In the podcast at www.nytimes.com by Randy Cohen, AKA, The Ethicist, Mr. Cohen addresses two queries of John from Washington and K.C. from Denver. John was the witness of a sexual harassment crime at his workplace. One of his colleagues used the camera of his cell phone and filmed under a female colleague’s skirt while at a company meeting. Later, John then saw his male colleague download the material from his cell phone onto his computer and then continue filming! Surprisingly, John does not know what to do. Cohen, after explaining the legal implications such as sexual harassment and invasion of privacy violations that this man committed, says that “ethically” John cannot ignore this and should have related the problem to an authority immediately. It is blatant that John should have, without any reservation, reported this pervert to someone who could have properly handled the situation. Having to write to Cohen to ask if he should report a sex crime is agitating and shows the ignorance of the concern for other citizens that we should all have.
The second question, which may actually have the need of an ethicist, deals with a contractor working on a project for which a client has allotted a week to ten days to finish, but K.C. the contractor believes that he can finish it within a few days. The question K.C. asks is if he should finish the project in three to four days and “suffer the loss of pay” or drag it out for the allotted time and receive more money. Cohen offers a great solution, which once again as with the first problem should have been executed at the time of the dilemma: tell the client that he can finish the project in a few days, but ask for more money due to his higher expertise, require a “flat fee”, or a “bonus for early completion.” This way the client won’t be paying more money than expected and K.C. can receive the same amount of money without carrying any guilt.
It is always comforting and reassuring to have a person, especially an educated and qualified one, to help you with your problems whether they are small or large. There are many problems, that with the tool of common sense can easily be solved and with no external help, leaving you with the residual feeling of accomplishment.
The second question, which may actually have the need of an ethicist, deals with a contractor working on a project for which a client has allotted a week to ten days to finish, but K.C. the contractor believes that he can finish it within a few days. The question K.C. asks is if he should finish the project in three to four days and “suffer the loss of pay” or drag it out for the allotted time and receive more money. Cohen offers a great solution, which once again as with the first problem should have been executed at the time of the dilemma: tell the client that he can finish the project in a few days, but ask for more money due to his higher expertise, require a “flat fee”, or a “bonus for early completion.” This way the client won’t be paying more money than expected and K.C. can receive the same amount of money without carrying any guilt.
It is always comforting and reassuring to have a person, especially an educated and qualified one, to help you with your problems whether they are small or large. There are many problems, that with the tool of common sense can easily be solved and with no external help, leaving you with the residual feeling of accomplishment.
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