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

I’m Optimistic

Though this book has a few snapshots from the past, it focuses mostly on the future. I refuse to resign myself to the fact that people will always disappoint and misbehaving companies will always deny. I have witnessed firsthand what can happen when improvements take hold, and I assert that we are much closer to the universal Ethical Office than ever before. Never mind that we still have a ways to go; you care, and your bosses care, and that’s more than a good start. Together, we make zillions of small, everyday decisions to do the right thing, and this truly makes a difference.

This book is for everyone trying to do the right thing and keep their job. It is packed with ideas, suggestions, tools, and strategies to help you “see” the ethical problems in your workplace and “remodel” to fix them. What might appear at first glance to be a lose-lose scenario (e.g., lie and keep your job or be honest and lose your job) doesn’t have to be. This book offers many suggestions to handle your current ethical dilemmas—and possibly head off future problems.

Yes, these stories reflect the tough dilemmas employees face. But, more important, they reveal the ways in which office professionals—regardless of title—are solving these problems. Their stories will make you proud and ratchet up the “ethics IQ” of your coworkers, your bosses, the people you supervise, and your employers. As we become collectively better at recognizing and resolving our ethical dilemmas at work, we will all ...