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

What Would You Do? How Would You Decide?

Imagine you are an Enron employee facing these dilemmas:

1. Your boss tells you to shred documents you know have been or are about to be subpoenaed. Do you comply or refuse?

2. Your boss is lying to conceal the company’s serious problems. Do you challenge her?

3. You have heard and seen enough to know the company is in serious trouble. Do you warn your friends to take action, such as selling their company stock, to protect themselves?

One seminar attendee stood up and responded to question 3 with a twinkle in her eye: “Nan, I’d go home and tell my husband to sell all our Enron stock!” Of course, we know that such an action would likely trigger a charge of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission and that both this woman and her husband would be in deep you-know-what.

Enron’s ethical lapses jumped to the front page because the issues involved a huge enterprise. Many people were financially ruined, and the headlines were accompanied by a juicy political scandal. But, then again, haven’t many of us witnessed—or even experienced—our own, smaller versions of Enron? Companies go bankrupt every day, and behind many of them are principals who tried to save the company and employees who were asked to help.

Though the scale may be smaller, the ethical dilemmas that involve personal accountability and loyalty to company and boss versus loyalty to friends and coworkers, along with all the accompanying confidentiality issues, are the ...