Guest Post

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Implementation of the Code of Ethics": 

It has been said that “everyone knows already knows what's right and wrong – the difficult part is for people to do what is right”. And for some it is much more difficult than for others.

We have all these codes of conduct - everything from government to corporate to schools to kids sports. Are they there to set the rules or remind people of the rules that they should or do in fact already know?

I will not cheat in school.

I will not plagiarize my essays and homework.

I will respect the decision of the referee (or teacher, volunteer parent, ______ (you fill in the blank))

I will treat others with courtesy, respect and fairness.

And yet all of the above examples are broken time and again, day in and day out, here, there and everywhere. 

I truly believe that many organizations have such codes so that they can then point to the code and then point to the person and shout at them that they broke the code. In so many cases we don’t need a code to tell us it is wrong. I don’t care what the code said or what your lawyer interpreted for you based on the code, it was wrong – end of story. But for some the opposite comes into play. People may feel that they can do whatever they can get away with because it’s not written in the code. And so we keep expanding, amending, revising and re-writing our codes to include more definitive behaviours, more special cases all to no avail. Adults will act whatever way they deem to - always thinking that they are in the right regardless of codes.

It’s like the warnings on lawn mowers that says to not use them as hedge trimmers. Why? Because some unfortunate idiot did so in the past and the manufacturer has to put the warning label there to protect their company from future lawsuits. 

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Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at June 25, 2013 at 1:32 PM