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

But Aren’t Laws Sufficient?

Unfortunately, no. Laws are the minimum, essential requirements that maintain social order. They apply to everyone and are attractive because they are actually written down. However, conforming to a standard that is merely the minimum for behavior is hardly an achievement.

Laws are poor substitutes for ethical awareness and conduct at work for two reasons: First, you cannot possibly codify all aspects of the interpersonal relationships that comprise an office environment. If someone in the workplace is going to treat someone else unfairly, he will find a way to do it. Second, it is possible to satisfy the letter of the law even while still committing an act that most reasonable people would consider unethical or immoral. It may be technically legal to accept a gift from a supplier, but does that make it the right thing to do?

Still, it’s tempting to use a simple, minimal legal standard for our conduct. When called to account for our questionable behavior, how many of us would hide behind the flimsy statement, “I did nothing illegal,” or “What I did was perfectly legal,” as if legality equals “rightness.”

Let’s sum it up in reverse order.

Legal standards are the minimal standards that provide the outer boundaries of conduct (“If you go beyond this point, you risk going to jail”). They tell you what you cannot do, but provide no positive guidance about what you should do. Workplaces that are guided solely by the law tend to be negative, petty, and mean-spirited. ...