Ethics Check
Question :
Mercedes has just begun work at Photobook.com. What a great place to work! Although the salary is not high, the company has fabulous perks. The dining room provides great food from 7 a.m. to midnight, five days a week. There is also a free laundry and dry-cleaning service. Mercedes's social life has never been better. She invites her friends over for Photobook meals and has their laundry done for free. And because her job requires her to be online all the time, she has plenty of opportunity to stay in touch with her friends by messaging, tweeting, and checking Facebook updates. She is, however, shocked that one of her colleagues takes paper from the office for his children to use at home. Are these employees behaving ethically? Are they meeting their obligations as agents?
Answer :
Ethics Check
Mercedes is working at Photobook.com which provides free food from 7 AM to midnight and free laundry services to its employees. However, the salary of Mercedes is low. Mercedes calls her friends to the company and offer a meal. She also gets their laundry for free. She also uses the internet service of the organization to chat with her friends. One of her colleagues also takes the paper from the office to home for personal use. The organization is providing such services for its employees only and the resources of the organization should be used for only office purposes. Thus, the act of Mercedes and her colleague is unethical.
The services and resources provided by the office should be only for office use. Mercedes should not call her friends to the office either for a meal or for laundry. Within the office premises, she should also not use internet services for personal chat and messaging. Similarly, her colleague also should not take the paper home for personal use (Ferrell, 2016). During office hour the employees should only focus on their work instead of involving in such unethical behavior. The organization should also put check-points to avail of the free services of the organization by the employees. There should be CCTV cameras to monitor the premises of the organization so that the resources of the organization cannot be taken by the employees.
Considering the consequences of the act of Mercedes and her colleague, it can be said that their act is totally unethical and they should stop doing this.
References
Ferrell, O. C. (2016). A framework for understanding organizational ethics. In Business ethics: New challenges for business schools and corporate leaders (pp. 15-29). Routledge.
