Ethics
Cari Sheehan
Sound the Alarm! Finding Your Path to Self-contentment “BEEP. . . BEEP. . . BEEP!” This is an all too common sound of an alarm clock going off each morning. Have you ever wondered what “alarm” means and why we choose to wake up this way each morning? Alarm is defined as startled, fearful, or expecting attack. This is a terrible way to wake up each day— startled, fearful, or expecting an attack. Unfortunately, for many people, the fearful, startled state does not subside throughout the day. People are constantly living in a state of anxiety moving from one alarm to the next throughout the day whether it be pressures from home, deadlines at work, or personal goals that are unreached. All of these things can develop into stress even though we think it is just normal day-to-day life. When the stress never goes away and just mounts each day it can become chronic stress which can lead to life threatening conditions.
Never-ending Cycle Stress can be found in any person or profession, not just in the corporate world. Stress can lead to adverse health conditions such as stroke, heart-attack, high blood pressure, eating disorders and/or anxiety. Stress can grow through being overworked in a job or trying to balance competing responsibilities such as home and work. The majority of people do not finish everything on their daily to-do list each workday. Every day people feel “pinched” and “overwhelmed” because the to-dos do not get done and carry over to the next day when new items arise. People also experience work guilt if they work longer hours to get things done, thereby disrupting their work-life harmony. It is a never-ending cycle and many employers do not help combat em6
ployees’ stress because to do so might be too costly if the company has to hire additional employees to cover the workload or provide other benefits such as more paid time-off, counseling, or relaxation times. However, companies may forgo the benefits of spending the
or borrow money from the company’s petty cash. Most people forget to put the money back into petty cash and subsequently realize how easy it was to take the money. Then, the next time they need cash for something (it may not even be lunch) they might take more money and escalate to greater amounts each time. Even if the employee eventually puts the money back, it is theft of company funds.
It has been shown that people become less
Many employees will try to rationalize the behavior by stating that the company owes them for the longer hours they are working. An employer only owes an employee the paycheck they agreed upon and any other terms and conditions stated in an employment agreement, nothing else. An employee is not entitled to what they believe they should receive if they work longer hours.
ethical when they are
under stress... People
start to look for the easy route to accomplish a
task and not the most ethical route. extra money to help combat employee stress, particularly in relation to creating higher employee morale and ethics.
Rationalization So, how does stress relate to ethics? It has been shown that people become less ethical when they are under stress. Stress eats away at a person’s ethical compass. People start to look for the easy route to accomplish a task and not the most ethical route. For example, if an employee forgets their lunch, or money for lunch, instead of trying to go home to retrieve it or not eating that day, the person might steal someone else’s food from the work refrigerator
There are other rationalizations that employees use to justify unethical behavior, particularly unethical behavior brought on by stress. For instance, many employees say they “fudge” numbers to meet quotas or obtain the end of the year bonus. In addition, employees claim they are just following company orders or acting the same as everyone else in the company. All of these rationalizations are just excuses to negate any guilt of acting unethically. Stress can also lead to low employee morale and lack of trust among employees. For instance, people under stress
August • September 2022 • Hamilton County Business Magazine
