Category Archives: Ethics

Standing Up for Integrity’s Sake

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People love competition. Although this idea doesn’t apply to everyone, it is a common observation that competition ignites motivation. When motivation is fired up with aggressiveness, the drive to become successful diminishes.

Corporate espionage is something that the rule of the land would not tolerate. It is a form of stealing intellectual properties for the most part. If proven guilty, the court may order you to avoid the line of business of the company which you stole intellectual properties from. It can also designate an individual or a group of inspectors that will monitor your activities ensuring that you will not be using any of the said materials. Worse, it can require you to pay a significant amount that, in most cases, would cost you a lifetime to earn back. The court can also require you to stop operating your business, in worst case scenarios.

In most companies, especially those that make use of the modern technology, using your personal laptop is considered as a violation of security information. Any form of copying and transferring company properties, may it be confidential or not, is considered as a violation of such processes. This can be worsened if the goal of stealing company documents is to feed its competitors with it. This is the most common issue with former employees that are fired by the company. It’s a usual recourse of former employees to jump over the fence and feed his former company’s competitors with the crucial information that would make them feel the satisfaction of getting even with his former employer.

Some companies welcome the idea that there will be no better strategy to compete with an almost invincible rival than to let its own employee enter the company and feed them valuable information that will put the other company out of business to gain monopoly of the industry. If this is one of the values that your company promotes, you better look for another company as it compromises integrity which is an important value for business. This gives the notion that any other value with equal importance as integrity will not be supported by the company hence employee benefits and welfare may suffer in the future.

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Ethics and Your Life

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A little longer than just lately, society has seen an increase in business ethics that long for a proper definition of what ethics should be. From Enron to Bernie Madoff, millions of people have lost their retirement because someone decided to get a little more than greedy.

Let ‘s take a moment to break down ethics. If we were to look in Webster’s dictionary, we’d find that ethics are: the study of standards of conduct and moral judgment; the system of morals of a particular person, religion, group etc. Ethical, defined, would be: conforming to professional standards of conduct.

Everyone who does business with a person or company would like to know that they’re being treated ethically, fairly. Could you say the same thing about morals? Everyone should be treated the same on a moral basis? Something doesn’t sound right here. Are ethics and morals the same thing? According to the definition, people are expected to have the same professional standard of conduct, so why then, are there ethical problems?

Ethics is, and always will be, a personal thing, completely about the self. One can be a member of a church and still not have the same ethics as his/her brethren. Though, in a church or any large group, morals would be the guiding light (pun intended).

Because we have different cultures throughout the world and people are reared in many different ways, there are different ethics levels. In America, we expect to have the right to walk the streets without being killed and then eaten. This same frame of mind, not so long ago, was not necessarily frowned upon in somewhere like the Amazon jungle. There was a time in the Amazon that a person from the “outside” was the main course at the village gathering. Ethics determined (as well as the tribesman) that survival was the rule of the land. Well, today, morals are our rules of the land. Ethics need to, and will always remain, a personal standard.

Governments have written legal moral codes to lay out the expectations of people in its society. If one breaks a moral law, they’re subject to the fine or imprisonment. Unfortunately, Governments will never be able to enforce a person’s ethics. For this reason, there will always be thieves that look you in the face, smile as they pat you on the back and, all the while, clean out your safe/portfolio.

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Proper Sanitation Is a Need for Nail Salons

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Maintaining cleanliness of one’s nail salon is extremely important. It could greatly affect one’s business. It could also make the clients feel that they are safe. A visit to the nail care salon for a manicure and pedicure treatment can be an enjoyable weekly experience. A salon gives clients not just a beautiful nail art, but also gives a technician the opportunity to provide good nail care treatments for the clients.

Sanitation is the proper term. The biggest difference among different nail salons is the level of its cleanliness. This is the basic criteria of choosing the proper salon to visit. Whether you just want to pop in for a quick manicure, or settle down for a spa-style pedicure, the nail salon you choose can make all the difference in how enjoyable the experience is. When one visits a salon, stop and look around the place. The main areas to monitor for nail salon cleanliness are the floors, bathrooms and kitchens, manicure workstations, nail technicians, and pedicure stations. For the technicians, do they wear the proper attire? Do they look disheveled and have nails of their own that look like they need to work on it?

The salon floor should be vacuumed or polished regularly to remove dirt. One should also check the floor cleanliness if it’s free of nail clippings, insects and food crumbs on hardwood floors or rugs.
The bathroom and kitchen areas should have hot water and soap for hand washing. Disposable paper towels are preferable to use. Dirty towels should not be used by nail salon employees or the customers. There should be a kitchen area and break area for salon employees to prevent them from eating at the workstation.

A standard pedicure station should be clean, well-maintained and should be washed between salon clients. Most nail salons use pedicure stations with removable basins.

A standard manicure workstation has a manicure chair and a table with built-in drawers and room for storing the trays. Nail technicians keep professional tools and equipment on the desk including nail glue, manicure gels, nail files and polish. The workstation should look organized, well-kept and should be cleaned between customers. Tools that are not disposable should be sterilized with alcohol or microwave system between clients.

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Being Accountable for Mistakes in the Workplace

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Mistakes happen and either you are the one who has made it or the one who has found that one has been made. In the workplace mistakes need to be handled properly or they can cause an even bigger problem than the original mistake. Let’s start with the mistake being your fault, this was brought to your attention by either a co-worker or supervisor, what is the first thing you should do? Start by listening to what is being told to you; this may be pretty hard to do as your mind is already racing and trying to come up with what you are going to say before you have even finished hearing them out. After you have really heard what they have said then ask to explain your side. An important point is to make sure you have a clear understanding of what the mistake was, if not, ask for clarification and then explain your side. If you did not know that you had done something wrong this is what can be called an “honest mistake” and the next step you need to take is to state what you have learned from it and how you are going to ensure that you don’t make the same mistake again. Learning from our mistakes causes’ personal and professional growth, remember to thank the person for bringing this to your attention and then move on.

Now lets say you realized that you had made a mistake but decided you would just wait to see if someone noticed or not. For some people it is just very hard to admit that they have made a mistake and would rather just wait to see if it comes to light. If you did know you had made a mistake and did not come forward first, it really is a BIGGER mistake on your part as this reflects on your ethical standards and any damage done by not saying anything could be very hard to repair. You decided that not fessing up to a mistake was worth tarnishing your integrity. It would be really hard to come up with a good explanation (if there is one) as to why you felt it was worth hiding the mistake instead of addressing it and taking care of it before someone else found out? In this situation the best thing that you can do is to apologize for not coming forward, admit that you were wrong, explain what you have learned by it and ask that you be given the chance to show that you will not let it happen again, then be true to your word and move on. Only time and proof that you learned a lesson, will allow your integrity to begin to shine again with this person.

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