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

Resolving Team Loyalty Dilemmas

Is it really in your best interests—or that of any of your team members—to cut corners when negotiating the copier contract? Shopping the printing bids? Evaluating the performance of the temporary staff? Reorganizing the data-entry system? If you think about it and raise the tough questions about the right thing to do, you’ll usually find that most people will support you and respect you for being a moral leader. Being able to persuade your office mates to look at the bigger picture and the longer view will allow you to build an ethical office environment that much more quickly.

This is true even when your only teammate is your boss; in fact, the pressures to yield to the path of least resistance are greater here. After all, your boss controls your career in many respects, so you have to be more diplomatic and tactful when you argue to take the moral high road. But this should not deter you. You are doing your boss a favor when you “remind” her to stop trying to make short-term solutions work for long-term results.

So if your teammates get derailed and start cutting ethical corners to meet a deadline, you can be their moral decision leader. Challenging someone else’s plans or activities on ethical grounds is always potentially explosive. You are, in a sense, questioning his or her “goodness” as a person. So, keep your Ethical Priority Compass in place and functioning to guide you through these ethical judgment calls.

The following are some practical ...