Ethical Dilemmas in the Office

Ethical Issues in an office setting is nothing out of the ordinary. There are many situations that could cause problems between employees and management or employees with other employees. One that I would like to address is an outside issue between an employee and office manager that was brought into the work setting.

I personally know someone that has worked in a medical office as the Office Manager for 13 years. She had become very much of a part of the office "family" and was a huge asset to the Doctor's who owned it. After working there for many years, a new receptionist was hired and the manager had become very good friends with her outside of work. Several years down the road, there was an issue of payment for a scheduled vacation where the receptionist refused to pay and the friendship dissolved but not without issue.

Many rumors at work were spreading about the Office Manager being rude and disrespectful to others, purposely changing schedules without notifying anyone, and giving employee discounts to friends and family secretly. A meeting was scheduled with the Doctors, the office manager, and the receptionist to discuss what was actually happening and to get both sides of the story. There was no actual proof of any wrong doing in the end so the Doctors had decided that the issue was more of an outside problem that was wrongfully and purposely brought into the office in hopes of the Office Manager being fired.

Nothing had been changed and everyone was told to focus on their jobs but rumors were still being spread so the Office Manager had decided that she could no longer take the abuse of the other employees and resigned.

Many medical office's have a decision making model that is used to determine how to deal with this sort of problem. First, they would typically get the history and conflict information to they know all of the details before preceding. This was done during the meeting. Then they determine how to correct the situation by comparing various outcomes, the impact of the lives of the employees and the office, and weighing those to determine what is best for everyone. Deciding that this issue was a personal conflict and choosing not to do anything about it was the mistake that this office made. I feel they did not think about the impact that rumors can have on someone especially a manager who needs the employees respect. The outcome of the situation bore no responsibility on the right party, the receptionist, so with no consequence for her actions she continued abusing the manager and involving the other employees as well.

My stance on this is that the Doctors of this office should have stood by their manager and followed a decision making model because they are very helpful in these ethical problems. There was no clear evidence of any wrong doing on her part and they did know about the personal issue between the two so it was clear what was actually happening. In the end they lost their manager and close friend for no good reason when they would have been able to keep their manager and their great office environment had they followed a good decision making model to get the best outcome.  

References

author, n. (n.d.). Office Ethics. Retrieved from Southwestern Learning: http://www.swlearning.com/swepstuff/previews/files/careerreadiness/0538726164/ethics_ch01.pdf

Ingram, D. (n.d.). What are the steps in the decision making process of a manager? Retrieved from Small Business Chron: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/steps-decisionmaking-process-manager-10601.html