Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM OCTOBER 2022 64 H onesty in the workplace encourages a sense of trust among the employees, the company and the community. Unfortunately, the leadership style in the environment of the workplace often affects the honesty that the employees exhibit. If a company's or a department's leadership isn't credible, the chance that the employees will follow in the same direction will be greater than it should be. Honesty is an aspect of moral character that implies positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness and straightforwardness, along with an absence of lying, cheating, theft, etc. Being honest means choosing not to lie, steal, cheat or deceive in any way. These qualities are essential in our work and our lives. Honesty and integrity are qualities we all want from our employees, but that we don't always think to look for when interviewing prospects. While there are many tests to measure a person's integrity before they're hired, many employers don't use them. One of the hardest flaws to detect is a person who uses "situational ethics" to justify their dishonest behavior, by operating from their own self-serving set of values instead of following categorical principles. Let's take a look at an example. Robert is a great technician. His first-time completion ratio is in the ninetieth percentile. He's an Afghan war veteran and he's friendly in and out of the work environment. Robert has a wife and three children and takes care of his aging mother who lives with them. Robert has a propensity for increasing his take-home pay by using situational ethics. While he'd never go into a store and shoplift, he has no problem using his interpersonal skills to convince customers that his boss is a thief and charges way too much money to fix their appliances. But he doesn't stop there – he further convinces the customers that he'll give them a discount on the same service if they pay him instead of the company. Once the deal is made, he submits the invoice to his company, indicating that the customer declined to have the work done. He then returns to the customer's home and finishes the job and collects the discounted balance. Embezzlement means stealing money or property from your employer while you're entrusted to take care of it. Robert's situational ethics tell him he isn't really stealing from the company because he isn't taking all of the money, and it's okay to take the portion he "earned." Just as a lie steals truth, situational ethics steal not only a business's revenue but its reputation and its customers. Any way you look at it, what Robert is doing is embezzlement. Employees who embezzle can be charged with a class C or class H felony depending on the amount that is embezzled. Usually, the employer discovers the crime long before the amount stolen reaches the level of a felony. But then what happens? In most cases, the employer fires the employee and doesn't prosecute. This sets a bad precedent for the industry and for other business owners. In the next chapter in this series, we'll discuss the ramifications of failing to prosecute. Meanwhile, I'll share my personal code of ethics which I adopted from one written by Ron Sawyer, a man of the highest honesty and integrity, and the founder of PSA. If you don't have a written code of ethics, feel free to adopt this one. It's essential to run your company with a strong value system, and to instruct your employees on its merits. OUR CODE OF ETHICS We have the following primary moral obligations to the people we serve. Since rational people act knowingly and freely, violations of these obligations raise the presumption of a moral wrong. • Honesty: Lying or misrepresentation is understood to be a deliberate attempt to mislead others. • Promise-keeping: The freedom to make promises comes with the obligation to keep them. • Loyalty: A person who has placed faith and loyalty in you is entitled to a comparative degree of faith and loyalty from you in return. • Fairness: Treat others as you would have them treat you. Justice seeks reciprocal action. These duties bind the fabric of our civilization and make social life and personal relationships possible. They also reinforce commercial and business operations. When injustice rules relationships, and harmful actions are the norm, social life and business relationships cannot survive. S E R V I C E D E P A R T M E N T RO EMPLOYEE THEFT & SITUATIONAL ETHICS Ralph Wolff, Industry Relations, PSA Certified Service Center www.certifiedservicecenter.org

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