I asked this question once of an interview candidate: “When is there a right time to do the wrong thing?”
The candidate didn’t even blink. The answer came out immediately, reflexively: “There’s never a right time”. Bingo! Correct answer for the interview setting, but not quite correct in a real world setting.
The right answer would have been “almost never”.
I’ve personally had do to some “gray” things in the course of my career. Nothing illegal, of course, but the of the kind that make you squirm a little and want to take a good shower when you get home.
Case in point: I’m a procurement manager in my day job. Back charges to suppliers for errors or warranties or slipped are rare, but they do occur.
In large part, the supplier is at fault, or late, or in breach of contract. In a small percentage though, the supplier has practically done nothing wrong, but technically is still in breach. For example, submitting a change order long after the job is shipped and complete. Were the change order to be approved and charge the project, it would hit the ledger as an non-accrued and unplanned expense. This is a bad thing.
So the change order must perforce be rejected. This is also bad, but a smaller bad. The work has been performed, and the right thing to do is to pay it. Right with respect to the supplier, but wrong with respect to the contract (and your company). Contract clearly states — in multiple places — that the change order must be submitted prior to execution, and approved within seven days. Forget to invoice, and forget about getting paid.
Wrong for the supplier, right for your company.
Except that the supplier is a small business. The company employs only a few blue-collar people, and that change order is their Christmas bonus. You know them, you’ve broken bread with them, and you’re withholding a living from them. What an asshole.
It’s harsh, but that’s just the way it is, contractually speaking. Your first responsibility is to your company (or family, or friends).
This falls into the gray, almost-never category. I decided long ago that I can live with these little wrongs, if we can make amends later on. As we tell the supplier (a little tongue-in-cheek), just wait, we’ll get righteous on this. You’ll get an exclusive chance, a first-look opportunity… to lose more money later on. And thus all are relatively less unhappy.
I’ve focused on the procurement side of business, but really, this applies to home contractors and anyone we do business with.
There may be little gray areas crop up from time to time. But there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.
What do you think, readers. Have you ever had to make a difficult choice? Have you made efforts to make amends later on?
I worked for a company years ago that was having cashflow problems and always paying late. It got to the point that I refused to lie like the CEO wanted me to about the reason for the delay in payments. Man, I hated that practice of not paying people unless they called begging for their money – and sometimes not even then.
I can absolutely relate to that. In a previous life, I joined a company that had the same problems. As a newly-minted GM, my energies were useless diverted in staving off suppliers and renegotiating terms. My current company is extremely well financed. Having the cash to pay suppliers is a non-issue.
I have had to make difficult choices too. It is certainly unpleasant to be put in the position of feeling a moral tugging to help your customer conflict with your ethical duties to your employer (not illegal or even immoral actions… just gray). I think such situations build character. You definitely find out what you are made of.
Hi Roshawn – in a previous life, I worked with some people who were a little ethically challenged. It was one of the main reasons I left. Gray I can handle, but all wrong all the time was hard.
But that’s the way life is. Everything isn’t black and white. Sometimes you have to choose the lesser of the evil.
Yes, and even better if you can made amends later.
Life, much less a career, isn’t black and white. I learn this each day I get older.
Of course, your opening paragraph nicely illustrated a separate point, that interviews are not representative of real life, or real day-to-day professional interactions anyway.
You nailed it, Squirrelers. Discerning future behavior and performance from interview settings is a crap shoot sometimes.
Good point.
In your scenario, maybe you actually are doing the ‘right’ thing when all is said and done. In some instances you weighed the relationship with the supplier higher than the wording of the contract – and chose not to enforce the contract. Maybe the relationship with the supplier is more important than enforcing the contract to the letter, and the good will that comes from alerting them to their mistake and not enforcing it will pay future dividends.
Hi PK – like Aloysa said below, it all depends. But right is right, when all you’ve got is reputation.
I think ethical issues come up in all facets of everyday life, especially in the workforce. It’s tough to do the right thing sometimes, especially if your co-workers and managers aren’t on the same page. But at the end of the day, it almost always comes out – do the right thing up front!
How about “it depends.”
That’s would any lawyer say. Sometimes we need to do wrong in order to get something right. Not often, not always but definitely at least once.
Heh! I’ve been accused of talking like a lawyer on occasion…
We have actually implemented a whistle blower policy at work where people are protected in situations like this. If you share information pertaining to an issue you don’t lose your job. It’s a really good way to enforce honesty and open communication.