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

Summary

The trouble with the boss will always be that he (or she) is the boss! So, like it or not, this person has a lot more power than you do. Your job satisfaction, quality of work life, advancement opportunities, job security, compensation, and benefits depend on how satisfied your supervisor is with your performance. This relationship will always be the centerpiece of your job.

For the obvious reasons of authority, access to information, contact with others, and so on, the manager sometimes appears to be the only one in the office who can raise or lower the ethical standards. This is not true, however—and you are not without influence! You and your boss still have the power to positively impact each other. Your boss communicates his feelings about company rules, courtesy, fairness, honesty, respect, and integrity by his example—and you do too. You also convey your feelings by how you respond to his directions. Acknowledging this is a good starting place.

Sometimes, an informal discussion about a particular situation’s ethics will regrettably not be enough to resolve it. The situation may escalate until your employer-employee relationship is at risk. This chapter looked at informal and structured approaches you can use that may lead to a satisfactory remedy of your dilemma. Each step in these processes comes with a price, however, as each one extracts an increasingly greater price from you—and there is never a guarantee that it will all be worth it in the end. Though moral ...