Jeffrey L. Seglin's Blog, page 44

How honest should a prospective employee be?

After graduating from law school, N.B. found a position with a law firm he liked. After working at the firm for roughly two years, N.B. knew he would be leaving the city shortly after he married. Because he wanted to give his employers plenty of notice, he told them about his plan to leave six months before his actual departure date.
"I was happy I told them the truth," writes N.B. "They worked with me as I interviewed at other firms and were flexible about me taking time off. I still felt awkward," he writes, "and after a certain point I felt they wanted to pull the Band-Aid off and have me gone."
N.B. was fortunate enough to find a new job before he moved to his new city. Soon after he started, he realized his new firm was not as collegial as he had hoped.
Recently, a partner at another law firm in town invited N.B. to brunch to speak with him about taking a job there. The partner painted a picture of the firm and N.B.'s role there as one where he would work closely with one or two partners and "learn and grow through those relationships."
Now, N.B. is wrestling with whether to accept the new job, knowing that he will be moving with his family in about a year.
Given how uncomfortable being forthright resulted in that last time he gave his employer six months' notice, N.B. wonders if he should tell the partner the truth about having to leave in a year. "By telling him, he can take me on, and I can assist him and his team while they simultaneously look for another candidate," writes N.B.
"I want to live an honest life, where I think about others," writes N.B., "but in the land of business, I am not sure if I am being naive."
Wanting to be honest in his dealings with the partner who offered the position says something about N.B.'s values and his integrity.
No matter how well-intentioned, giving six months' notice often can result in an uncomfortable situation no matter how responsive a company is to an employee's situation. In an effort to be fair, N.B. put his employers in a situation where it knew it would need to hire a new lawyer, but that it might have to pass up some good prospects if they wanted to start working before those six months passed.
The new situation is different. N.B. knows before taking the job that he will be leaving town in a year. There is no requirement for N.B. to tell the employer this information, especially since situations sometimes change and he might find his planned departure to be delayed or put off altogether.
But the right thing is for N.B. to be true to his values. If he believes it would be dishonest not to disclose the information and that knowing it would plague his conscience for the year he is with the new firm, then he should tell the partner. The risk is that the prospective firm will rescind its offer and N.B. will end up staying with the firm about which he's not crazy. But he'll do so knowing that he lived his life the way he's determined to live it, regardless of how others in the "land of business" live theirs. 
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. 
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.

Honestly getting rid of broken glass

For several weeks, A.L., a reader from Massachusetts, was looking for old-fashioned penny candy containers she could use to hold candy at a summer family event at her house. She checked several independent retail shops in her hometown first, but had no luck. Then she moved on to check some larger chain stores to see what they had to offer. Still nothing.
Nevertheless, she persisted. Finally, she found just what she was looking for from an online store.
A.L. needed five containers, but if she ordered six she would get free shipping. Since the cost of the additional container just about equaled what the shipping cost would have been, she ordered six and, over the next few days, waited for her package to arrive.
When the package did arrive, the containers were exactly what she ordered, except that two of the glass containers were shattered and broken. She called customer service and was assured that two replacement containers would be sent. When she asked if she had to return the broken containers, the customer service representative told her just to dispose of them herself.
"So now I have a box of broken glass that I need to dispose of," writes A.L.
Since rummagers regularly make their way through her recycling and trash looking for returnable bottles and cans, A.L. is concerned that simply tossing out the broken containers might result in a rummager or a sanitation worker getting cut. She wants to keep the large box the containers came in so she can store the containers when they are not in use.
A.L. knows that there are a couple of dumpsters in her neighborhood on sites where houses are being renovated.
"Do I mark the barrel I put the containers in 'broken glass?' " A.L. asks, "or do I use one of my neighbors' dumpsters to dump the glass even though I haven't asked permission?"
Her municipality might have some specific regulation about disposing of broken glass, but since it is not hazardous waste, A.L. should focus on disposing of the glass in the safest way possible.
Placing broken glass directly into her trash barrel doesn't seem the safest route even if she does mark the barrel "broken glass." Better might be to place the broken glass in a paper bag and then securely duct tape the bag shut and perhaps put that bag into another bag for even more safety. She then should be able to put the glass out with her recycling.
If A.L. does decide to put the glass in a neighbors' dumpster, she should ask permission to use the dumpster. While others may freely toss trash into a neighboring dumpster, it still belongs to someone else.
It's good that A.L. is concerned about getting rid of broken glass without causing harm to others. The right thing is both to make sure that she disposes of it safely, but also to make sure to ask and receive permission if she plans to dispose of it on someone else's property. 
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.
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 a customer eat the cost of not being loyal?

For years, M.R.M. had brought her car in for routine maintenance to a nearby family-owned garage. Whether it was for an oil change or a muffler repair, M.R.M. liked the work the mechanics there did and remained a loyal customer. The family actually ran its operations at two locations -- one five minutes from M.R.M.'s house and the other about a 20-minute drive away.
About a year ago, the family decided to consolidate its operations into the location that was further way from M.R.M.'s house. Still, she persisted in loyally taking her car in for maintenance as she needed it -- until about a week ago.
"I was overdue for an oil change and the weeks just got crazy with commitments and obligations," writes M.R.M. She kept putting off scheduling the oil change at her regular garage. Finally, she decided to schedule an appointment for an oil change at a gas station located about a mile from where she lived.
"I felt guilty for not being loyal, but I just wanted to get the oil change done," she writes. "I planned to take the car into my regular place for anything larger that might come up later."
On a recent morning, M.R.M. drove her car up to the garage, waited while the oil was being changed, paid the $60-something for the service, and left satisfied that she had bought herself about 40 minutes worth of travel time it would have taken to get to her old mechanic's shop.
"The car drove fine when I left the gas station," M.R.M. writes. But then she drove about an hour to keep an appointment. Still, no problem. After her appointment was over, she started her car and noticed that it lurched and sputtered a bit when she started the car up and also when she sat idle at a traffic light. It was fine when she was driving on the open road. Then, the engine light came on -- not blinking, but a solid light on her dashboard.
It was a Thursday afternoon. She called her regular mechanic, told him what was going on, and he agreed to fit her in on Friday morning if she could bring the car in early. He told her he had no way of knowing what was going on until she brought the car in.
When she dropped the car off, she told the mechanic she had had the oil changed at her local gas station, but that she could not think of anything else that she'd done differently.
It turns out that the gas station mechanics had not put the oil cap back on correctly, causing her to lose some oil and to need a new cap. Once her regular mechanic fixed those things and re-set the car's computer, she was all set at a cost of $140.
"Do I eat the cost and learn a lesson to remain loyal?" M.R.M. asks. "Or do I take the bill to the gas station and ask them to reimburse me for the expense?"
The gas station owner should do the right thing and compensate her for the cost of fixing his mistake. While M.R.M. might feel bad about not being loyal, having her oil changed at a new place is no sin, although she's decided that the extra drive time in the future is worth it. 
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. 
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.

A tale of two hoods

On his drive to help his grandparents do yardwork, 18-year-old Walt noticed that it had begun raining. He didn't know if his grandparents would have any raingear that fit him, so he stopped at a discount store to pick up an inexpensive raincoat. When he got to the shelf with the rain gear, he noticed that it had been picked over pretty thoroughly with much of the gear strewn about rather than in the original packaging.
But Walt persisted and found a bag that contained raincoat and rain pants, but seemed to be missing the snap-on hood that was shown on the package diagram. Walt fished through the pile of raingear, found a hood, and brought it and the package that he thought contained the coat and pants up to the cashier.
After explaining that he had pulled a hood from the pile in the area because it seemed to be missing from the package, the cashier rang him up, and collected his $4 for the inexpensive gear.
When Walt arrived at his grandparents' home, they were already in the yard working in the rain. They took a break when he arrived and went inside. When Walt pulled out the raingear to show his grandparents that he had come prepared, the hood that he thought was missing from the package fell to the floor when he unfolded the raincoat.
"Did it come with two hoods?" his grandfather asked him.
Walt explained what had happened and that he had taken an extra hood mistakenly thinking the original was missing. "The stuff was a mess in the store," Walt explained. "But it only cost me four bucks."
Walt put on his gear and then joined his grandparents in their yard where they worked for the next three hours edging garden beds and spreading mulch.
After a hearty, home-cooked meal, Walt took a warm shower, changed his clothes, and then got into his car to return home.
"I'm pretty sure what the right thing to do is," writes Walt, who decided to stop at the store on his way home and return the extra hood. "But given how much of a mess the stuff was in the store and the fact that the cashier didn't check out the goods when I was paying, was I really obligated to return the hood? The whole thing only cost four bucks."
Walt wonders if it would have been all the same if he simply had kept the extra hood in case he needed a backup in the future.
The price of the rain gear isn't any issue here. Whether it cost $4 or $45 dollars shouldn't make a difference and is mere just quibbling over price.
While Walt is right and the cashier should have checked the goods before checking out his customer, Walt still got something he didn't pay for. It might have been a nuisance to return to the store to return the extra hood, but it was the right thing to do. I suspect Walt's grandparents knew what he would do without having to advise him to do so. 
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. 
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 call in sick on my day off?

A reader, Marie, works three days a week providing services at a health care center. As part of her work contract, she builds up sick time for which she can be compensated if she reports an illness. While Marie typically works the same three days every week, she has some flexibility to work on different days of the week.
Even though Marie has worked for the health care provider for almost a decade, she has never used any of her accumulated sick time or pay. She's always managed to remain healthy or, on the days she wasn't healthy she wasn't scheduled to work anyway. "Even though I could have put in for sick time on some of those days, I chose not to," says Marie.
A week ago, a patient visited the health care provider when Marie was working. Since Marie was on duty she met with the client to assess his needs for about 30 minutes.
"The client reeked of marijuana," writes Marie. When she asked him about the marijuana odor, he acknowledged that he had been smoking, but not on the premises.
"The odor was so strong, I began to get a headache," writes Marie. After he left, the receptionist asked Marie if she was OK since the receptionist also had noticed how strong the smell had been.
On her drive home from work that evening, Marie still was not feeling well, due, she suspects, to the strong marijuana odor that wafted through her office when she met with the patient. The headache continued to get worse into the evening.
Marie was not scheduled to work the next day. But when she woke up that next day, she was still feeling ill.
"If I still felt sick from the marijuana smell the previous day, would it be wrong to put in for sick time and pay for the next day, even though I don't usually work on that day?"
It would seem an unusual situation to put in for sick time and pay for a day of missed work when Marie had no plan to go into work that next day. Technically, if the health care provider she worked for didn't have a policy against it, I suppose she wouldn't be breaking any rules to do it.
But if the intent of the sick time policy is to compensate workers for days of scheduled work they missed because they were sick, then Marie might be taking advantage of a policy that was not intended to cover employees' illnesses on their non-work days.
Marie should certainly see a doctor if she is feeling ill. And she also might want to report the incident to her manager at work so they're aware of the situation.
But as far as putting in for sick time and pay is concerned, the right thing to do is to wait until her next scheduled day of work, see if she still feels ill, and decide then to put in for sick time if her headaches persist.
Given that Marie hasn't missed a day of work over the past decade because of illness nor has she put in for any sick time or pay, I suspect she knows that right thing to do. 
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. 
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.

Are you still my friend?

Lil and Anne had worked together for almost a decade. After Lil moved on to a new job, the two had stayed in touch and regularly socialized by going out to dinner with other former co-workers of Lil. Together, they attended one another's family weddings, celebrated the births of new children, and mourned the loss of family members.
But several months ago, things changed. Anne also left her job with Lil's former employer.
"At first when we contacted her, Anne would tell us she couldn't make an outing," writes Lil. "That quickly became the norm." Lil and her other former coworkers understood the challenge of trying to find a time on each of their schedules that worked for all of them to get together. Lil was disappointed, but understood.
Then things changed even more. "Anne stopped responding to any of us at all," Lil writes. They continued to invite her, but there was absolutely no response. Nevertheless, they persisted and continued to include her on group emails they shared. But for months, no responses.
Both Lil and her other former co-workers have tried emailing Anne directly or calling her to leave a message on her cellphone, but still no response. Lil says that at first they were worried that something might have happened to Anne. But those concerns were quickly allayed after each of them would occasionally run into one of Anne's extended family members they had met over the years. Anne had been to a family function and all seemed well. Neither Lil nor the other co-workers pressed the family member on why Anne might not be responding to their emails or messages.
"I don't know if we did something to offend Anne," writes Lil, "or if she just decided she wanted to cut ties with anyone connected with her former employer."
Lil still would like to talk with Anne and she occasionally emails her (no response), but she wonders if it's inappropriate for her to continue to try to connect given that Anne has made it pretty clear she has no desire to do so. Lil had all but given up when she received an unsolicited group email that Anne's husband sent out letting friends and extended family know that he and Anne were raising money for a cause they had regularly worked for in the past.
"Clearly, I'm not off of the radar entirely," writes Lil. "Is it wrong for me to use Anne's husband's donation request as a way to try get in touch with Anne again? Or should I just leave things alone, given her silence?"
If Lil would still like to try to talk with Anne, the right thing would be to respond to her husband's email and make that clear. Since his email indicated the fundraising request was from him and Anne, Lil needn't worry about putting him in the middle of things. If Anne responds, great. If she doesn't, then Lil has done her best to try to maintain the friendship.
While the right thing would be for Anne to make clear to her friends that she'd rather not be contacted or at the very least to respond to their invitations, she's chosen not to. As much as she'd like to, neither Lil nor the others can change that. 
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. 
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 our values need to align with our employer's?

If our values don't align with those of our employer, should we leave?
On the surface, the answer seems simple. Of course, we don't want to work for a company whose practices or culture go against the values we hold most dearly.
But if one of the values we also hold is to provide for the well-being of our family members by helping to feed, clothe, educate, and care for them, then it's not always a simple solution for someone to leave a job if there are no other work opportunities in sight.
A reader, let's call her Zandy, although that's not her real name, writes that she started working for her current employer after having lost a couple of previous jobs because of funding cuts. Zandy has and still works for nonprofit organizations where consistent funding can be a challenge.
After losing her last job, Zandy looked around and found an opening that played to her professional strengths. Her only reservation was that the organization's views on same-sex marriage did not mirror her own. This concerned her, but she liked the people who interviewed her, she really liked the type of work she'd be doing on the job, and, given that she had no other offers on the table, she felt that she needed to accept a job offer that would enable her to meet her financial obligations and help keep a roof over her head and food on the table.
Zandy started the job, loved her work, and found her colleagues to be collegial and her supervisor to be supportive. About six months into the job, it became clear to her that because management at her nonprofit was publically vocal in its views on same-sex marriage, she was increasingly feeling that it was not an organization where she should be working. Her values, she writes, simply didn't "line up" with those of her employer.
"I feel like I should leave," Zandy writes. "If I do, I also feel like I should say something to them about why I'm leaving."
On a practical level, if Zandy's abrupt departure would result in placing herself or her family in financial peril, she needs to weigh whether leaving without having a new job lined up is the right thing to do. The same concerns she had about providing for herself and her family when she accepted the job have not gone away.
But if Zandy feels strongly enough that the values of her employer are so offensive to her that she can't do her job, the right thing is for her to leave. Given that she knew what those values were when she accepted the job, it's not clear that calling them out on it as a reason for her departure will do anything more than make her employers wonder why she accepted the job in the first place. As she points out, the company never did anything to hide its views.
Nevertheless, if Zandy believes strongly that what the company is doing is wrong, then to act with integrity the right thing would be to let her current employer know why she has decided to move on. 
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. 
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.

If one contractor wrongs me, can I wrong another contractor?

Over the years, a reader, A.K., has hired a variety of contractors to do work on to the exterior of his house. Such tasks have included painting the exterior, replacing a roof, repairing porches, installing new porches, replacing windows, and tearing out dying trees and shrubs. On occasion, A.K. writes, when a contractor has completed the work, various items that belong to him have disappeared, ranging from items as inexpensive as a paint can opener and a plastic gas container to those more pricey like a hinged-lid trash can and an eight-foot wooden step ladder.
A.K. figures the contractors might have mistakenly taken an item when they were cleaning up their own equipment from the site. Rarely does he notice the item is missing until months later and by then he's figured it's too late to question the contractor. So he hasn't.
Recently, A.K. writes that he hired a contractor to replace some basement windows and a metal bulkhead door. He was pleased with the work and told the contractors as much. This time nothing appeared to be missing.
But several weeks after the work was complete, A.K. noticed that a 16-foot extension ladder was lying up against the back wall of his basement. It's an old dark basement, so A.K. is not surprised he hadn't noticed the ladder before. The ladder was old, pretty beaten up, but in workable condition. He figures the most recent contractors might have forgotten to take it, but he claims that he's honestly not sure how long it's been up against the wall in his basement.
Since there is no owner's name marked on the ladder, A.K. figures he might have to call several former contractors to find out who might have left it. "If someone claims it right away, I have no way to know for certain it's theirs," he writes.
"All these years I've watched my own stuff disappear," writes A.K. "I figure it's time someone left something behind for me."
Since it was left behind and no former contractor has called asking about the extension ladder, A.K. asks if it's fair for him to simply claim it as his own rather than try to chase down its rightful owner. "If someone does call about it, it's not like I won't return it to him," he writes.
Simply being wronged in the past doesn't make it right for A.K. to assume that it's OK for him to wrong someone else now. While I am no expert, I do not believe that karma works by someone leaving you a ladder to make up for someone else walking off with your garbage can.
The right thing is for A.K. to call the contractor who worked on his basement windows and bulkhead door and ask him if he left behind a ladder. If he wants to make sure that this was indeed the contractor who left it, he can ask him to identify the ladder, but he should still try to return what isn't his. And in the future, if he discovers that some belonging of his is missing after a contractor has done work, rather than waiting for the universe to right his contractor wrongs, the right thing is for him to call the contractor and ask about that possibility. 
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. 
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 customer wrong to take overstated refund?

A reader from western Massachusetts, A.C., supported her teenage daughter's decision to find a part-time job in her junior and senior year of high school. Her daughter, J.C., worked some afternoons after school and weekends for a large department store in the area.
While the pay was minimum wage, J.C. was able to save money for college and to take advantage of an employee discount to buy clothing and other goods. J.C. chose to go to a college that was a three-hour drive from her home, so once she matriculated, she had to give up her job.
Four years later, J.C. graduated and returned home while she was job hunting. While unpacking and hanging up clothes in her room, she noticed that she had three dresses she had purchased from her old employer still hanging in her closet with all the tags in place. She had bought them when they were on sale and also took advantage of her employee discount.
"Do you think I could return these?" J.C. asked her mother. "It's worth a try," A.C. responded, knowing that J.C. could use the cash while she was looking for a job.
J.C. gathered up the dresses, went to the department store where she used to work, and walked up to the customer service desk.
"I bought these dresses a while ago on sale," she told the clerk sitting behind the desk. "I've never worn them and wondered if I could return them."
The clerk assured J.C. she could return the dresses even though she no longer had the sales receipt for each, and proceeded to look up the price for each. When she told J.C. the amounts, J.C. recognized the clerk was referring to the full price for each garment, not the sale price that J.C. had paid.
"We have no record of them having been on sale," the clerk told her, offering J.C. a full-price refund for each dress.
While J.C. was glad to receive the money, she knew she hadn't paid the amount she was being refunded.
"Should I have refused to take the full amount and insisted the clerk find a way to refund what I'd actually paid?" J.C. asks.
J.C. did the right thing by telling the clerk she had purchased the items on sale several years earlier. If the store's policy was to accept returned items without a sales receipt as long as all the original labels were still on the clothing item, then the clerk did the right thing by assuring J.C. she could return the items.
The department store should have had a better method of tracking the actual prices paid for specific items. Not doing so resulted in the store losing money when it returned the full prices to J.C.
But J.C. had no obligation to refuse to take the refund. She was honest about the purchases and how much she had paid for them.
The right thing would be for the clerk to notify a supervisor about the incident and for the department store to fix its merchandise tracking and return policy. Doing that is just good business. 
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. 
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 much do you disclose being someone's reference?

Is it your obligation to let someone for whom you're serving as a reference know what is said during a conversation with his or her prospective new employer? 
Several weeks ago, B.B., a reader who is a college instructor, agreed to serve as a job reference for a former student. It's the kind of task he regularly takes on, particularly in the spring as commencement draws near. B.B. had no hesitation in agreeing to serve as a reference for this student.
Prior to the call from the prospective employer, the student filled B.B. in on the organization he'd applied to work for and provided some details about the job for which he was being considered.
The telephone conversation between B.B. and the prospective employer went well. They discussed the student, the organization, and how the student might fit with the organization in terms of job responsibilities and organizational culture.
Late on in the conversation, the prospective employer said, "One of his other instructors tells us that he's great when he shows up in class, but that he only shows up when he has a paper or presentation due."
B.B. was taken aback since this wasn't his experience with the student in the classes he had had him in. Still, B.B. didn't want to let the negative observation lie. "That's not been my experience with him," B.B. told the prospective employer. "He was always in class and always prepared."
The prospective employer seems pleased with B.B.'s response, B.B. says, and they moved on to other questions about the student and his potential for the open position. All in all, except for that one observation about his behavior in someone else's class, it was a positive conversation.
But now that he's given the reference, B.B. wonders if he has an ethical responsibility to let his student know about the comment made about his behavior in someone else's class.
"Wouldn't it be helpful for him to know that he'd chosen someone as a reference who wasn't being entirely positive about him?" asks B.B. "Am I obligated to tell him?"
B.B. has no obligation to tell the student what was said during the discussion with his prospective employer. B.B. doesn't know how many other former teachers the student listed as references, so he might be placing them all under suspicion of having commented on the student's attendance. The student knew his behavior in each of his other classes and should have had the good judgment to know that if he didn't show up to class regularly then asking the teacher of that class to serve as a reference was likely not a great idea.
While he has no obligation, unless he agreed to keep the conversation confidential, B.B. is free to tell his student whatever he wants about the reference call.
Once he agreed to be a reference, the right thing is for B.B. to be honest and forthcoming about his former student with his prospective employer. The right thing for the employer is to gather as much information about the student as possible. And the right thing for the student is to choose his references wisely, and to recognize the importance of meeting his obligations by showing up. 
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. 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
F ollow him on Twitter: @jseglin  
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