Are you in paid employment, and eager to advance up the position ladder or corporate hierarchy? If yes, there’s a good chance you’ll have to confront the above challenge at least once in your career. Most people would agree that going against laid down operational guidelines (especially those affecting product or service quality/delivery) is wrong. Examples would be bypassing standard procedure in manufacturing a product (i.e. cutting corners) for personal gain; or giving or receiving bribes etc.
If you are asked to do wrong along the lines mentioned above, however, how you tackle that challenge may depend on a number of factors such as:
1. Your position in the company
New entrants or lower ranked employees tend to be at the receiving end of instructions and orders most times. If you’re still at the bottom of the pecking order, getting asked to do what you consider to be wrong, could put you in a major dilemma
Take the case of Andrew – a junior line manager. He was asked by his boss to use a procedure that had been expressly forbidden in a memo by the company’s management. Everybody knew it was an outlawed “practice”. Yet, his boss verbally instructed him to do it, so they could recover lost time to meet the week’s target volume output.
As a junior line manager, Andrew knew he could not hope to convince anyone that this really happened, if he chose to report it. But he also knew that if he went ahead and did as he had been asked, his boss could deny telling him to do it, if anything went wrong!
So, he was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea – figuratively speaking.
After thinking about it for a while, he recalled having a conversation with some of the veteran managers. They had worked with his boss many years before, and shared a valuable lesson they picked up:
If you boss asks you to do anything you’re not convinced he’ll back you up on when it comes to the crunch, get him to put it in writing. Politely request a memo from him instructing you to do it. Once you have that signed document stating explicitly his instructions to you, go ahead and do it. Even if you’re not new (or young) in the company, you can still use the above strategy. But in your case, an even better line of action would be to call your boss’ attention to the fact that what he’s asking you to do is against company policy. Politely point out the implications. Depending on how far apart you are in “rank”, and the degree of seriousness of the issue, you may formally advise him that you’ll have to put in a formal report if he insists on going ahead. This would not be a selfish move on your part – especially if the company’s management is not in the know. You could be doing the organization a big favour they would appreciate on finding out about it. And THAT would be a good way to do YOUR JOB – which is what you’re being paid to do. This is another factor that can influence how you deal with a boss’ request for you to do wrong. If your boss is the owner of the company (say it’s an SME), then it gets easier for you either as a new employee or a veteran staff. Since s/he owns the company, if the issue has to do with bypassing standard procedure for instance, and you are in charge of Quality Control, voice your professional opinion. Lets say s/he asks you to arrange for dumping of contaminated byproducts from the plant or factory in a nearby lake at night, to save scarce funds. Your sense of responsibility, professional obligation, and of course your conscience should come into play here. If you worry about losing your job if s/he fires you for saying no, consider the possibility that you could join him on a trip to jail (or some severe form of reprimand), if the authorities discover your abuse of environmental protection laws. What’s more, the impact on other people – to the extent that their health could be damaged should concern you. Draw courage from those considerations and tactfully try to persuade your boss to pursue a different line of action. If s/he won’t budge, consider more serious lines of action e.g. saying NO, and/or reporting to the authorities. Sometimes the request may not have such serious consequencies as the above. For instance, as the owner of the company, your boss could ask you to delay payment of salaries till the 10th of every month, instead of paying it on the 30th day as required by law.
2. Your boss’ position in the company
Whether or not you decide to do what s/he asks will now depend on what implications doing it will have – on you, and others, including the larger society. Maybe you’re the accountant or administrative manager in the company. How far would you go in obeying orders if it means doing wrong to innocent others?
On the one hand it’s not your company. On the other hand, those being denied their pay when due, would be made to suffer needlessly after fulfilling their end of the employee-employer agreement.
Would you just go ahead and every month delaying people’s salaries till they have to borrow from relatives and friends to keep coming to work? Or would you summon the courage to gently but firmly get your boss to do the right thing?
I know someone who successfully took action to correct this kind of behavior by taking on an entire company’s management team. And he did it without starting a big fight, but instead by using the Socratic technique.
By the time he was done, it was obvious to his superiors that they could not justify continuing the practice under the guise that it would ensure people stayed committed to their jobs!
3. The part of the world you’re in
In discussing points 1. and 2. above, I deliberately did not bring up the matter of the level of “development” of the socio-economic environment in which your company operates.
The realities of life are different in some parts of the world. The opportunity to be able to leave home and say they’re off to work every morning, makes some people willing to put up with almost anything – including inhumane treatment from employers.
The employers know this, just as well as the employees do. And that creates the basis for the latter to get away with what they want – sometimes, and often. But not all the time.
Working in a company under such socio-economic conditions could influence your disposition on such a matter as deciding what to do about right or wrong.
A married man for instance, who works as accountant would probably be wary of being too diligent in pointing out his boss’ error in delaying payments, for fear that an eager replacement can be quickly found to do what is being asked!
Having said that, some individuals do not let such realities cow them.
In fact, a useful defence to adopt in such situations would be to hone your skills on the job so well, that your boss would literally dread the thought of having to replace you. You can make yourself so valuable – an asset not to be joked with – that when you express an opinion, those who matter will often listen. You would then use that to your advantage.
On the other hand, if you’re based in a developed society, so many laws and rules already exist to keep most bosses in line when it comes to doing right or wrong in their companies. But that does not stop some people from trying. Find out more about what the laid down guidelines entail, and use that knowledge to guide yourself in taking up your boss as/when the need arises to stop him/her from making you do wrong.
On a final note, it goes without saying that your conscience will never fail you if you listen to it. So, pay attention! Not doing so in the short term may seem a wise thing to do. However, in the long run, letting yourself get used to do wrong will be a decision that will come back to haunt you later on.