Code of Ethics and Personal Conduct

1. Always treat other people as you would like to be treated by them.

2. Welcome, support and include everybody regardless of their background, experiences or identity including: people of all sexual orientations, gender identity and expression, race ethnicity, culture, national origin, social and/or economic class, education level, color, immigration status, sex, age, size, family status, political belief, religion, and mental or physical disability.

3. Be considerate and respectful of your co-workers, clients, vendors, or any other person you encounter while on the job.

4. Always act professionally.

5. Do not harass or use offensive language. If someone tells you that your behavior is offending them, harassing them, or bothering them in any other way, stop that behavior.

6. Have no conflicts of interest: employees cannot work for businesses who are competitors or from whom the employee can seek to profit with his/her connections to this business.

7. Always be punctual to work, notify of any absences such as for illness, stay for your entire shift, and take only the breaks for which you are scheduled.

8. The manufacture, distribution, possession, sale, or purchase of controlled substances on company property is prohibited. Being under the influence of illegal drugs, alcohol, or illicit substances on company property is prohibited. Working while under the influence of prescription drugs that could impair performance is prohibited.

9. Employees should always do their work fairly, honestly, and legally.

10. Employees should be well groomed and dressed appropriately for the business and for their position.

Response to Questions

Why did you include each of the ten elements?

1. The first ethical code sums up the way humans should act toward one another. It is the Golden Rule, Jesus’ admonition to his followers and Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. In other words, it is the only way that the human species will survive. If too many people acted for their own interests only, humans would end up killing one another off in rapid fashion. Powell (2017) of Entrepreneur says, “The golden rule is a way of improving emotional intelligence and increasing an awareness of ethics in every interaction” (Powell, 2017). By using a simple standard such as the Golden Rule, of which most people are aware, it eliminates the need to consider complicated philosophical discussions.

2. This code addresses diversity. Every business should strive for a diverse workforce and that workforce should be welcoming of each other. The diversity would then extend to their clientele and that could make the difference of whether a company stays in business or not. People who see others like themselves working for a business tend to patronize that business.

3. If an employee is rude to other employees, clients, customers, or just in general, that will reflect badly on the people who hired him/her. While there should be a mix of personality types in a workplace, a rude person always makes life difficult. Adults who are capable of holding a job should be capable of civility also.

4. This is another catch-all type of phrase that should cover many areas. While not every employee, perhaps especially those that are inexperienced, will understand what exactly “acting professional” means, they can be mentored. The statements in a code of conduct or ethics are also goals for which employees can strive.

5. Sometimes it is difficult to define what harassment is. A good way to define all types of harassment is that if it is bothering the person that is the receiver/victim of the behavior and they ask the perpetrator/harasser to stop, then any further such behavior is harassment.

6. Conflicts of interests can do damage to the company. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) (2019) says, “Many conflicts of interest involve commercial interests or financial arrangements. Policies and procedures in workplace settings should be evaluated to safeguard against biases or preferences being introduced into professional judgments. If a professional is offered, or receives, gifts or incentives—even something as minor as a free lunch—conflict of interest may be suspected” (ASHA, 2019). For example, an employee of a janitorial company should not work for a company that sells cleaning products and sell those products to the janitorial company. There are too many ways that can backfire for both companies and the employee.

7. This just makes sense. Employers want their employees to do a full day’s work for a full day’s pay. The ethics of employees are not always great because they have no issue with spending hours scrolling through their Facebook feed or shopp