You've Got to Be Kidding!: How to Keep Your Job Without Losing Your Integrity

Welcome to the Age of Accountability!

Here’s another true story from the front lines: As I was sitting in the office of a CEO for a large manufacturing company, he explained why he was hiring me to present some ethics training sessions for his employees. His company has strict travel guidelines for its salespeople—“caps,” he explained, for airfare, accommodations, rental cars, meals, and other expenses. One of his “top producers” was spending far beyond the caps, and his admin knew it. Apparently, the assistant was uncomfortable processing her boss’s expense reports, but never said or did anything. Eventually, the salesman was fired.

Afterward, the CEO, along with the vice president of sales and the human resource director, had a meeting to address the question of whether they should also fire the assistant. They had determined that the assistant was fully aware that her boss was breaking the rules but chose to remain silent. The admin had been caught in a loyalty squeeze—loyalty to her boss versus loyalty to her company—and she had unfortunately made the wrong choice!

I congratulated the CEO for having had a discussion that would probably not have even taken place a few years ago. The salesperson would have been fired, but the admin would have simply been reassigned to a new boss with no further discussion. But not today. Nowadays, both employees and management realize that everyone is personally accountable for their actions in the workplace.

For those of you wondering, I happen ...