Jeffrey L. Seglin's Blog, page 59

Acting as teen's sounding board trumps leaping into family feud

A grandparent -- let's call him Pops -- received a text message from his teenage grandson late one Friday evening. The grandson revealed that he'd been fighting with his parents because they'd refused permission for him to do something he wanted to do.
His chosen activity didn't present any danger to himself, his family, or anyone else. The problem was, he'd made the request at the last minute, after the family had already made plans to do something else together.
The grandson didn't ask Pops to intercede; apparently, he just wanted to unload on someone about the situation. The text message indicated there was shouting on both sides, and that the grandson felt he was being treated unjustly.
Pops responded by suggesting that his grandson try not argue, but rather to state his case as calmly as possible. He reasoned that if the grandson really wanted his parents to agree to something, raising his voice was not the way to win them over.
The grandson texted back that his parents just didn't understand how important it was that he be granted permission for the activity.
Throughout the exchange, Pops tried to reassure his grandson that his parents weren't trying to be mean, but that they just disagreed with him. He reminded him that the parents were reasonable people, but that sometimes reasonable people simply disagreed. Ultimately, though, Pops reminded his grandson that as his parents, they had the final say.
Pops didn't feel his grandson was in danger of acting out over his anger, and never asked if it might help if he spoke to the boy's parents on his behalf.
Pops tried hard in his responses to advise his grandson on how he might behave if he wanted to have any hope of his parents hearing his concerns. He never took sides or suggested that he thought that the boy or his parents were right or wrong, beyond reminding his grandson that the parents had final authority.
Given how upset the grandson was, however, Pops couldn't help but wonder if he had an obligation to tell the boy's parents about the texts.
What was the right thing to do when weighing the responsibility to let the parents know that their son reached out to him, against the confidence his grandson presumably placed in Pops?
Granted, the grandson might have been reaching out in the hope that Pops would see the injustice of the situation and reason with the parents. All Pops had to go on, though, was that his grandson was confiding in him about the dispute -- something he'd done in the past.
Pops let his grandson know that he could always rely on him as a sounding board, but simultaneously reminded him to be respectful of his parents. As long as his grandson didn't seem to be any danger, Pops did the right thing by listening (well, reading) and not jumping into the middle of the family argument. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Should you ignore the stench in a crowded subway car?

A crowded subway car can bring out some curious behavior.
Not long ago, as the subway train pulled into a downtown station in a Northeast city in the U.S., a group of riders got on board. There were no seats available and little standing room remained. A well-dressed man who looked to be in his 40s got on board with his traveling companion and walked to grab a spot to hang onto in the car. As he made his way in, he looked at the people standing near him and then said in a loud voice to his companion, "That stench. Can you smell that stench? Let's move."
The two passengers moved, but as they did so, the same man repeated, "What a stench. Can you smell that stench?"
Once they'd settled in another spot, the man could again be heard throughout the car commenting on the smell where he'd originally boarded the train.
While it was difficult to determine if the smell emanated from the subway car itself (unfortunate incidents regularly occur on city subway cars) or if a passenger generated the odor, the man seemed to be directing his comments at the people who stood where he originally intended to stand for the ride.
Finally, after yet another loud comment, a passenger standing in that original spot, shouted back, "OK. We heard you." A smattering of laughter and light applause followed. The man curtailed his comments for the remainder of his ride, but his behavior begs the question: What is the right thing to do is when confronted by someone who gives off an unpleasant smell?
If you're in a subway car and it's difficult to pinpoint where the smell is coming from, the question is moot. If the smell bothers you, the right thing to do is simply move to another part of the car. Making boisterous pronouncements solves nothing and risks insulting other passengers who presumably already notice the smell.
But what if it's a friend or family member giving off a bad smell?
Family members might be more comfortable letting a sibling or a child know about the problem, but friends might have more trouble talking about it.
While it may be uncomfortable to alert someone to such a problem, equally uncomfortable is having a friend who later finds out from others ask you why you didn't tell him or her when you smelled on them earlier in the day.
Faced with this problem, the right thing to do would be to find a way to alert your friend. Feelings might be hurt, but the honesty would go a long way toward protecting the friend from embarrassment in among others who might not be so charitable.
There's no need to go into excruciating detail about just how bad the smell might be. Truth dumping, as Sissela Bok called it in her book, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (Vintage Books, 1989), goes beyond the call for honesty and can careen into cruel behavior.
It's highly likely that on that subway car, just as many people were eager to get away from the well-dressed man complaining about the odor as they were from the stench. The right thing is to be honest, but kind. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Baby, you can subsidize my parking

Parking at work can become a heated issue. At some businesses, negotiations over who gets to park where -- or for how much in adjacent lots -- can ignite fiery arguments. When a deal is finally struck, the cheers can be heard for blocks.
How much attention employees pay to such a benefit once they have it can a whole other story.
A professor -- let's call him Reg -- at a small liberal arts college located in the center of a major city writes to tell me that he recently received an email from human resources informing him that he'd receive a rebate of just over $465 for overpaying for parking during the previous 18 months.
It turns out no one had noticed that the college, which foots part of employees' parking costs, had been underpaying its portion of the parking bill each month for some staff.
Reg was informed that all employees still "active" at the college at the beginning of this academic year who were affected by the error would receive a rebate dating back 18 months.
"There was one problem," writes Reg. "I had been out of the country for one of the three semesters I was being reimbursed for." Even so, the college was set to reimburse him for a portion of the parking fees for that extra semester.
"I alerted the college to this discrepancy," Reg writes. "But I'm curious: Was this my ethical responsibility or would I have acted ethically had I ignored the college's error?"
Reg's question is a variation on a question readers regularly ask. A reader might receive too much money in an ATM transaction and wonder if it's his or her responsibility to return the extra cash. A reader might get too much change from the local coffee shop. Should they call attention to the errors?
Yes, the right thing is to call attention to such mistakes and try to correct them, just as Reg did. And the right thing was for the college to return the money as soon as the overpay errors were discovered.
But Reg and his fellow employees' plight raises a couple of other questions. The notification to Reg and others only specified that "active" employees would be reimbursed for the billing errors. The right thing would be for the college to make sure to reimburse anyone who'd been short-changed, regardless of whether they still worked for the school.
The notification also indicates that employees everywhere would do well to examine their pay stubs from time to time to see if errors exist. Granted, in this case, it was the college's mistake, but it's good for employees to understand their compensation and make sure they get what's owed them. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Would you report being undercharged?

Few of us would hesitate to correct a store clerk if we found he or she had charged us too much for an item, returned too little change, or failed to ring up the correct price of a sale item.
About a month ago, I lined up in a food court at a local mall to purchase a soup, sandwich and drink combo listed on the menu at $7.99. I was the first customer of the day and the young man behind the counter admitted he didn't know how to ring up meal combinations, so he called over a more senior member of his crew. She rang me up and told me the total was $10.68.
I pointed to the menu and observed that even with sales tax, the total should be well under $10. She looked at the menu, eyed me again me, and said, "I know, but that's what the register says."
A few moments of silence passed as I waited for her to correct the error. Nothing. So I canceled my order and told her I wasn't willing to pay more than the listed price for the item.
"Sorry," she said.
I skipped lunch - likely the healthier thing to do anyway.
Like most of you, I'm not inclined to let being overcharged go unnoticed. But how many readers would call attention to an error made in their favor?
While it's nice to believe most would report being undercharged, but there are those who would simply chalk it up to good fortune - even if undeserved. If you're among those who'd do the honest thing and point out an error in your favor, what if you knew that doing so might mean an employee received a reprimand or worse? What would you do?
Years, ago, J.W., of Russells Point, Ohio, writes that he faced just such a scenario. J.W. and his family were buying goods at a local grocery store. After they got out to the parking lot, J.W. noticed on the sales slip that the clerk had rung up a 10-lb. bag of potatoes. He was pretty certain they had purchased a 25-lb. sack. J.W. checked his groceries and confirmed that the clerk had charged him for a less-expensive item. He went back in the store to get the matter corrected.
"The sales girl was furious that I'd called her attention to the error," writes J.W. She explained, angrily, that if the customer wanted her to correct the price she'd have to call her manager. "She was afraid she'd get fired," writes J.W.
Without hesitation, J.W. did the right thing and told her he wanted to pay the correct amount and that she should call her manager if that's what was needed to get it done.
"I wasn't about to let it go by."
Following J.W.'s example, I didn't let my food court experience go by, either. I emailed the company on the form provided on its website and explained what happened. A representative acknowledged my plight and offered my next meal on the house. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Never assume you know the deal without all the facts

Over dinner on a late summer evening with friends, the conversation at L.S.'s house turns to professional baseball. L.S.'s home-town team is doing well in the standings and tickets are hard to come by.
One dinner guest happens to have season tickets to the home games. After L.S. mentions that his oldest grandchild has become quite a fan of the team, the dinner guest reveals that he has tickets for an upcoming game - one he won't be able to attend due to a conflict.
"Sweet!" L.S. thinks. He and the grandchild can take in a game.
"Are you interested?" the dinner guest asks.
Without hesitation, L.S. say, "Yes!"
L.S. promptly calls his grandson to see if the date is free and ask the boy's parents if he can be out on a school night. The child is excited and his parents are excited for him to see his first professional baseball game.
"All set," L.S. tells his dinner guest.
"Terrific," the guest responds. "I can drop off the tickets later this week. I'll give them to you at face value."
Suddenly, L.S. feels stupid. He'd thought, foolishly, that the dinner guest was giving him the tickets. But the guest clearly thinks he's doing L.S. a favor by only charging him face value since the games are sold out.
He's got great seats and the face value of the tickets reflects that greatness -- $125 per ticket.
L.S.'s grandson is already excited about the game and L.S. doesn't want to disappoint him. L.S. also doesn't want to seem like a cheapskate, nor does he want to make his guest feel bad by suggesting that he assumed the tickets would be free.
The tickets would cost more than L.S. ever would normally have spent on a sporting event. Buying them would put a significant dent in his monthly expense budget.
What's the right thing to do?
If L.S. truly can't afford the tickets and buying them would cause financial hardship, he should tell his friend the price is a bit steep and pass on the opportunity. The next step would be to tell his grandson the deal fell through -- a potentially difficult task, but better to temporarily disappoint him than go into hock to attend a baseball game.
However, if L.S. can afford the tickets and wants to take his grandson to the game, the right thing is to pay his friend face value.
Suggesting that the friend should simply hand over the tickets for nothing or sell them to L.S. at a discount would put the friend in an awkward position. After all, while he could have been clearer when making the offer, he never said the tickets would be free.
It's always best to be clear on the cost before making commitments. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Consult neighbor before sprucing up her messy yard

After spending a couple of hours weeding and sprucing up her own yard this summer, A.L. looked over at her neighbor's house, the two-family building next door, and noticed the overgrown shrubs, weeds growing just a few feet from the foundation, and grass that needed a good trim.
The houses in A.L.'s neighborhood are close together, and her yard touches on the neighbor's yard. Aside from regularly mowing the entire lawn between their houses -- a portion of which belongs to the neighbor -- A.L. is uncertain how to improve the rest of the neighbor's yard, which goes untended.
The owner of the house next door does not live there and rents out each of the apartments. Several roommates live in each unit. These neighbors are nice, quiet, respectful people, A.L. says. She hasn't seen the owner of the house for months.
It would probably take A.L. an extra hour or so to mow the rest of the neighbor's lawn, do some weeding and trim the unruly hedges. Other than mowing between their houses, however, the only other things she's ever done are to prune an overgrown rose bush that caught the garments of anyone walking on the side lawn, and remove a dead azalea bush.
A.L. knows the neighbor's yard would look a lot better -- as would the neighborhood -- if she just want ahead and spruced up the property herself.
A.L. said that a neighbor down the street was once fined $50 by the city for letting the weeds in his yard grow so high that they partially blocked the public sidewalk. Her next-door neighbor's overgrown plants, however, are confined to the yard. (When the neighbor who was fined took ill, A.L. cut back his weeds so he wouldn't be fined again.)
"Is it my responsibility to look after (my neighbor's) yard?" A.L. asks. "Would it be wrong if I just walked over there and spent some time cleaning up the place?"
It's obviously not A.L.'s responsibility to maintain her neighbor's yard. And while it might seem neighborly to simply take care of the mess, this would be inappropriate. It is her neighbor's responsibility to decide how she wants the yard maintained...or not maintained. If A.L.'s attitude is that her neighbor would never notice any work she did, this is not justification for tending to her neighbor's property.
The right thing, if A.L. really believes the neighbor's lawn maintenance issue should be addressed, is to talk to the owner of the house. She can choose how to broach the subject, perhaps letting the owner know that since she last visited, the weeds, shrubs and lawn have gotten out of control. A.L. could then offer to mow the lawn and do some basic weeding. She should be sure to clear all such work with the owner before doing anything.
However, if the homeowner takes A.L. up on her offer, she might then expect A.L. to take permanent responsibility for maintaining the yard at her rental house. This already seems to be the case with the side yard they share. Such an arrangement may be fine with A.L., but the right thing to do is talk with her neighbor before taking on the task. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

College alum stands firm: If you want my money, treat me right

K.S., a reader from the Midwest, "had a great time studying and teaching" at her alma mater, but she whenever she's solicited for donations to the annual fund, she refuses.
While K.S. was working on a graduate degree in the mid-1990s, she also taught writing classes to freshmen and sophomores at the university. She continued teaching for a year after she completed her degree, then resigned to accept a new job in a new town.
After leaving the university, K.S. received two additional paychecks. Recognizing that they were sent in error, she returned the checks and explained that she was not entitled to them.
Shortly afterward, K.S. received a call from a university representative who told her that in addition to the checks she returned, she also had to repay the money that had been withheld from the two checks for taxes.
K.S. pointed out that it was not her responsibility to recover that money from the government, but rather the university's since it had made the error. University officials disagreed. Complicating matters, when the university sent her W2 indicating her earnings for that year, it included the two erroneously issued checks K.S. had returned. The university refused to issue a corrected W2 until K.S. repaid the university the money it had withheld from the two checks for taxes.
K.S. then called the IRS, which told her that all the university had to do was to call the IRS to recover the tax money it had withheld. She conveyed that information to the university, but was told they still wanted her to repay the money herself.
Since K.S. didn't have the money to hire a lawyer, she writes that a representative from the IRS helped her file her taxes by using her pay stubs from the university, rather than the incorrect W2.
"Everything turned out all right in the end," writes K.S. But because the university tried to make her pay for its mistake, she declines to send donations.
Should K.S.'s experience with university administrators over the erroneously sent paychecks outweigh the fact that her experience studying and teaching at the school were great? Since the years of positive experiences far outweigh the time it took to deal with this one negative incident, does K.S. owe it to the school to overlook what happened?
The right thing for K.S. to do is weigh her experience. If her final experience with her former employer soured her on how it treated a recent graduate, she has every right to turn her back. Of course, even if that experience had never happened, K.S. has no obligation to donate funds to her alma mater. How she decides to allocate any charitable contributions is up to her.
The university in question would do well to remember that it's not just the alumni affairs office that should consider how it treats the people once they leave the school. The right thing would have been for school officials to have worked with K.S. to resolve the problem, rather than forcing her to turn to the IRS for help. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Surveying the landscape for honest businesses yields a gem

As a small business owner trying to generate sales, is it ever a good idea to advise customers to not avail themselves of your services?
A few weeks ago, homeowners in parts of the Northeast where I live began to receive notices that revised flood plain classifications made it necessary for us to start carrying flood insurance on our homes. This wasn't exactly a surprise, since there had been talk of the revisions for some time. The unknown factor was how much coverage might cost.
The notices and subsequent discussions with insurance providers or banks holding mortgages began to make the costs clear.
My wife and I were among those who received a notice a couple of weeks ago from the bank with holds our mortgage, telling us the bank could sell us flood insurance. The banks quoted a price, but encouraged us to shop around among other providers for the best rate.
Our insurance broker informed us that to pinpoint an accurate price, she'd need a flood elevation certificate. While we knew we were in a flood plain and could consult FEMA maps to see what elevation zone we were in, no elevation certificate yet existed for our house. To get one, we'd have to hire a surveyor, which would cost between $600 and $1,000.
What we didn't know was whether the surveyor's findings would result in a lower premium than what our bank was offering. Because we and our neighbors were in the same boat -- most of them had no flood elevation certificates, either -- we couldn't compare prices on insurance.
The bank wasn't particularly helpful in letting us know how it determined the cost of our insurance without an elevation certificate. Uncertain what to do, we asked a surveyor, who'd done work for us before, whether it was worth spending the money on his services that could equal almost half of what the bank quoted as a price for flood insurance. He said it could just as easily turn out that once the elevation certificate was completed, other insurance company premiums might be lower -- but they might also be higher than the bank's quote.
If the surveyor had told us he thought the wise thing to do was go ahead and get the elevation certificate, we would have hired him for the job. Instead, he said, "I'd wait." He advised us that rather than spend money on his services, he'd recommend going with the bank's offer, then speaking with neighbors about their experiences. If it became clear later on that the elevation certificate was worth it to receive a lower rate, he'd be glad to handle our insurance.
He didn't turn down the job because he didn't want it. He works for a small company in town and could use the business. He advised us not to rush into hiring him because he believed this was honest advice and the right thing to do for a valued customer. When the time comes to get a flood elevation certificate or any other surveying services, his company has our business. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Civility costs you nothing

Does treating someone badly warrant a lack of civility in return?
A reader from Ontario, Canada, and her spouse were going through a rough patch with her teenage daughter. The problem was nothing extraordinary, but simply the type of behavior many parents of teens face as their children struggle for independence. Suddenly, a usually compliant child has turned into a young adult who wants to make decisions on his/her own. Some of these decisions can upset parents.
Because the reader was consumed by her daughter's behavior, she found herself more distracted than usual.
"When I was at the post office, a young girl -- 14 or so -- held the door open for me," she wrote. "I was so distraught I could not respond."
When no "thank you" was forthcoming from the reader, the teen said in a very sour voice, "Well, thank yoooooooou!" In light of what was going on in the reader's life at the time, she now wishes she'd the presence of mind to tell the girl what holding that door had meant to her.
It's not unusual for people to become distracted by daily concerns to the point of forgetting to acknowledge the small acts of kindness around them. The reader is correct: The right thing would have been to stop fretting about her daughter long enough to thank the girl for her kindness in holding the door.
Still, people make mistakes. Years ago, when I was shopping before work at the original Filene's Basement in downtown Boston, a fellow shopper shouted at me after I'd passed him in the aisle.
"Don't you say 'excuse me'?" he asked. When I looked at him in confusion, he shouted for all to hear, "The guy just hit me with his briefcase and he doesn't bother to say 'excuse me'!" I was certain he was correct and that my overstuffed briefcase must have struck him as I walked by, but I'd been completely oblivious.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know." The apology didn't satisfy him, but each of us went on our way.
Did the reader's missed "thank you" call for a snarky response from the young door holder? No. The right thing would have been for the teen to simply hold the door and recognize that she'd done something nice for someone. A "thank you" would have been appropriate, but the lack of one doesn't diminish the kindness of her action. Her words did, turning a kind act into a churlish hurl of words.
Be kind, but don't turn on someone if they're not kind in return. Their actions should not alter your original intent. Some people, like the reader, are simply preoccupied and most often do not let acts of kindness pass unnoticed. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

Calling the boss out on his misdeeds takes courage

How far should you go to call attention to a colleague's wrongdoing?
A reader used to work for a publication where all the employees, including his boss, had a writing quota. An executive higher up at the publication instituted a policy that required the staff to pair up with one another and serve as one another's copyeditor. The reader was asked by his boss to serve as his copyeditor.
The reader began to notice that his boss was presenting old stories as new ones. As part of the copyediting process, the reader called his boss's attention to this.
"He brushed it off, saying he'd added new details," the reader stated.
No one but the reader seemed to notice the boss's practice.
Then, the boss began taking press releases submitted by outside firms and using them, unattributed, in his articles.
"I told him he had to stop or at least attribute them," the reader writes. His boss then informed him that he would no longer be his copyeditor. Not long after, the reader was let go.
He's not certain, but he suspects his boss was involved in the decision to let him go, but he decided not to blow the whistle.
"Should I have outed him?" the reader asks. "I have to admit I hoped someone would do it eventually."
Several months later, the company downsized and the boss and several other members of the writing staff were let go. Soon after, the publication filed for bankruptcy.
The reader would have lost his job a few months after he did even if he had stayed on. Whether or not he reported his boss's wrongdoing, the boss would have lost his job, as everyone else did. Given these factors, does it matter that no one ever called the boss out on his misdeeds?
You don't have to look far to see high-profile instances of plagiarism reported in the press. Misappropriating someone else's work as your own -- whether it's a news article or a press release -- is unprofessional and wrong. Passing off old work as new doesn't pass muster and misleads readers into believing they're receiving something that they are not.
Perhaps some sort of justice was served by the boss losing his job, even if it had nothing to do with his misdeeds. But because the boss was able to behave inappropriately without ever being called on it, he can move on to another job as if his integrity and professionalism were intact.
When the boss would not change his practice after the reader pointed it out to him during several copyediting sessions, the right thing would have been to go to the higher-up who instituted the copyediting pairings at the publication. If not then, then certainly the reader might have pointed out the problem when told he was being let go -- although at that point it might have sounded like sour grapes.
If fear of being fired was the reason for not reporting the plagiarism, it turned out that not reporting it resulted in the reader losing his job anyway. If the reader had reported the misdeeds, then at the very least the higher-up would have had the opportunity to do the right thing and call the boss on his actions. 
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of  The Right Thing: Conscience, Profit and Personal Responsibility in Today's Business and The Good, the Bad, and Your Business: Choosing Right When Ethical Dilemmas Pull You Apart, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications programat  Harvard's Kennedy School . 
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin 
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 
(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNECONTENT AGENCY, LLC.