Reply to Edwards Discussion Response must be 200 words:
“Compliance is following the law, ethics is doing what is right regardless of what the law says. Compliance is something that the government requires you to do. Ethics, however, is something you choose to consider when taking action” (Watson, 2014). Compliances on the job can consist of an organization complying with state laws in regards to giving employees breaks. For an example, most state laws require companies to give employees at least a 30-minute unpaid break and 2 fifteen-minute paid breaks for an 8-hour shift.
Ethics can become involved when a company gives a worker a 30-minute break at the beginning of their shift instead of allowing them to work at least half the shift. This is an unethical act because the supervisor is only caring about production getting done instead of how the colleague feels. After hours of working, the colleague will want to take a lunch break, but the supervisor gave it to them after an hour of working because work duties get heavier in the later part of the day. Another example of ethics in the workplace deals with being honest, a supervisor that lies to colleagues will create a bad work climate. Colleagues may be unprofessional to customers, show up to work late while taking longer breaks and take advantage of new hires by making them do majority of the work.
In my current role as a work at home inbound travel agent, my organization needs an ethics officer to ensure complaints and allegations are handled with no moral judgments when dealing with customers and management. Often times customers get upset with agents about pricing and cancellation fees and they will give a bad customer survey score after the call even though the agent was at fault. The bad survey score reflects our metrics which can prevent us from getting a promotion or even receive disciplinary action. An ethics officer will also ensure that management and quality assurance supervisors conduct themselves professionally and fairly during coaching sessions.
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