Jobs Kenya - Why Right Job Ethics Help You Keep Your Job

Timotheus (not his real name) waltzed into the office as he usually does; late.

Today he is forty five minutes late and by his gait I can tell he makes no apologies for this.

Last week, I asked the HR office to find out his reasons for coming in late consistently. I became concerned because I have bumped into him on more than three occasions on his way in anywhere in the range of thirty to an hour and a half after reporting time.

HR got back to me and said he claimed the road on the route where he lived was under construction and the traffic has become unthinkable.

On the one hand that reason is sound, but the execution is pathetic. I agree, it is not totally impossible for a road under construction to be done in a way that completely ignores that there are scores using that road to get to work. Therefore, the construction work will fail to provide an alternative that ensures working hours are not interfered with. That is our part of the world; time is just a number.

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Timotheus on the other hand, has a responsibility beyond the grumbling about how construction has messed up the traffic situation. He has a job to do and an employment position to keep. So what is the responsible thing to do?

First, he can take a personal decision to get to work long before the rest of the world starts to arise so that he beats the traffic. That way, he will simply look like a zealous employee. That has never worked against anyone.

Second, he could have gone to HR. There is a department that deals with staff issues here. Together, they would have charted out a solution that gives both parties, the employer and the employee the best way to deal with the situation.

As it stands, Timotheus has assumed that the employer should know there is construction work happening where he lives and therefore simply understand. Not so. The employer is not the Almighty so he had no way of telling what Timotheus is facing. He is interpreting the behaviour he observes and it is recorded simply as tardiness.

Tardiness is now working against Timotheus because I am not impressed. I do not appreciate an attitude that is likely to inspire more of the same behaviour in other employees.

Other members of staff observe behaviour and human beings find it easier to copy bad behaviour than good.

Timotheus tardiness is certainly going to work against him. Not because he did not have a good reason, but because he ignored the ethics.

What ethic was ignored here?

When you have a situation that directly affects your input in the organisation, speak with the relevant office to chart a solution. That way you can be assured that when a question is asked that is intended to establish your guilt, you are covered by someone in authority over you at the work place.

It is ignoring such simple rules of the workplace that has cost many their job in Kenya after putting so much effort into their personal plan to find that job.

Now, you can find guidelines to basic office ethics from the Paula Thayrow jobs ebooks series including matters of office relationships, pregnancy and child-birth, HIV related discrimination, etc.