Most people want to work ethically.  They want to do the jobs they have been hired to do and to live up to the expectations of their supervisors, colleagues, and customers.  When things are going well, working ethically can be easy.  It’s when circumstances are not ideal that the temptation to lie, cut corners or cover up can arise.  As an administrative professional, you will sometimes be overworked.

You will be under pressure to meet deadlines and produce results.  You will experience stress from your job or your personal life.  These situations occur for everyone and they will also occur for you.  You need to prepare yourself, so you can handle them without losing your sense of perspective or taking actions that you will regret.

Honesty

Dishonesty at work is a common ethical problem.  Dishonesty means not only lying but also withholding information or misrepresenting the truth.  These actions are always unethical – they are also sometimes illegal.  Be honest with your manager, colleagues, and clients.  When you make a mistake that your manager needs to know about, tell your manager even if you think it makes you look bad.  If patients are waiting for their appointments and you know there will be a delay – say so.

Confidentiality

As an Administrative Professional, you will work with private and sensitive information.  Working ethically means protecting the confidentiality of that information.  Protecting confidentiality is also sometimes a legal requirement.  If you work in a health care facility, you will be required to comply with certain laws that prohibit communication of a patient’s medical and billing information, except for certain purposes, without the patient’s written consent.  Similar protections exist for client information in legal offices and for company information and personal and financial data of employees and clients in many other types of businesses.

While breaches of confidentiality are sometimes intentional, they can also occur through ignorance and carelessness.  Take the time to make yourself thoroughly aware of the way in which confidentiality needs to be protected in your office.  Learn the requirements of the law and always follow standard company procedures for storing, maintaining, and releasing confidential data.

Working ethically also means maintaining confidentiality of information that isn’t formally protected but that people assume is private.  Forwarding someone’s e-mail to another reader without first getting permission from the writer is an example of unethical behaviour.

Taking credit for others’ work

Working ethically also means not taking credit for work that isn’t one’s own.  When this is done with respect to another person’s words or ideas – that is known as plagiarism.  Like breaches of confidentiality, plagiarism is sometimes intentional, but it can also occur through carelessness or lack of understanding.  It is easy, when you have a lot of work to do or are under a deadline, to hastily write down material from a source and to forget to note that it is a quotation.  Many people are often not aware, for instance, that copying and pasting material from the Internet is plagiarism and is also a violation of copyright laws.  Always provide the source for the following kinds of information, regardless of the medium in which it is provided:

• Direct quotations
• Paraphrasing or restating material in your own words
• Information that isn’t widely available or generally known

Respecting the Employer’s resources

Most people would never consider stealing something from a friend.  Yet taking from an employer – taking home office supplies, running personal errands on company time, or taking a sick day to go to the amusement park – is a common ethical problem.

• Petty theft – employee theft costs companies thousands each year. For retailers, losses from employee theft exceed those from shoplifting.  Taking home notebooks, copy paper, staplers and other office supplies is also stealing.  So is using an office copier for personal copying.  Duplicating company software to use at home is illegal and unethical.  Using the company mail system to mail personal packages is stealing from the company and is highly unethical.
• Misuse of time – surfing the Internet, reading, or writing personal e-mails, browsing through catalogues, and reading the newspaper should be done in time away from work. It is appropriate to have a little communication on matters that are not related to work with other employees.  Occasional personal phone calls are usually permissible.  Abuse of that privilege is unethical.
• Calling in sick when one is not, is a common unethical practice. Attendance is extremely important.  When employees are not at work, their work does not get done.  Other people may need to do it for them.  Employee absences affect co-workers and managers.  Coming in late and leaving early can become a habit – a very bad habit, as can taking long breaks or lunch hours.

Substance Abuse

Drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace are not tolerated.  Employees, who abuse drugs and/or alcohol use more sick days, are late more often than other employees, are more likely to be injured on the job or injure someone else and cause low employee morale.  Some companies have mandatory drug testing prior to employment.  If there is an accident on the job, a drug test may be required.

Personal Behaviour Outside Work

Unethical behaviour outside work can wreak havoc on one’s professional life.  Be warned against posting inappropriate personal information on social networking sites.  Some job recruiters search for applicant’s names on these sites and the Internet at large.  In some cases, applicants are not hired, and employees are fired for what they have posted.  A mayor was fired for posting a provocative picture of herself.  A young woman who posted comments about how boring her job was soon found herself out of a job.

Employees can also be fired for doing something illegal in their personal lives.  Examples are getting caught with illegal drugs or receiving a citation from the police for driving while intoxicated.

For the most part, companies do not try to dictate what the employees do in their personal lives.  A few companies, citing rising health care costs, forbid their employees from smoking, drinking and using drugs not only in the workplace but outside it.  These companies do blood tests to detect any violations of their policies regarding drugs.  Such companies usually have a policy about drinking, smoking or drug use that prospective hirees know before they accept a position with the company.