At work you will face many ethical choices.  Some of these choices will be easy to make.  The right or wrong answer will be clear.  For others, the answer will not be so easy.  To make good ethical decisions at work, you can rely on your own personal values, guidance from your employer, and a four-step process for working through an ethical problem and finding a solution.

Personal Values:  People rely on their personal values when making ethical decisions.  While each person has his or her own core values, some values are widely shared.  Five of the common values are honesty, fairness, respect, responsibility, and compassion.

Honesty: Be honest – don’t deceive, cheat or steal.  Consider how you feel when someone lies to you.  Being honest not only means telling the truth, but also giving the relevant information.  Hiding information from others is also being dishonest.

Fairness:  Being fair means acting without prejudice or favouritism.  Be fair in your dealings with co-workers, customers, and supervisors.  Listen to others.  Don’t blame others and do not take advantage of them.

Respect:  Respect others.  Respect cultural differences and diversity in the workplace.  Try to understand differences in opinions and find common ground and consensus in decision making.  Respect also means listening with an open mind to the opinions of others.  Learning to be tactful is very important in showing respect.  The more respectful you are toward others, the more respect they will show toward you.  It is possible to have disagreements without disrespecting each other.  There will be more people at work that you like more than others, but you must be respectful to everyone.

Responsibility:  Take responsibility and be accountable for your duties and actions.  Always try to do your best.  When you make a mistake, own up to it and correct it.

Compassion:  Be kind and considerate toward others.  Use your manners.  Show understanding and caring for your co-workers.  Send thank you notes, sympathy notes and congratulation notes when appropriate.  Try to put yourself in another person’s situation to understand how that person might act and feel.

Ethics Training:  Whether your employer provides ethical training or not, you should make yourself aware of your company’s ethical standards.  They may be formally stated in a code of ethics, core values, an ethics policy, or a code of conduct.  They may also be less formally reflected in the workplace culture and in the business’ actions.  In addition, you should be aware of procedures your company expects you to follow when you are confronted with an ethical issue.