Workplace Ethics: Hiring and Firing Practices Explored

• Workplace ethics are examined in two parts

Hiring

• Discrimination, in a neutral sense, involves distinguishing, differentiating, or treating individuals or groups differently based on characteristics like age, gender, race, religion, or other attributes
• Hiring becomes wrongfully discriminatory when based on characteristics not relevant to the job
• Job relevance is a determining factor in ethical hiring practices

Discussion of Hiring Practices

• Attractiveness as a job-relevant qualification is being evaluated
• Questioning whether considering attractiveness in hiring decisions for customer-facing roles is wrongfully discriminatory
• It questions accounting for non-job-relevant characteristics in hiring
• It addresses whether hiring the most qualified applicant is a duty
• Hiring one's child for a summer job and veteran preference are considered as examples

Firing: Employment at Will (EAW)

• EAW as a legal doctrine allows employers to fire employees at any time and for any reason
• Legal exceptions to EAW have been carved out, including religion, race, sex, disability status, union support, health safety complaints and public interest
• Still, employees carry the burden of proof if they believe they were unjustly fired

"Just Cause": The Due Process Approach

• Due process in the workplace means employees can only be let go for a "just cause"
• This includes prior warning, explicit performance standards, probationary periods, the opportunity to respond to allegations and appeal decisions
• The dominant approach in both Europe, and Montana

EAW vs Just Cause

• Ethical reasons for it include freedom to the employer, efficiency and productivity of business, and a healthier labor market
• Ethical reasons against it include arbitrary use of the power, autonomy of the employees, and welfare of the employees

Discussion on EAW vs Just Cause

• Evaluating which workplace approach is more ethical
• Considering an employees' freedom to leave at any time, for any reason

Privacy and Why it Matters

• Privacy is both the right to be "left alone" and also the ability to control information about oneself
• Privacy is important for: protection from harms, intimate relations, and autonomy

Privacy at Work

• One can argue for the "market approach" of letting participants decide
• There are legal restrictions on what information an employer can ask for, such as genetic information and disability status
• An important evaluation criterion is job-relevance in U-Haul's nicotine-free hiring policy

Loyalty and Whistle-Blowing

• It addresses the responsibility to one's employer versus the responsibility to the general public
• A focus is on the Jeffery Wigand case, involving addictive ingredients in cigarets at Brown & Williamson
• Wigand was fired, and despite a non-disclosure agreement shared that knowledge with the public
• Evaluating Wigand's loyalty as right, because his whistle-blowing broke his promise, or that he was disloyal

What is Loyalty

• Loyalty involves both positive feeling, devotion, and the disposition to act for the sake of the object of loyalty, even at one's own cost
• Reasons for loyalty may be individual or social benefits, gratitude, or reciprocity
• Loyalty to one's firm includes devotion, faithfulness, and willingness to sacrifice for the firm's interests
• Addressing whether employees have an ethical responsibility to be loyal to their firm

Moral Permissibility of Whistle-Blowing

• A Harm-based reasoning is to prevent harm to others, the public, or the environment
• Wrongfulness-based reasons are ending a company's wrong behavior
• Complicity-based reasons are for helping protect one's moral integrity

Moral Obligation of Whistle-Blowing

• Employees can sometimes be morally obligated to whistle-blow
• Whistleblowing is often times supererogatory
• Being supererogatory means it is beyond the call of duty and admirable, but not required
• Whistle-blowing can be costly, and is permissible and admirable even if it is not obligatory