Jeffrey L. Seglin's Blog, page 43

Is it OK to use stuff we didn't pay for?

Is it ever OK to get what you don't pay for?
L.H., a reader from Massachusetts, subscribes to basic cable television service from one of his local providers. "I'm not a big TV watcher," he writes, "but I like to be able to watch news and sports channels on occasion that are available through my cable subscription." He notes that he doesn't pay for any premium channels or extras in an effort to keep his bill as low as possible.
A neighbor recently told L.H. that he had been able to watch some premium cable channels without having to pay for them. "A glitch in the system, apparently," writes L.H. Upon learning of this news from his neighbor, L.H. figured he would give it a try and soon he too was regularly watching shows and movies on the premium channel without paying for them. "I know I wasn't being charged," he writes, "because the little button you have to press to buy the show or subscribe to the channel never showed up on my screen."
For several weeks, L.H. continued to watch the premium channel. (It turns out he might be more of a TV watcher than he lets on.) But he indicates that he knows he's getting something for nothing and wonders if it's wrong to take advantage of what appears to be a glitch that allows non-premium subscribers to tune in for free.
"Eventually, I suspect the glitch will be fixed," he writes, "but in the meantime is it wrong for me to tune in when I know I haven't paid for the service?"
Given that premium cable channels sometimes offer free trials by making the shows they regularly charge for free to all comers, L.H. might not be getting something for nothing as he suspects he is. But suppose it's not a free trial and simply an error that lets viewers get free access? Is it wrong to take advantage?
It's a question that could apply to several situations. Suppose, for example, everyone at work knows there's a vending machine that dispenses two soft drinks every time someone pays for just one?
The responsibility is ultimately on the cable television provider to make sure that its system works so that subscribers get what they paid for and are charged for extras when appropriate. If L.H. wants to do the right thing, it would be to check with his cable service provider to see if the premium channel is running a special offer that allows him to check in. He might also check his bill to make sure he hadn't inadvertently signed up for something he didn't want.
The same goes for the soft drink machine. A quick call to the service phone number on the machine to alert the vendor that its machine is dispensing multiple drinks for the price of one would be the right thing to do.
Once L.H. alerts the company, it's up to it to fix the system if it's broken. Cable service might strike L.H. and others as already too high for even the most basic of services. But the option exists to cancel any service that seems too expensive. Knowing the you're wrongly receiving services for free might feel like a windfall, but it's still taking advantage of a mistake to get something that isn't rightfully yours. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Is it OK to 'borrow' something from a store if you plan to return it?

Earlier this summer, A.K. was helping his family prepare for an annual cookout. A.K. is the adult child of parents who love to entertain and the annual cookout has become what he considers a "big production."
"We spend weeks preparing for it," he writes. Menus and activities are planned. Duties are doled out to each family member. "It's like a well-oiled machine," A.K. writes.
The evening before the event, A.K.'s mother asked him to check to make sure that all of the games were in good shape. He did, but noticed that the football, basketball and soccer ball each needed some air. When he checked for the pump, he noticed that the pin on the pump that was used to pump air into each of these balls was broken.
After he told his mother he was heading to the local discount store to buy a new pump pin, she asked him if he could see if the store sold plastic replacement control knobs for the slow cooker she planned to use to make pulled pork for the cookout. Somehow the plastic knob had fallen off and been misplaced. While she could use pliers to turn the metal shaft over which the knob slipped, it'd be much easier to have the knob.
When he got to the store, A.K. found that it did not sell replacement knobs and that it was out of stock for the pump pin. He saw, however, that pump pins came with foot pumps that the store sold and it would have been easy to slip one out without anyone noticing. He also found that the store had what seemed to be the same model of slow cookers his mother used and that the plastic knob on the display sample easily slipped off the metal shaft.
The package of two pump pins cost less than a dollar when in stock, so if A.K. were to "borrow" one from the foot pump, he figured the store would only be out 50 cents at most. He also doubted they would be selling the display model of the slow cooker, so "what harm would be caused if I simply slipped off the control knob and borrowed that too?" he writes.
"I just need them for a day," he adds. "I could go back the next day, slip them back in place, and no one's the wiser." He wants to know if he would have done something terribly wrong by making his family's cookout go a bit more smoothly by "borrowing" each of these items.
Justifying actions we know to be wrong doesn't make them right. The right thing would be for A.K. to ask the store manager if they had either item in stock. If not, he could ask the manager if there was any way he could buy each even though they were part of a separate item. If not, the right thing is to simply return home empty handed and start calling around to see if any of the cookout attendees might have a pin he could borrow and to get out the pliers for the slow cooker.
It may have been petty theft to take each item and A.K. might have thought he was doing his family a favor by swiping each, but it would be stealing nonetheless. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Can I deduct the cost of a cup of coffee if I donate my time?

For several years, A.L. has supported a local nonprofit by donating her time as a job skills coach to unemployed adults who use the nonprofit's services to help them find jobs. It's a cause A.L. believes in and she's seen how successful the nonprofit has been in helping provide advice and skills to people trying to get on their feet.
A.L. has committed to donating two hours of coaching a week to clients of the nonprofit. At scheduled times she drives her car to meet the client either at the nonprofit or at a coffee shop that is conveniently located for each of them to reach.
"I love working with these clients," writes A.L. "It gives me the opportunity to give back to my community by using the professional skills I've developed over the past few decades."
And the clients she's worked with seem to benefit from the advice A.L. gives them on thinking about the type of work they can do, writing strong resumes and cover letters, and learning how they might successfully navigate job interviews. The confidence the clients get from their sessions with A.L. often helps them land a job that they might otherwise not even have thought of applying.
Even though others might have paid handsomely for her services, A.L. knows that she cannot deduct the value of her donated time from her income taxes at the end of the year.
"Frankly, I don't do this for the tax deduction anyway," she writes, noting that it's the thought of giving back that drives her to donate her time.
But over time, she racks up quite a few miles driving to and from her meetings with these pro bono clients and she also spends money on coffee and sometimes a light meal when meeting at the coffee shop. Now, A.L. wonders if it's both legal and ethical to deduct some of the expenses she's incurred while coaching the clients she sees.
I am neither an accountant nor a tax attorney, so A.L. would be wise to consult with a tax expert for specific details about what's permissible and what' not. But both the U.S. and Canada provide guidance that suggests that certain expenses incurred specifically in relation to the time donated to a charity could be deductible. (It seems unlikely, however, that taking deductions for the expense of a two-week trip to a fancy resort where you meet the client briefly and spend the rest of the time vacationing would be appropriate or legal. But again, check with a pro.)
So, yes, it's likely that the mileage and the cost of a meal might be legally deductible when incurred while volunteering time. But even if it's legal, A.L. wonders if it's right to take the deduction, given that she expected to be volunteering her time. As long as she doesn't violate any tax laws in the process, there's nothing wrong with taking the deductions from her annual tax obligation and doing so doesn't lessen the intent of the time she has devoted to the client or the nonprofit.
The right thing is for A.L. to continue to donate the time and services she wishes to donate and to take any legal tax deductions for related travel expenses with a clear conscience. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

How can I pay if I don't know the price?

M.N. never knows when his company cafeteria is going to be busy during the summer months, particularly in August when many of his colleagues tend to take time off for a summer vacation. During the rest of the year, M.N. tends to try to time his cafeteria visits to early or late during the breakfast and lunch hours in an attempt to avoid the crowds.
Last week, however, M.N. writes that he woefully miscalculated. When he got to the cafeteria there was more of a crowd than he anticipated, partly, he suspects, because it was a rainy day and more of his colleagues had chosen to eat indoors than to venture outside to nearby restaurants or convenience stores for dining options.
It turns out that there was also a conference occurring on the premises, so many outsiders were visiting his company and they too were using the cafeteria facilities.
"The lines were long, but I was already there, so I chose to stay and wait it out," he writes. M.N. loaded up a container from the salad bar, grabbed a soft drink from the cooler, and then waited on one of the checkout lines for a cashier to weigh his salad and ring him out.
After a few minutes of waiting, one of the chefs came out from behind the counters and started to walk up to people she recognized who were waiting on line.
"You eat here regularly, right?" she asked a few employees ahead of M.N. in line. When they acknowledged that they did, the chef told them to take their purchases and pay up later in the week.
As the chef made her way down the line, she recognized M.N. as a regular customer and instructed him to do the same so they could cut down on the amount of people waiting in line. M.N. thanked her and headed out of the cafeteria to bring his salad and drink back to his office to eat.
"After I'd eaten my salad, I realized I had a problem," writes M.N. "I have no idea how much my salad weighed, so I don't know how much I owe them."
Now, M.N. writes that he feels like he's at a loss about the right thing to do. Since it's unlikely anyone will chase him down to pay for his lunch, should he just forget about it? Or should he explain his conundrum to the cafeteria staff?
Simply neglecting to pay and hoping the situation will go away is rarely a good option, particularly since M.N. received goods for which he owes money. But he's right in feeling lost about how to calculate what he owes. If he generally pays a similar amount for his salads each time, he can offer to pay that. But the right thing to do is to chat with the cafeteria manager and let her know he's willing to pay, but isn't sure how much.
The chef would have been wise to let those having items to be weighed know how to proceed before she dismissed them. But given that she didn't, the right thing for the cafeteria manager to do is to either work out a suitable payment for the items consumed, or, given that M.N. is a regular customer, offer him this one lunch on the house. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

When should I let supervisor know when assistants act out?

The schedule for the day-long event was packed, and L.S. knew it. She had been asked to give a 45-minute talk to a group of about 200 corporate employees, building in enough time for questions as part of her presentation. The event organizer had been explicit that the schedule for the day was tight and that they needed L.S. to finish right on time so the group could have a 15-minute break before it went to its next session.
L.S. figured that fitting what she had to say into the time allotted and keeping the conference goers on schedule was not a problem. She had lectured at many such events before. As was her wont, L.S. spent time preparing for her talk, keeping in mind the time restrictions.
The day of the event came and L.S. arrived in plenty of time. The event organizer met her, explaining that after she introduced L.S., she would have to leave the room to take care of other conference matters. The organizer would also tell the attendees that at the conclusion of L.S.'s talk, they would have 15 minutes before they needed to be seated and ready for their next event.
All went according to plan. After being introduced, the organizer discretely scooted out of the room and L.S. began. The audience seemed engaged and L.S. managed to keep her presentation on time as well as to take any questions the attendees had. With a minute left to spare, L.S. wrapped up, thanked the audience, and then acknowledged their applause.
As the attendees got up to leave, however, an assistant to the event organizer rose and shouted to the audience, "Hold on. Don't leave yet."'
The assistant proceeded to take the microphone from L.S., and began talking to the crowd, essentially recapping what L.S. had just spent 45 minutes saying. Only the crowd was now growing restless. After 10 minutes had passed, the assistant finally dismissed the attendees, leaving them with no break and little time to get to the next event.
"I'm not sure what that was about," L.S. writes. "But the assistant just left the room with the crowd, never apologizing for going over on time or explaining why he felt the need to insert himself into the proceedings."
L.S. writes that she's concerned the organizer will think L.S. went over on time. But even if the organizer doesn't think this, she wonders if she should say something to the organizer about behavior that she found to be a bit unprofessional. "Should I say something, or let it lie?"
If the behavior concerns L.S., the right thing would be to say something. While the assistant may indeed have been unprofessional and discourteous to the attendees -- L.S. can simply explain what happened and let the organizer make of it what she will. She'd likely be doing the organizer a favor by letting her know how her employees behave when she is not in the room.
There's no ethical obligation for L.S. to say anything, however, if she doesn't want to. If she accomplished her goal of getting her desired message across to the attendees, she can rest easy. The attendees can assess for themselves the behavior of the assistant without transferring the inappropriateness of his behavior onto L.S. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Should picnic host anticipate all guests' dietary restrictions?

A reader, F.G., had been planning a summer family event for months. She'd sent out invitations, solicited family members for activity ideas, rented an inflatable bouncy tent for the children attending, and loaded up on groceries, drinks and other provisions for the daylong event.
"I wanted to have enough variety of food so everyone could find something they liked," F.G. writes. "But I tried not to make the menu overly complicated since we expected four to five dozen relatives to show up in our backyard."
The event was scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and go until 8 p.m., so F.G. had loaded up on enough food to serve a hearty meal -- burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, coleslaw, potato salad, three-bean salad and other items, as well as plenty of melon and cake for dessert.
Weather cooperated brilliantly on the day of the event, F.G. reports. Sunshine, but not too muggy. Perfect weather for gathering, sharing a meal with family and reminiscing. Kids enjoyed bouncing in the inflatable house. Adults played horseshoes, croquet and beanbag toss. And the drinks and food began to flow.
Late in the day, an adult nephew who hadn't RSVP'd showed up with his wife and kids as well as four or five adult friends who had been visiting him nearby. F.G. was glad to see him and to welcome the unexpected guests, RSVP or not. A few more burgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob were tossed on the grill and F.G.'s nephew and his group mingled with the family.
F.G. yelled out to her nephew that there was food ready on the grill for them and they proceeded to come over, load up their plates and return to mingling.
About half-an-hour later, the nephew walked up to F.G. and asked if she had prepared a vegetarian option for the non-meat-eaters in the crowd, indicating that two of the friends he had brought along didn't eat meat.
At first a bit flustered, F.G. writes that she ultimately responded by recommending the corn on the cob, salads or any of the non-meat side dishes she had prepared.
After the event ended (and her nephew and group were among the last to leave), F.G. hoped everyone had had a good time. But she worried that it might have been wrong not to have a vegetarian entree as an option. Or whether she should have indicated something on the invite that hamburgers and hot dogs would be served.
F.G.'s question falls more into a question of etiquette than ethics, but she does still raise the question of whether she did the right thing. F.G. did exactly the right thing by offering her nephew non-meat suggestions when he asked. If the nephew or his friends had special dietary restrictions, the right thing would have been to let F.G. know or to ask her about the menu. Or, if he was truly concerned about his friends getting something in particular that they wanted to eat, he should have brought it with him and asked to toss it on the grill.
Better yet, the nephew should have had the courtesy to RSVP to the invite to let F.G. know he'd be attending with friends in tow. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Is it ever OK to peek at someone else's texts?

After a neighbor borrowed L.W.'s truck to haul debris to the town dump, he mentioned to L.W. that the truck was pulling to the right and that his tires seemed a bit worn.

"You really need to get that thing aligned and get some new tires," his neighbor mentioned to him after thanking him for the loan and returning the keys. "It's really not safe."
At first, L.W. was miffed that the neighbor complained after L.W. had done him the favor of lending him the truck. But then, after taking the truck for a ride, he realized his neighbor was right. So he called his nearby tire store to see if they had tires in stock for his truck. He was told it did, so he made an appointment to have the work done.
When he got to the store, there was a bit of a crowd, but a salesperson greeted him at the desk, looked up his appointment, and started the paperwork. During the transaction, the salesperson's cellphone rang. He picked it up, listened to the person on the other end of the call, hung up and placed his cellphone on the counter in front of L.W.
"Could you excuse me for a minute?" he asked L.W. "I need to check in on something in the garage."
The salesperson walked off, but left his cellphone. After several minutes of waiting, the cellphone made a dinging sound and L.W. noticed that a text message had popped up on his screen. A few seconds passed and then another text. Still another popped up a minute or so later. In short order, at least five text messages dinged up on the salesperson's cellphone screen.
L.W. was growing tired of waiting for the salesperson to return.
"I wondered if the texts might have something to do with why he was called away," writes L.W. "Maybe he needed the information being texted so he could finish up in the garage."
But L.W. was reluctant to read another person's texts, believing it to be an invasion of privacy.
"Was I wrong not to go find the guy and tell him about the texts?" asks L.W. "Should I have read them to see if they seemed like something he needed to get his work done?"
L.W. figures he could have read the text messages and if they didn't seem relevant to the guy's work, he could simply have said nothing. But if reading them might help the guy get his job done so he could return to get the paperwork for L.W.'s tires done, he figured he might have been doing both of them a favor.
While many might be tempted to take a peek at another person's text messages when no one is looking, the right thing is to respect the other person's privacy and mind your own business, whether it be a colleague, a date, a friend, or a salesperson at a tire store.
The salesperson shouldn't have left his phone lying on the counter. L.W. is right in thinking he might have needed the texts to finish up whatever it was he was called off to do. It's an awful feeling to be kept waiting, but that's no reason to read another person's text messages. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

When employees leave, silence is not golden

Almost 20 years ago, in one of the first "The Right Thing" ethics columns I wrote, I tackled the issue of how employers often fail to inform their employees when someone has been dismissed.
"You walk into the office, and as the day goes on you realize that the guy who sat in the cubicle next to you for years isn't there," I wrote. "It's not just that he hasn't come to work. There's no trace of him. The family pictures, the plants, the cartoons he liked to clip and post are simply gone. Office scuttlebutt has it that he has been dismissed. But there is no official word: no memo, no department email."
At the time I observed that while there might be reasons for employers not disclosing why an employee has been let go (an employee's privacy, fear of wrong termination suits), not saying anything his disappearance can create a "climate of fear" in a setting where the bosses don't level with the staff.
A few weeks ago, a reader, H.D., wrote to report that a similar situation occurred in her office.
After returning from a week's vacation, H.D. noticed that a long-time colleague wasn't at the weekly staff meeting. As the week went on, she noticed that the colleague wasn't in her office or anywhere around the office.
Figuring that the colleague might be on vacation, H.D. let it pass. But as two more weeks went by and there was no sign of her, H.D. asked another colleague if she knew if the missing colleague was OK.
"I think she's on some sort of leave," the colleague told H.D. But she didn't know anything else. Neither did any of the other colleagues.
Finally, at a subsequent weekly staff meeting, H.D. asked their supervisor whether the colleague was indeed on leave and if she'd be returning.
"She won't be coming back," was the supervisor's response. The discussion was redirected to other issues.
"No one knows if she's been fired or quit or has health issues or something else," writes H.D. "Because there have been layoffs in the recent past, we're all kind of on edge not having been told what's going on. Shouldn't the supervisor have said something?"
When layoffs occur, typically employees are notified. So H.D. knows it's unlikely the colleague did no leave due to a layoff. Still, the practice of not telling employees when a colleague leaves the company seems a poor choice.
While maintaining a current or former employee's privacy is important, letting employees know that a colleague is no longer with the company seems hardly to violate any privacy. The employees ultimately gather as much when the colleague no longer shows up to work. But leaving the departure unsaid leaves employees to worry, gossip, perhaps think the worst, and wonder if they might be next.
The right thing for an employer to do is to let employees know when someone has left the company. Partly, doing so helps to quash any fear or gossip making the rounds. But more importantly, it can serve to reassure the remaining employees that they are still valued and that their employer thinks enough of them not to leave them in the dark. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Is it wrong to look up old flame's social media accounts?

Social media can be a great way to stay in touch or reconnect with friends and family, get a heads up on a news item you might have missed, be alerted to a job opportunity, find out about a yard sale a few towns away, or generally keep up with things you might not have kept up with otherwise. Social media can also become a huge time suck, a too-easy outlet for anger and resentment posted at others, and sometimes a source of problems for users that otherwise would never have arisen.
Recently, M.N., was killing time by searching around several social media sites to see if he could locate old classmates or friends. His searching led him to start scanning the friends and followers lists of some people he had already been following on Facebook and Twitter. M.N. admits that he spent far longer than he'd planned at this exercise, but he was surprised when he came across a long-lost high school girlfriend, G.V., on each site.
The relationship hadn't ended particularly well a couple of decades earlier when they were completing their senior year together. After each of them went off to college, M.N.'s family moved away from his hometown, so he had few opportunities to run into his former girlfriend.
Apparently, based on what M.N. found in his searching, G.V. had married, changed her last name, had a family, and stayed pretty close to their hometown. M.N. had moved several states away and had a family of his own.
M.N. recognized G.V. in the photos she'd posted. Once he'd learned her new last name, he found himself compelled to search for her on other social media sites. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, he checked out her Instagram feed.
"I really got caught up in this," writes M.N. "I spent way more time looking around online trying to find out what she'd been up to all these years."
M.N. says he has no desire to or intention of contacting G.V. But now he wonders if he crossed a line by spending quite a bit of time checking out her social media pages without her knowledge.
While it might be a bit voyeuristic to check out old friends' social media sites, it's not unusual or necessarily creepy to look up an old relationship from time to time. As long as that curiosity does not turn into an unhealthy obsession or stalking, there's no line crossed.
On most social media sites, the user can choose to create settings so that the general public cannot view his or her information. G.V. had posted information on her various sites that was open for public viewing. People like M.N., who once knew her, could view it, and so could people she never met. The right thing for those who would like to limit access to their information to a group of people they know is for them to set up their privacy preferences accordingly.
The right thing for M.N. to do is to ask himself if searching out information on someone he hasn't seen in decades is the best use of his time. He might consider reading a good book instead. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a senior lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
(c) 2017 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Do I tell job-seeking friend that my company is in trouble?

A couple of weeks ago, L.A. and her colleagues at work received an email letting them know that a division of their company was going to be shut down and its function would be outsourced to an outside agency. The email informed them that every effort would be made to find those who worked in the division other positions at the company, but that it was likely that some layoffs would result from the move.
The email didn't surprise L.A. For several months, there had been signs that the company was in a bit of trouble. Employees choosing to leave, promotions on hold, projects delayed, and other clear indications all suggested the business was having trouble. The outsourcing in an effort to save money was simply the latest indication that her company's best days were behind it.
In the midst of the most recent news, L.A. has heard from an old friend who had applied for a job at L.A.'s company. Even though the company was laying off employees from some divisions, it continued to try to keep enough of a staff to meet its obligations to customers. L.A.'s old friend was hoping to fill one of the open slots.
Knowing that L.A. worked there, her friend emailed to ask her if they could meet to talk about the company and what it was like to work there. This request, writes L.A., puts her in a bit of a pickle. She likes her job and the work she does, but she also feels like she should be honest with her friend if she asks about the company's health.
"How much loyalty do you owe your employer if you know a friend is looking there for a job and all signs at your place of employment point to it going under?" writes L.A.
L.A. is right to be concerned. The evidence she's witnessed suggests that her company is struggling and long-term job security could be an issue, not just for her friend, but for her as well. On the other hand, L.A. doesn't want to tell her friend anything based on office gossip.
If L.A.'s friend asks her about her job and whether she likes the work she does, the right thing is to tell her she does indeed enjoy both. She should freely describe what the work days are like, what it's like to work with colleagues and customers, and what the positive and negative aspects of her work life have entailed.
But when the friend asks about the company, the right thing is to level with her and tell her what she knows to be true about recent layoffs and any other concrete indications that the company could be going through a bumpy phase. L.A. shouldn't violate any nondisclosure agreements she may have signed, but she shouldn't hesitate to give her friend as full and as accurate a picture of what she might be getting herself into.
It's up to L.A.'s friend to gather as much information about the company as she contemplates working there. Armed with that information, her friend can decide for herself whether to pursue the position.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program at Harvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
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