Elerfe Jannine B. Kadile Dr. Lorie Anne Socorro R.

Moreno
eBook 3

Business Ethics

Chapter 6 (Employers to Employees)

The workplace will always determine our passion towards our work. May it
be the place, the co-employees or the students. According to Ellen Guder in her
book entitled God, But I’m Bored!: “Any job, may it be as a lawyer or a janitor, will
experience drudgery.” You can never know how to sustain that joy in what you
are doing but to live with it. Many institutions and companies negate boredom by
doing recreational activities. In school, the teacher thinks of these activities so the
workplace may not be dull. In comparison to an office, the management is the
one responsible in thinking these matters. All employees want and deserve a
workplace that is physically and emotionally safe, where they can focus on their
job responsibilities and obtain some fulfillment, rather than worrying about
dangerous conditions, harassment, or discrimination. Workers also expect fair pay
and respect for their privacy. Good managers model ethical behavior. If a
corporation expects its employees to act ethically, that behavior must start at the
top, where managers hold themselves to a high standard of conduct and can
rightly say, “Follow my lead, do as I do.” At a minimum, leaders model ethical
behavior by not violating the law or company policy. One who says, “Get this
deal done, I don’t care what it takes,” may very well be sending a message that
unethical tactics and violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law are
acceptable. A manager who abuses company property by taking home office
supplies or using the company’s computers for personal business but then
disciplines any employee who does the same is not modeling ethical behavior.
Likewise, a manager who consistently leaves early but expects all other
employees to stay until the last minute is not demonstrating fairness.

Furthermore, another way of compensating drudgery is by having a

satisfying salary. Workers simply believe that their salary must be based on their
output and not on their time. However, that does not work in the industry, you can
be the best teacher in the school but your salary will always be the same as to
that worst teacher. This is where the last and the most important thing to being a
great worker: fulfillment. It comes when you no longer think about your salary nor
the time you spent in working but the blissful feeling and recognition from your
executives every time you accomplish something. Therefore, employers will
always play a huge role in cultivating their employees.
Chapter 7 (What Employees Owe to Employers)

Loving your job is different from liking your job; liking your job means the
challenge is great, the school pays you well, you like the people whereas to loving
your job means you don’t want to work anywhere else no matter how much they
pay you because you are devoted not only to the work but the entire workplace
(coworkers, executives, and students). Loyalty is more abstract and less easily
defined. Most workers do not have employment contracts, so there may not be
a specific agreement between the two parties detailing their mutual
responsibilities. Instead, the common law (case law) of agency in each state is
often the source of the rules governing an employment relationship. The usual
depiction of duty in common law is the duty of loyalty, which, in all fifty states,
requires that an employee refrain from acting in a manner contrary to the
employer’s interest. This duty creates some basic rules employees must follow on
the job and provides employers with enforceable rights against employees who
violate them. In the competitive world of business, many employees encounter
information in their day-to-day work that their employers reasonably expect they
will keep confidential. Proprietary (private) information, the details of patents and
copyrights, employee records and salary histories, and customer-related data are
valued company assets that must remain in-house, not in the hands of
competitors, trade publications, or the news media. Employers are well within their
rights to expect employees to honor their duty of confidentiality and maintain the
secrecy of such proprietary material. Sometimes the duty of confidentiality
originates specifically from an employment contract, if there is one, and if not, the
duty still exists in most situations under the common law of agency.

The moment you wear your uniform is like saying you are loyal and devoted
to the institution. It brings pride and confidence to the teacher to earn respect
from their students and thus, be devoted in teaching them as if they were a family.
A good employment relationship is beneficial to both management and
employees. When a company’s products or services are legitimate and safe and
its employment policies are fair and compassionate, managers should be able to
rely on their employees’ dedication to those products or services and to their
customers. Although no employee should be called upon to lie or cover up a
misstep on the part of the firm, every employee should be willing to make a
sincere commitment to an ethical employer. By this, they are not just helping the
students learn but to enjoy the environment they are in. Therefore, this will bring
satisfaction to the employers simply because you’re not just doing your job but
also cultivating a healthy environment to the students. Another aspect of
responsibility of an employee to its employer is his/her financial integrity. There are
many events where the employer entrusts their money to an employee because
simply because it is part of their job. One example of which is by being a
canvasser to the stuffs needed in school. Therefore, an employee will hold
responsible to many factors that will affect not only the employer but also the
company/institution itself.
Chapter 10 (Changing Work Environment and Future Trends)

We are currently at what they call “Internet Age”. That is, people tend to
rely more on technology. Students read e-books than the conventional book.
Even the workplace now can be through internet and that’s what we called,
Telecommuting. It enables an employee to work off-site for all or part of the
workweek on a regular basis. Duke considers telecommuting to be a viable
alternative to working from a central Duke worksite in cases where the
characteristics of the employee, supervisor, and work are compatible with such
an arrangement, and the physical environment, equipment, and technology are
adequate to support it.

Typically, a Telecommuting arrangement will specify the number of hours

to be worked at home and the specific time in which this will occur (eg., every
Tuesday, the first Monday of the month, etc.). In cases where the department
agrees to support some or all of the costs of an off-site office, the supervisor and
staff member should discuss all applicable costs, including that of additional
telephone lines, telephone use charges and Internet Service Provider (ISP)
charges, as appropriate. Employers may be attracted to telecommuting for other
reasons. Having remote employees can reduce office space costs. In fact, a
company can consider expanding even when there is no available real estate or
capital to enlarge or improve the physical facilities. Companies that hire remote
employees can also widen their pool of potential applicants. They can choose
recruits with better job skills than the local population could provide and expand
their sales and marketing territory by hiring employees based in a new area.

With this, adaptation of technology in teaching is widely used already.

There are advantages and disadvantages of this not only to the teacher but the
employers also. Employers allow employees to telecommute for a variety of
reasons. First, it is a powerful recruiting tool for people who want to balance their
work and personal lives. It allows employees to work a more flexible schedule to
care for children or older relatives while maintaining a career and earning
income. Individuals with ability challenges also prefer the flexibility that
telecommuting affords them. Advantages such as: it saves time, decreases stress,
and increases employee productivity. On the other hand, disadvantages of this
are: students tend to rely on technology and less verbal interaction with the
teacher since students can immediately answer their question in just a click.
Therefore, by adapting to trends, teaching will be made easier and more
productive but teachers should remind his/her students about the limitations in
using technology.