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Monday, November 17th, 2008A friend of mine (let’s call him Bob) recently suffered through what should have been a simple telephone call. Bob had worked for over a decade for a company with a particularly nice pension plan so, when he left for a new job, he decided to leave his retirement money in his former employer’s plan [...]
When it comes to customers, don’t make the same mistake twice!
Friday, November 7th, 2008My friend Amy was very frustrated this week when she got her daughter’s birthday cake for free. Sounds crazy? Read on.
Amy works a demanding job and only gets a half-hour lunch break. At the end of every workday she fights through traffic to collect her kids from daycare, so she can’t run errands on the [...]
Is it ethical for doctors to prescribe placebos?
Monday, October 27th, 2008Last week, the British Medical Journal published the surprising results of a new survey of American doctors concerning the use of placebos, harmless vitamins or over-the-counter painkillers that work because a patient thinks they will. According to the Journal, almost half of the doctors surveyed reported that they prescribe placebos two or three times a [...]
USA Today Explains Why Wall Street CEOs Haven’t Apologized
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008USA Today’s Del Jones has published an article speculating about why Wall Street CEOs have failed to apologize for the financial crisis gripping the nation. Jones has several theories. First, there’s enough blame to go around between the government and Wall Street to allow CEOs to disclaim responsibility for the mess. Second, both CEOs and [...]
What ethical obligations do journalists have?
Monday, October 20th, 2008Last week, I wrote a post critiquing coverage of the Presidential campaign, arguing that the news media have focused too much on entertaining trivia and too little on the candidates’ positions. Chris commented in response that the press would probably argue that “they are providing what the viewers want.” His comment, and observations from Chris [...]
How effective is your company’s ethics training?
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Last Thursday’s episode of “The Office” featured an absolutely hilarious spoof of corporate ethics seminars. From the opening moments of trainers singing “let’s get ethical” to the tune of Olivia Newton John’s “Let’s Get Physical,” the show lampooned just about every aspect of how ethics training can go awry. Escalating confessions during the “immunity period,” an [...]
Bad administration is bad business!
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008A friend of mine (let’s call her Louise) recently came to town with her five-year-old daughter, who’s about to start kindergarten. On the recommendation of a mutual acquaintance, Louise took her daughter to a local pediatrician for her pre-school physical, about two weeks before the school enrollment deadline. That first visit was pretty traumatic for [...]
Was it ethical for Simon & Schuster to publish “Obama Nation”?
Monday, August 25th, 2008With the 2008 election nearing, it’s inevitable that voters’ interest in the candidates is increasing and the incentive to attack is growing on both sides. The latest attack on presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama comes in the form of a book by conservative Jerome Corsi titled Obama Nation that portrays Senator Obama in far from flattering [...]
Why “handshake deals” aren’t always great business ethics
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008One of the services I provide to clients is writing contracts and engagement letters for them to use when they start new business relationships. Depending on what my client expects to be doing, the documents can get pretty complicated, spelling out the scope of work, the obligations of the other person, how and when my client [...]
So, what’s the big deal with apologies?
Monday, August 4th, 2008Recently, a friend asked why so many of my blog posts focus on various aspects of apologies. “It seems so narrow,” she said. “Are apologies really all that important?”
You bet they are.
As a practicing attorney, I’ve had over twenty years’ experience dealing with other people’s problems. (Let’s face it – regardless of how much they like [...]