Summary
This article from CAmagazine talks about ethics in the
workplace. William, an experienced employee at a large
company, was wondering how his foreman could afford
so many luxury goods. One day, William found a pay
cheque for someone he didn’t recognize and he became
suspicious. He mentioned it to a few people, and they
encouraged him to report the situation through the
company’s ethics hotline. Apparently, the foreman was
creating fictitious jobs and pocketing the extra money.
In similar situations, many employees don’t report the
situation because they fear of losing their jobs and think
they have more to lose than to gain.
Connections
This article in CAmagazine connected to chapter 3 in
the book because on page 163, there is a small article
that also talks about ethics in accounting. It says that
the company wants a big loan from the bank, and asked
you, the staff accountant, to postpone a write off to some
equipment; the equipment is currently idle, and will
probably never be used again. Writing the equipment off
immediately would have significant negative impacts on
the company’s income for the period, which leads to
negative impacts on the bank’s assessment of the
company. Basically this means that companies actually
manipulate things to make their income and balance
sheets looks better than they actually are; which, in
my opinion, is unethical.
Reflection
If I was placed in a situation similar to William’s
situation, I would most likely report it to the ethics
hotline. I believe ethics in a company is really
important because if a lot of people in the company
lie about incomes and other company matters, it will
make a bad impression on others; this would most
likely cause potential investors to avoid investing in
this company. If I was investing in a company, I
wouldn’t want to invest in it, and then find out it’s
doing really poorly. If I wasn’t happy with what I
was making in a company, I would either work
harder to get promoted, I definitely wouldn’t make
fictitious jobs just to earn more money, because
that’s basically stealing.
