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

Truth-Telling Discussions Are Not Easy

“Right versus wrong” discussions are difficult to keep on point; they’re full of words that everyone defines differently and plagued by the syndrome of “let’s-hurry-up-and-get-this-over-with.” Ethical issues can be so volatile, so explosive, that once we’ve started the discussion, we have to finish it—however messy and destructive it becomes. We can’t very well say, “Oops! Sorry, boss. On second thought, and after observing that you’re not taking this very well, why don’t we just forget that I brought this up?” Sorry; you’ve already opened Pandora’s box, and now your boss is having all kinds of (probably erroneous) thoughts about your questioning his ethics.

Ethical discussions are difficult. This causes us to avoid them, which in turns causes them to remain difficult. That’s why we hold back and fail to confront the issue, and why we sometimes continue too long in our role of “supportive helpmate.” When we finally get to the point at which we’re boiling up inside and absolutely have to say something, we’re rarely as rational or as professional as we need to be. And “mind reading” is not a reasonable quality to include in a job description!