Conscious in the Business World
Yesterday in class we discussed the Tom Mendola case. This case involved a worker whose family desperately needed his income, but he was unproductive and had already been given chances to improve his work ethic. In my opinion, the obvious choice for the company is to fire him. His lack of work ethic negatively affects the bottom line and could negatively affect the performance of his colleagues, especially if he is given unlimited chances. Therefore, from the company’s standpoint there really is no choice but to fire him.
However, my conscious kept nagging at me about the decision to fire him. Even after talking about offering Tom a generous severance package and help finding a new job, my conscious kept bothering me. All I could think was that his family really needed the money. If this situation was real, I do not know if I could have lived with myself for firing someone is such dire circumstances.
Obviously this is the type of choice that businesses and all other institutions that employ people have to make all the time. I would imagine that more often than not employers make the choice that is best for the company, but does their conscious ever interfere? This situation was not even real and my conscious was giving me a hard time which I doubt bodes well for reality. It left me wondering how one reconciles their conscious with corporate needs. Is it possible? Does one just abandon their conscious or do they let it guide their decision? Is their even room for a conscious in the business world? We put so much emphasis on ethics these days, and I cannot help but wonder what role that should play here.
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