Have you ever seen unethical behavior? If you did, did you say something or wonder whether it was truly unethical? Nearly three-quarter of employees who responded to one survey reported that they had observed unethical or illegal behavior by coworkers in the past year (Gino et al., 2014). “People often start their misconduct with small transgressions and then slide down a slippery slope” (Gino et al., 2014).
From a behavioral perspective, one can hypothesize these small transgressions resulted in enough reinforcement to continue to behave towards larger transgressions, again possibly yielding further reinforcement, ultimately resulting in major unethical behavior (i.e., fraud, larceny). Unfortunately, the assumption that unethical workplace behavior is the product of a few “bad apples” has blinded many organizations to the fact that everyone is susceptible to their environment and can be unethical, even when we care a great deal about honesty, integrity, and following rules. Yet approaches to warding off those few “bad apples” need not to be drastic (Rodriguez, 2015).
The fact is that these bad behaviors have permeated into the hearts of countless organizations across the world. In this piece, I will list out the common cases of behavioral maladies in the workplace.
Misuse of company time. Whether it is covering for someone who shows up late or altering a time sheet, misusing company time tops the list. This category includes knowing a co-worker is conducting personal business on company time. By “personal business” the survey recognizes the difference between making cold calls to advance your freelance business and calling a spouse to find out how your sick child is doing. Misuse of company time is unethical (Rodriguez, 2015). This has almost been taken as being normal and ethical among many employees. Many of them see it as being smart, multi-tasking and creating multiple streams of income for themselves. Any action that slows down the pace of progress of productivity of the organization you are committed to is an unethical behavior.
Theft. One of the most severe types of employee misconduct is theft. Whether its check tampering, not recording sales in order to skim, or manipulating expense reimbursements, employee theft is a crime and unethical (Rodriguez, 2015). An employee stealing money from a cash register is obviously theft, but it’s not the only kind. Other examples of theft include:
- Doing work on a side-business while on the clock
- Using a company vehicle for personal errands
- Taking intellectual property like computer code
- Padding an expense report with extra charges
- Swiping company supplies like staplers to take home
According to a recent study by Jack L. Hayes International, one out of every 40 employees in the US in 2012 was caught stealing from their employer. Even more startling is that these employees steal on average 5.5 times more than shoplifters ($715 vs $129). The FBI recently reported that employee theft is the fasting growing crime in the U.S. today (Schwartz, 2015). Any time an employee takes something from the company that they shouldn’t, it’s a form of theft. And they need to know the difference between what they can and can’t take (Everfi.com, 2016). This is the work of the senior authorities in the organization. You must make sure guidelines are explicitly stated and followed so that when dealing with any employee, they will not plead ignorance.
Imbalanced relationships. It’s not uncommon for employees to get involved in each other’s lives and create relationships, however, these relationships can lead to employee misconduct. For example, when a supervisor dates a subordinate, it puts everyone involved-including your company-at risk for a sexual harassment claim. Harassment risks due to imbalanced relationships don’t just apply to romantic relationships-supervisors and managers need to keep their relationships with employees professional, to stay on the right side of the law. If a manager develops a close friendship with one employee it can lead to favoritism, or even worse-discrimination (Everfi.com, 2016).
Abusive Behavior. Too many workplaces are filled with managers and supervisors who use their position and power to mistreat or disrespect others. Unfortunately, unless the situation you’re in involves race, gender or ethnic origin, there is often no legal protection against abusive behavior in the workplace (Schwartz, 2015).
Violating company internet policies. These are cyberslackers and cyberloafers. These are terms used to identify people who surf the Web when they should be working. It’s a huge, multi-billion-dollar problem for companies. A survey conducted recently by Salary.com found that every day at least 64 percent of employees visit websites that have nothing to do with their work. Who would have thought that checking your Facebook page is becoming an ethical issue? People do it with proud these days without restraints. They upload pictures at will and show off themselves during office hours (Schwartz, 2015).
Lying to employees. The fastest way to lose the trust of your employees is to lie to them and unfortunately, employers do it at all times. If you ask employees whether their manager or supervisor has lied to them within the past year, you may be surprised at the results. Lying is unethical (Rodriguez, 2018). One of out every five employees report that their manager or supervisor has lied to them within the past year (Schwartz, 2015).
Insubordination. At first insubordination may seem like a small offense, but over time, it becomes serious. These little actions include: excessive tardiness; talking back to supervisors, ignoring requests for information from coworkers; missing work without informing anyone; exceeding scheduled break times; using profane language and purposefully and repeatedly operating out of set processes. Employees need clear guidelines that spell out that these behaviors disrespecting managers, supervisors and fellow employees counts as insubordination (Everfi.com, 2016).
Breaking confidentiality. Employees need to know that they can’t talk about the big stuff like trade secrets or confidential information. But they also need to be careful about product information and launches, business processes and financial information. Another big concern for many businesses is protecting customer information (Everfi.com, 2016).
These are merely a few examples of employee misconduct. Unfortunately, there are many different types of unethical behaviors you need to warn your employees about. The good news is that most of this should be covered in your company’s code of conduct or employee handbook. And you can reinforce the message that these behaviors are unacceptable with ethics training (Everfi.com, 2016).
References
Everfi.com (2016). 5 Types of Unethical Employee Misconduct in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://everfi.com/insights/blog/5-types-of-unethical-employee-misconduct-in-the-workplace/
Rodriguez, M (2015). The 5 Most Common Unethical Workplace Behaviors. Retrieved from https://bsci21.org/the-5-most-common-unethical-workplace-behaviors/
Schwartz, A (2015). The 5 Most Common Unethical Behaviors in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blog/guest-comment/2015/01/most-common-unethical-behaviors-in-the.html
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(C) 2021, Alan Elangovan, All Copy Rights Reserved.