Countdown to Graduation - Less than 1 Year Remains!

Tonight I stayed late at my office to ensure I completed my last assignment for my Ethics class. 

Here's a new lesson for you: when your Ethics professor says in her syllabus that class attendance is required...remember she is the ETHICS professor and is not likely to bend on her stance.  However, after giving me heart palpitations when she initially refused to work with me when I asked for leeway on the final class session due to a business commitment on the West Coast, she eventually relented.  But unlike other professors who just required that I complete the regular coursework in advance, she gave me an additional 5 page analysis paper assignment.

Ugh.

If I could have gone to class that day, I would have watched a 2 hour documentary and then participated in some group discussion.  Making 2-3 comments would have been enough.  By not attending I spent 2 hours watching the documentary at home, and then another 4 hours on research and reading the companion book, and then another 3-4 hours writing the paper.

Ugh.

Next time, I'm telling my boss I'm not going to the client event.  I think I'd rather face his displeasure than go through this exercise again.

My other school activity today was to register for my next class - the thesis prep class.  The tunnel is still very long....but the light is there.   According to the class syllabus - which focuses on research, writing and presentation, I will conclude this semester with a thesis at 50% completion.  I will also have a 60 minute DVD with video of me making three presentations - and oh what compelling video that will be.  Then over the summer (joy) I will have to finish writing and finally defend it.  After that it's two more required courses and I'm done!

How exciting to think that, barring any unforeseen issue (like my brain implodes, or my bank account gives out when the tuition reimbursement is done) this time next year I will be celebrating no more classes, no more books, no more ethics teacher's dirty looks.

Business Ethics

My course this semester is Business Ethics...and no that is not an oxymoron.  But I do have to say, this is one of the toughest classes I've had to take thus far.  It requires true soul searching to discover where your sword line lies...you know, the line where you will throw yourself on the sword rather than take an unethical action.  In business terms, you'll give up your job for it.  I'm still looking for mine.  The struggle right now is that I've been lucky enough not to feel I've ever been pushed to do something truly unethical, or even close to it.  And yet, when you look at the microinequities of every day occurrences, it is amazing how many things we (I) do that fall in an ethical gray line.

Yesterday, one of my fellow students got the hot seat where she talked about how she was uncomfortable that her boss asked her to process payments in 2009 for 2010 expenses.  To pre-pay for some advertising, some sponsorships, some charities.  I'm sure most of us have done something similar to this...it's the end of the year, there is some money left in the budget, you use it up.  The difference being, her boss knows enough about the wrongness of this to request that she white out the dates on the invoices.  At this point in the class discussion, our professor begins to counsel her on the dangers of tax fraud, that she may need to call the ethics hotline at work, and that she should cease this activity immediately and document every conversation she has.   Holy cow!  She thought she was just doing a class exercise and suddenly she needs a lawyer.

The thing that I've learned about true ethical dilemmas though is that it is not usually the choice between right and wrong, it is the choice between right and less right.  In ever dilemma you must evaluate what are the two rights and begin to build your arguments for both.  When you find the weak point in the argument, you find the less right action. 

Then again, there remains the ethical dilemmas that are between wrong and less wrong as well.  But whichever you face, there are questions that can help you.  "Would I want this to be tomorrow's headline?" "Could I explain this to my mother?"  etc.  But the best advice my professor gave was this one, when you feel you are being forced to decide on something quickly just remember two things: (1) you should always have time to go to the bathroom (and think) before making a decision, and (2) remember this phrase: "If you must have an answer now, the answer is no." 

I'm about to outline my final paper for this class which requires me to define business ethics, determine my own personal ethics, and evaluate an ethical dilemma...wish me luck.

And if you are wondering about what else I did besides 14 hours of school this weekend, check out the yellow cottage.

Subversives in the Classroom

So I think my professor this semester is a bit of a subversive. His longest term at any job has been 4 years in a 30-year career, and he said he has left EVERY job because of an issue with the "jerk I had to work for".

He left one job shortly before the holiday season. He cackled with glee as he told us the story of the "tool I used to work for" receiving a grabbag gift that holiday season - it was a box of dead ants. He thought it was hilarious that his former co-workers called him minutes after it happened to find out if he was behind it.

His response?

"No, but I sure wish I had thought of it."

Is it me? Or is this a slightly inappropriate story to tell his grad students?

And speaking of being a GRAD student. He is going to spend next weekend helping us work on our resumes and cover letters. Ok - if we don't know how to do that yet, we should be in remedial programs. But then again, since he's left jobs every couple of years - he's probably very focused on how to do this.

His other cackle with glee story was about how much he enjoys LYING to his current boss about having a medical appointment and "five minutes later being in another guy's office getting his next job."

I think it is maybe a karmic retribution that he has been suffering from a massive case of Shingles - that attacked (not his stomach or back like most people) his eye, forehead and scalp.

I think he now looks a little like the ghoul that he is.