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A Corporate Code of Ethics?
Ethically Challenged asks: "Under the guise of recent legislation everyone at the publicly traded software company I work for is being asked to sign a 'Code of Business Conduct and Ethics'. In part, we have to swear to the following: we should not use company resources for any non-business purposes (I probably can't even write this); we must disclose to the CFO any relative that works for a customer, competitor or vendor; and, we are required to narc on coworkers who we suspect violate the code in any way. Are developers at other companies being asked to do this? Does it bother anyone that lowly workers like me are being asked to sign these things because executives are too immoral to behave themselves? Isn't all of this a colossal waste of time since most of it is common sense and it's pretty clear that the bad guys will ignore it anyway?" Most of this stuff sounds like the boilerplate protections most companies put in their employee agreements in the first place. Since you generally have to sign such agreements before you get your first paycheck, this new initiative seems rather redundant to me. Can someone more clued-in explain the justification behind this one?
"He didn't have to steal those plans like he was asked--in fact, it violates our code of ethics, and he would have promptly been helped, and his supervisor relieved." Yeah, and donkeys fly.
What are the consequences of not signing? If you had not been hired, they could make your hiring conditional on signing. Once you are an employee, what are they going to do? I think that firing you would be a collossal stupidity on their part, and could bring a lawsuit. What law do they claim triggered this?
J'aime mieux les méchants que les imbéciles, parce qu'ils se reposent. -- Alexandre Dumas
... a better model and more universally ethical would be for the US government to scrap the laws that made corporations "persons". All that did was obfuscate human responsibility. "Corporations" are allowed to pay "humans" profits-they get the fruits of their labors, but when it comes time to dispute some manner in court it becomes a "corporate" problem and it's extremely hard to pin down which exact "humans" are at fault or liable. Extremely hard. Magnify this by daisy chaining,especially offshore/internationally- where corporations are created on the fly on paper using yet again another front corporation of "lawyers" ad absurdum, so they can lease stuff to themselves, use one corporation to "lose" money at to avoid taxes, use another corporation to pay for "expenses" that regular old single individuals can't deduct as expenses, etc etc it becomes -enron and worldcom.
What they are doing now is a pre-CYA effort with these ethics agreements. It's already theoretically illegal to break the law. This contract agreement is duplicating what already exists in yet another fashion. It might have a marginal effect. It's "feel good" legislation and effort, a facade move.
What would be interesting is if employee "guilds" (can't use the U word, that is considered swearing in IT land for some weird reason) would band together and force employers to sign personal accountability statements with serious fines held in third party escrow accounts for violations of breach of contract with their employees, for instance for issuing orders that are illegal, insuring open honesty in accounting, promotions, business models, etc, but that ain't happening any time soon, the PHBs and cartel lobbyists (the PHB unions) and polytickshuns would through a hissy fit.
Having previously worked as executive managment at a small start up I have talked with enough lawers in this area to understand two things. (You should consult your own lawyer before acting, as I'm not one and only want to make you aware of what you should ask an actual lawyer! I also don't know if this varies by state.)
The company pretty much has to either get you to sign this BEFORE you start work; or give you aditional compensation for signing away more rights. So normally these things will come before a raise, bonus, or stock options. The reason for this is that the contract is much less likely to stand up in court if they don't.
So if you are being asked to sign without being offered a carrot, you have a few options:
1. Don't sign and see what happens.
2. Ask for the carrot.
3. Sign it and ignore it. When they try to enforce it get a lawyer to argue that you signed under fear of losing your job, and did not sign of your own free will. According to lawyers I have talked to the judge's seem to take this as "they put a gun to my head and said sign it" and hence through the contract out of court, basiclly making it "null and void." (What ever that means....)
At my current company (a fortune 500 where I'm low on the totem pole) I was asked to agree to an ethics policy (via e-mail) that boiled down to "don't do anything you wouldn't want to see in the headlines of your hometown paper." Thats pretty easy to live with, so I agreed no problem.
A real lawyer want to way in?
We just got a new document to sign here are Bank of America...here are some highlights in quptes. My comments none quoted...
:)
"Work conflicts and outside activities
If you decide to pursue additional employment, engage in an independent business venture or perform services for another business organization, you must disclose such activities to your manager and obtain his or her preapproval to avoid any potential conflicts. You must not pursue such activities during Bank of America business hours or allow any outside business, civic or charitable activities to interfere with your job performance."
They should have told this to everyone when they were pushing United Way on us for THREE months non-stop!
"Duty of loyalty
You owe a duty of loyalty to the Corporation. You must not deprive the Corporation of an opportunity or take for your own advantage an opportunity that belongs to the Corporation. Further, you must not help others do so if they are in a position to divert a corporate opportunity for their own benefit."
I have a duty of loyalty to a company that thinks of me as a number and is willing to fire employees note based on how they perform but by luck of the draw?
"If you wish to serve as a director of any profit-making organization, you must first obtain the approval of the Finance Committee (or any successor committee). The terms of any approval will determine whether you may keep the compensation earned from a directorship. You may contact the Office of the Corporate Secretary to determine the meeting schedule of the Finance Committee and the process for submitting your request. "
bah! I don't need to tell anyone that I plan to incorporate my own business and become a diretory of it.
"Bank of America information
Nonpublic information regarding Bank of America is to be conveyed to others only on a reasonable need-to-know basis that furthers a legitimate business purpose of Bank of America."
whoops...
"Borrowing
You may not personally borrow money from or lend to suppliers, customers or other associates unless such loan is to or from a family member or from an institution normally in the business of lending, and there is no conflict of interest. You may make an occasional loan of nominal value (such as for lunch) to another associate as long as no interest is charged. "
Now they are telling me that I can't borrow a hundred bucks from a co-worker until pay day? (not that I need to that is
"Investigations
You must cooperate fully with any investigation, internal audit, external audit or regulatory examination."
Guess my boss should read that one..he always tells me to be uncooperative to the auditors....
Wow I don't think I'm going to sign this thing....
It usually lasts only a couple of weeks after the deadline for signing passes, but the bitter taste left in peoples mouths can linger quite a while after that.
If you have to sign it after you've been employed by the company, to keep earning a paycheck, isn't that duress? (obviously, IANAL)
I had a personal experience with this at a previous employer... We signed this and were specifically informed all levels of management had to sign and agree to the same thing (by the CEO).
Not a couple of weeks later, I was contacted by a VP that wanted me to setup a Mac for his daughter's birthday -- on company time and with company resources. I refused, obviously, and was nearly fired... until I pointed out the violation of the code of ethics.
Of course, even though that violation was grounds for termination of employment, nothing ever happened to the VP. Big duh.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
i actually worked for a company that did work for the mafia. the "goons" with 9mm's in their usual shoulder holsters showed up, signed a contract, paid on time and were pretty happy with the work we did.
evidentally the mafia pays better and more timely than some legit companies we did work for.