Integrity dilemma
Our consultants often deal with matters of integrity. It is difficult to indicate precisely what integrity implies. After all, social values vary among individuals. The following story is about someone who faces the dilemma whether he should report about another person’s behaviour or not. A participant in one of our workshops brought it up. This is what he told us:
"My son Jeff is 19 years old. He recently took on a job on the side at a local gas station. A young woman called Stephanie, who apparently does her work to the satisfaction of her employer, is teaching him the tricks of the trade. Jeff told me she has got two children. They are twins and he saw a photograph of them. Before setting to work, she always puts it on her desk. She talks about them lovingly.
When he worked there for about a week my son started noticing something strange. At the end of each workday he received about a 5 euros tip in total. Stephanie, on the other hand, received more: about 40 euros. He asked what he might be doing wrong. I didn’t know what to tell him but advised to ask Stephanie about it.
The next day, at breakfast, I noticed Jeff didn’t sleep well. Finally he told me that he has found out how Stephanie managed to get so many tips. She had told him herself. Each time a customer paid her in cash, Stephanie deliberately short-changed the customer and kept the difference. Most customers did not notice the difference; especially when there was a long queue behind them. Also many people still had to get used to the euro. Proudly Stephanie had told Jeff how she reacts if customers do notice they have been short-changed. She apologises to those customers and tells them she made the mistake because she isn’t used to the euro. Jeff ended his story telling me he found this difficult to grasp."
What would you advise your 19 year old son?
We recommend that you participate in one of our integrity workshops about Integrity if you are dealing with similar dilemmas at work and you want to get a grip on them.
"My son Jeff is 19 years old. He recently took on a job on the side at a local gas station. A young woman called Stephanie, who apparently does her work to the satisfaction of her employer, is teaching him the tricks of the trade. Jeff told me she has got two children. They are twins and he saw a photograph of them. Before setting to work, she always puts it on her desk. She talks about them lovingly.
When he worked there for about a week my son started noticing something strange. At the end of each workday he received about a 5 euros tip in total. Stephanie, on the other hand, received more: about 40 euros. He asked what he might be doing wrong. I didn’t know what to tell him but advised to ask Stephanie about it.
The next day, at breakfast, I noticed Jeff didn’t sleep well. Finally he told me that he has found out how Stephanie managed to get so many tips. She had told him herself. Each time a customer paid her in cash, Stephanie deliberately short-changed the customer and kept the difference. Most customers did not notice the difference; especially when there was a long queue behind them. Also many people still had to get used to the euro. Proudly Stephanie had told Jeff how she reacts if customers do notice they have been short-changed. She apologises to those customers and tells them she made the mistake because she isn’t used to the euro. Jeff ended his story telling me he found this difficult to grasp."
What would you advise your 19 year old son?
We recommend that you participate in one of our integrity workshops about Integrity if you are dealing with similar dilemmas at work and you want to get a grip on them.
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