Sins at work

Sometimes it seems there are more wrong things we can do at work than right things. Let’s go through some of the sins we know exists. What would you put at the top of the list?

1. Having a relationship with someone you work with, especially a staff member or boss!
2. Looking at porn on your work computer.
3. Taking home office supplies without agreement.
4. Leaving private information open on your desk.
5. Discussing someone’s private details in front of another unauthorised person.
6. Discussing details of one client with another.
7. Sending or making jokes at work that may be offensive.
8. Sending sexually explicit or even suggestive emails (even sent after hours).
9. Conducting your own business on your employer’s time.
10. Spending time surfing the net – not for your work.
11. Making lots of personal calls and personal emails during your workday.
12. Sending the wrong information to the wrong person.
13. Giving your word via email to a service or price then not delivering.
14. Copying and pasting someone’s work and making it your own.
15. Making someone in your team feel bad – more than once.
16. Giving repeated harsh criticism.
17. Printing personal invitations on the company machinery.
18. Making a minor racial or religious remark – just a casual comment not intentionally bad.
19. Sending a critical email about your business to a friend.
20. Telling a competitor about internal business information.
21. Someone forwards a defamatory email – but they are not the author.
22. Opening junk mail.
23. Taking drugs and alcohol in a workplace without authority.
24. Possessing illicit drugs in your workplace.
25. Opening mail with unknown or unexpected attachments.
26. Sending a slightly negative text to a manager or customer by mistake.
27. Sending out a large batch of emails to a purchased list.
28. Destroying certain files – paper or computer at work.
29. Acquiring sensitive information.
30. Sending personal and financial information in response to a link.
31. Putting in a false invoice.
32. Failing to report a false invoice.
33. Deliberately altering a legal or file document for gain.
34. Failing to give feedback to someone making mistakes.
35. Don’t ask a woman if she is pregnant in a job interview.

Can you think of any more for this list?

So what can you do?

Checklist for every business:

• Get it right – for yourself and especially if you are a manager responsible for others.
• Know and discuss the policies in your business.
• Make sure the policies are clear: What’s the email policy? What is email liability?
• What’s the harassment policy? What constitutes discrimination?
• Be clear about values in your business and what constitutes ethical behaviour. What is illegal?
• Employment contract – do you have a confidentiality agreement with each employee? What is privacy? What is your duty with regards to managing private information?

And in relation to email? Even if it wasn’t your intention to be offensive – you and the company may be liable. Your emails sent through your workplace server are no longer private. Make sure everyone knows the email policy. Emails and texts provide a great trail of evidence for legal cases.

Tell your staff the consequences of breaches. Tell them they should not casually offer a service or price that you and your business is not prepared to abide by. Tell them that a text message with inappropriate suggestions or offensive remarks can be considered as harassment. Share with your people recent legal results – show them people do end up with heavy fines or even imprisonment for certain actions.

Use cases as example for training. Encourage people in your business to speak up. In many cases not reporting unethical behaviour can be an offense.

Eve Ash is the producer of excellent DVD resources of Eliminating Workplace Bullying, Bullying & harassment and An Introduction to Business Ethics and is also the distributor of Workplace Liability.com and other excellent Duty of Care DVDs for training.