility high level of effort and professionalism.
This past year, on my birthday, I treated myself to a day out in Chelsea, on the highline, Chelsea Market, etc. On the way back to Queens that night, I was on a crowded 6 train, seated, reading a book, unaware of most of the other passengers on the train. A group of three men in their early twenties got on the train and were all looking at one phone, as one of them scrolled through pictures. They were very obviously looking at pictures of women, as they were rating them on a scale of 1-10, and discussing in great and obscene detail the aspects of these womens’ bodies. After 10 minutes of listening to them, I mustered the gumption through a pounding heart rate and nervous sweating to look over, get the attention of one of them, and say, “objectifying women doesn’t look good on you.” He looked puzzled and said “what?” in a snarky tone. I repeated myself and he looked at his friends and said something to the effect of “oh man, she’s calling you out, bro!” I clarified myself and said I was talking to all of them and that if there was a girl on this train who was at all remotely attracted to either one of them, (as they seemed to be acting cocky about how good-looking they were and whether or not they could ‘get’ the girls they were looking at on the phone) they would be disgusted after hearing what I heard. Another in the trio said he wasn’t trying to impress anyone and I said “obviously.” and again, “I’m just letting you know, objectifying women doesn’t look good on you.” and went back to my book, which I could not concentrate on due to the adrenaline rushing through me. They stayed on the train and continued doing what they were doing before they got off the train three stops later. As they left at Astoria Blvd., several others followed and got off at that same stop, and a girl who looked my age walked by me and said, “hey, good for you.”
In my capacity, as a petite girl who has never known an opportunity to exhibit physical courage, this was sort of a feat for me. Given my past inability to effectively speak publicly or about something controversial, this was one of the more courageous things I’ve done. Though it does not compare to the courage of many others who work in law enforcement or who are in the military, it is an issue about which I feel very strongly. I think more women, especially young women, need to hold their peers (male and female) accountable for their inappropriate actions, speech and all-around undignified behavior. So many women stay quiet because they don’t want to argue or cause trouble, even if they are offended by the inappropriate speech of others. There is value in displaying class and there is also ignorance in carelessness and absence of discretion.
When I was younger, I worked as a camp counselor and definitely had failed to act courageously at work before. I cannot think of a specific situation, but I know that I was much more timid back then and would let certain things go if I didn't feel like dealing with them. However, I started that job when I was a lot younger than I am now. Now I am more out going and willing to speak what I think so I think that in my current work place, I am a lot more courageous.
I think that it is important to be courageous and assertive in order to be professional. If someone is doing something wrong in the work place and you don't have the courage to stick up for what is right, you might as well be the one acting unprofessionally.
When I was in high school I was EIC of my paper, which meant I had the opportunity to send in articles to our local paper as well. After I graduated high school, I was hired as an intern at this local paper through the New York Press Association. Now, in order to understand the office dynamic I must say that my two bosses were business-minded middle-age hippies who employed around five people at the paper, plus freelancers. So I quickly became the person who picked up the odd jobs around the office that they needed done. I soon learned through the office that my two 'hippie' bosses were actually extremely wealthy and ran the paper as a 'pet project,' but that they might soon file bankruptcy. A few days after I was told this by their secretary, my two bosses asked me to call all the subscribers and ask for renewal checks for the next year.
Part of me wanted to stand up to them about asking me to get readers to renew their subscriptions while the future of the paper was in jeopardy. Since there was only myself and two other employees in the office, we were overworked and unappreciated. In the end, the paper did not go bankrupt, but at the time it was a big inner struggle calling all of the subscribers, many of them elderly, and asking if they wanted to shell out more money. I think if I could go back I would have stood up to my two bosses and said it was not fair putting so much work onto two people and the intern. I wish I had said something directly to them, but I was so intimidated since it was my first real job.
I think possessing some degree of courage is a necessary part of behaving professional. Although in this one circumstance I didn't stand up to my boss, since then I have been much more vocal about injustice in my other positions. It's a matter of picking your battles.
Karma did prevail, as the two other employees I worked with both quit, leaving m two bosses alone to run the paper all alone.
Last summer I was a camp counselor for 15 and 16-year-old boys. One of our campers had a problem using the bathroom. To not be so graphic, he was never able to flush because the toilet became clogged, but the problem for us was that he never did anything about it or told anyone about it.
About three quarters of the way into the summer we realized it was him who was doing this. As a staff, we talked about what we should do, what we should say to him and who should do it.
Ultimately, out of the five of us, only one of us felt comfortable having the conversation with him. I didn’t feel comfortable doing it because I knew he wasn’t going to asked back as a staff member this upcoming summer, so I really didn’t want to be involved with anything that might make him upset. I don’t think I’d act differently today because I just really wanted him to enjoy his last two weeks at a place he loved without having to deal with any negative.
I do think possessing some degree of courage is a necessary part of behaving professionally is an important thing to have in a work setting, but I don’t think it’s a requirement. There are so many people who live professional lives just going through the motions and never questioning anything.
I feel that are times in everyones life where they knew what the right thing to do was but didn't necessarily do it. I know I've had several. What separates the good from the great especially in the military is to stick to the codes and regulations that they provide for us. Our core values are integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. In times of trouble or when making a tough decision those core values are always in the back of my mind. The biggest issue with being low on totem pole in my unit is that I am asked to "bend" rules where the officers see fit at times. When I was authorizing flight orders I needed a signature from the acting ops officer, I walked into his office and he had left for the day. If i din't get the signature from him the mission would not have been able to take off at its scheduled departure time. Another officer, one that happened to be his friend, asked me what I needed and i explained the situation to him. He took the order out of my hand, told me to close my eyes, and signed (forged) the signature. I understand now that I probably wouldn't have gotten in as much trouble if i brought the order back unsigned, especially if i was doing the right thing. I wish i had the courage back then as I do now to just tell people the plane has to be delayed until we get the proper authorization. I think that it does take a certain amount of courage in order to be a professional. There will always be someone who wants to break the rules, codes, or ways of doing things in your workplace. In order to go against what other people are doing and proceed with the process in the proper manner. Like I asked in class day, are there ethics police? No. So we have to have the courage in the professional world to police ourselves.
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