Communicating with Honesty is the Best Policy

I'm a fiend when it comes to getting people to like me, especially in my workplace. I purposely avoid saying things and getting into situations which would cause me to become disliked. This is not to say that I'm a liar, but I will admit that I know when to keep my mouth shut.

Inherently, I am honest.

However, I was talking to my mother about my Capstone project yesterday and, as most mothers do, she got all motherly on me.

"I think you should be questioning the ethics of this project if you have not yet told your coworkers about it," she said. "If you're not telling them about it, then you are being dishonest."

Apparently, I can inadvertently be dishonest.

This led me to indeed question the ethics of my project. By not informing them of the existence of this blog, was I in fact being unethical?

I then had to ask myself, why wasn't I telling my coworkers about this blog? It basically boiled down to my fear of having to explain...

Not that I think I have insulted anyone, but that's not to say that my words couldn't come off as insulting to one person or another, and that's the last thing I want to happen here.

Tom Asacker wrote an article for Business Mexico, Ethics in the Workplace, wherein he broke ethics at work down into one element, honesty (Asacker, T., 2004). He suggested asking your coworkers if they thought they were honest. Most likely they will all say yes. 

But then he posed the question, "So, what exactly happened in the now-famous examples of Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and others? What happened to all of those "honest" people?"

Well, nothing happened to them of course. Because "technically" they were telling the truth. Utilitarianism-wise, they were being honest. 

Basically, if utilitarianism is my thing, I was being honest too. I'm increasing the effectiveness of communication at work with little to no harm to anyone involved. I'm utilitarianly (I know it's not a word, but let's pretend it is today) being ethical. 

But do I want to be Enron honest, or Marybeth honest?

After putting some thought into it, I decided to reread my project and take stock of the content, then I would decide if I wanted to follow through with it, change it to something less "public," or start something new altogether.

You already know what I decided, or else you wouldn't be reading this post.

Asacker goes on to say that there are numerous studies that show "honesty strengthens team building and improves morale, innovation, and productivity." And by increasing the effectiveness and productivity of communication in our offices, isn't that what I was trying to achieve?

Today I decided I would inform my coworkers and my director about my project. I was nervous, to say the least. Unsure of what their reactions would be, I procrastinated a bit through the morning before I got the guts to bring it up. Surprisingly, however, their reactions were basically positive.

In fact, my director laughed when I pointed out that he was getting a good deal with me. He gets an Events and Social Media Coordinator PLUS someone to increase communications effectiveness for the price of one.

I'm kinda a great deal!

References:
Asacker, T. (2004). Ethics in the workplace. Business Mexico, 14(11), 40-41. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/197126900?accountid=28644