In Conclusion

Given that all of us taking this Ethics class have had assignments keeping us busy, work keeping us busy, kids keeping us busy, and various other things keeping us busy, I don’t claim to be much more or less busy than my classmates. However, I truly have not had much of an opportunity to break free and spend time reflecting in my natural environment.

That said, I engage in self-reflection during almost every moment of my spare time. Most of the time I spend my commute to and from work sorting out my thoughts, pondering, wondering, making connections among all the ideas I considered, all the people with whom I spoke, all the words that I read, etc. I am reflective by nature. Further, my blogging project for this class and the personal moral system assignment only reinforced my reflection. Spending an hour or two in my natural environment just to reflect on my ethical beliefs would simply be overkill.

Therefore, my “walkabout” occurred mostly in pieces. Often each period of reflection (which usually occurred while posting a blog entry or driving home from work) would lead to a realization or several mini-realizations. For example, a few weeks ago the director of our office underwent a medical procedure for which she will spend the next 4-6 recovering. (She is doing well so far and is expected to recover completely.) As a result, I have assumed many of her decision-making duties and responsibilities. Although somewhat daunting at times, the experience has been tremendously valuable to me, as it has forced me to really think deeply about how my decisions will impact various constituents. Further, it has forced me to put into practice much of what I have learned about leadership from my master’s program.

Probably the most important thing I have realized is that life is dynamic. It’s one thing to spell out a situation on paper, examine it, and then apply the ethical model that I think is most appropriate. However, that is not realistic. In reality, all the dimensions of a situation are constantly changing, and all of the factors related to the scenario make it too difficult to apply, universally, all the elements of any one of the models discussed in the text.

Winding Down

I must admit that I am greatly relieved that this project is approaching the end of its life. I still believe in the power of reflection as it pertains to learning, so I am not sorry that I chose a project that allowed me to do so much reflecting. However, I do somewhat regret that I chose to reflect in a blog format. I have discovered that I simply have no desire to spend my time firing up the computer, waiting for it to load, logging in to the blog site, and exposing my thoughts to cyberspace.

This semester has been incredibly busy for me--at home, at work, and with school. This is something I anticipated before the semester began. It has been and continues to be a struggle for me to stay afloat, but I have learned so much along the way. And the business has offered a wealth of scenarios upon which I can reflect and relate to my ethical philosophy.

As I ponder over events that have transpired over the last few weeks, the one word that repeatedly comes to mind is "adversity." While that word might imply a sense of pessimism, I should note that one significantly positive outcome from the adversity is that I feel as though I have matured in my role as a professional, a leader, and as a student in this Ethics class.

For example, our office has been operating without the services of two of our full-time staff members. (Normally we have four full-time employees, so we are functioning at 50% capacity.) As the staff member with the most seniority, much of the responsibility of our office is assumed to be on my shoulders. Unfortunately, this has forced me to pass over much of the work for which I would otherwise be responsible in favor of "leading" the office through this period of being short-staffed.

I have had to make decisions that have directly affected certain sets of students, and these effects have not necessarily been positive. I have accepted the fact that our office simply cannot keep up with the work that needs to be done. Some of the services that we normally provide our students and our faculty and staff has been compromised. I have had to deliberately disregard some of my "regular" responsibilities so that I could tend to responsibilities that, arguably, are more important.

The influx of work to be done and choices to be made has materialized almost faster than I can keep up. I have had to make several snap decisions or have spent MUCH less time that I normally would spend making decisions that probably should have demanded more of my time. In many cases, the material we have discussed in our Ethics class has influenced my such decisions.

I believe that each of us, as human beings, reach a point where we become so overwhelmed with to-do lists and mulit-tasking that eventually we become more concerned with getting the job done than getting the job done right. Unfortunately, I have reached that point. There have been recent occasions when I failed to adequately determine how my decision or action would affect the integrity of our office. The integrity is a virtue that I am expected to--indeed, get paid to--uphold.

I also have had to prioritize some of my inquiries based on ethical concerns. For two solid weeks now, with each incoming email or phone call, I have had to decide how prioritize my responses in the most fair and just manner as possible. That hasn't always been easy.

It's getting late, and I'd like to finally call it a day. What I have taken away in my reflection upon my recent adversity is that the prioritization of my tasks have been largely egoist in nature. I have had ordered my to-do list in a way that seems the most convenient (or logical) to me, rather than in a way that can accommodate the most people. I would not operate in this manner under ordinary circumstances, but I could argue that the challenging circumstances warrant this behavior.

This is another reason why i usually hesitate to subscribe to one particular method or theory or system or philosophy. While many of the ethical theories that Thiroux discusses in the text seem logical, it is clear to me that I cannot abide by them universally. I must always consider the context of the scenario when choosing the most appropriate ethcial model to employ.

Furloughs

Everybody has bad days at work. There have been days when I left the office marveling at how green that grass looks on the other side of the fence. I quickly snap myself back to reality and remind myself that I should be grateful that I have a job in the first place.

You probably don't need to look too far before you can identify somebody you know whose job has been affected by the recessed economy. If you are close to anyone who works for the state government, chances are you are close to somebody who is forced to take unpaid days off of work.

Read this link.

This demonstrates utilitarianism, I suppose, in that the idea behind the furloughs is that it should bring the most good to the most people in a bad situation.

So what if our office was facing a serious budget shortfall? What if the only way to compensate for the shortage was to let go one of our employees? How would I choose which one? Would I base it on seniority? Need? Performance? Would I force all of the employees to accept a reduction in salary? Would I ask that some or all of them agree to reduce their work hours?

I can only hope I never am faced with answering those questions. I will continue being grateful that the organization that employs me is not faced with it either.

H1N1 Paranoia

Unless you do not watch the news or read the paper, you are aware of the potential danger of the H1N1 flu virus. Some local hospitals are mandating flu shots for their employees, saying that the shots are necessary to protect their patients.

http://www.whotv.com/news/who-story-flu-vaccine-091009,0,3380116.story

My wife is a nurse at one of the Des Moines hospital's neotatal intensive care unit (NICU) and is required to get vaccinated for the H1N1 virus. I have serious ethical concerns about this.

The vaccination is purported to reduce the likelihood that a person will succumb to the flu. Does it prevent it? No. Could it cause an adverse reaction in those who receive it? Probably not. But is it worth the risk?

Many laws are enacted to protect the safety of individuals. For example, motorists are required to wear their seat belts. But seat-belts, if worn properly, are not harmful to those who wear them. I do believe that individuals are foolish if they do not wear their seat belts, but does the government have the right to make that decision for them? That's debatable.

The H1N1 vaccine, like seat belts, is designed to protect the health or safety of individuals. But the vaccine is MUCH more intrusive than seat belts. People can put seat belts on and take them off. But once that vaccine is injected into one's body, there is no way to remove it!

Do hospitals have the right to force people to inject themselves with a substance that is not proven to prevent a disease and could even cause harmful side effects? They would claim that they imposed the mandate to protect the health of those who are in their employees' care. Should the hospitals also require them to wear masks, avoid places that have frequent human contact (malls, schools, daycares, etc.), and wash their hands every 20 minutes as well?

The hospitals have chosen to protect their patients while potentially exposing their own employees to harmful substances. Thus, they are indentifying one group of people as more important than a different group. I hope that their employees are responsible enough to take their own precautions to avoid catching the flu. Right or wrong, the mandate certainly raises a controversial ethical dilemma.

Catching Up

Oh, it has been a while since I have posted anything. What a crazy few weeks this has been. October and November are my two favorite months of the year, and both seem to have disappeared in the blink of an eye this time around.

My work life has been as busy as it probably ever will be in my life, and things at home also have been demanding my attention more than usual.

At home, our problems seem to be good ones to have. Our house has been on the market since May, and we had two potential buyers walk through within a few days of each other. While this sounds promising, it has been a challenge to coordinate the extra cleaning and child care. I'm really hoping our hard work will pay off in that regard

Things at work, on the other hand, have been nothing short of a nightmare. Our office normally has four full-time employees and a few student employees, but we have been painfully short-staffed since the middle of October. One of our full-timers resigned, another has been out of the office for two weeks and likely will be out for the rest of the semester, and the other was out almost all of last week because of the flu. Even under normal circumstances, this is a busy time of year for us.

I consider myself to have somewhat of a "type A" personality at times, so it's normal for me to worry. Given the extra load this semester, my stress has skyrocketed to levels I have never experienced before. Much of this post probably has a "woe is me" tone to it, but I quickly remind myself that life itself is a challenge. If it always were easy, then life would be boring.

So what ethical concepts can I discuss? Reward comes to mind. Accepting the challenges that are thrown my way and behaving in a manner that I believe to be moral will bring me reward, according to some ethicists. I could have backed down and given the responsibility of cleaning the house to my wife while I spent my time working or studying. In reality, she did probably 75% of the walk-through preparation, but I'd like to think that I contributed at least somewhat significantly. I hope that the work that I did will pay off for both of us by prompting a potential buyer to submit an offer.

And what about at work? I might have sacrificed "home" time more than I would have liked to, but our office is responsible for serving our students' needs. Had I ignored the work that must be done, then I would be letting down all of those students who rely on our support. My hope is that I have been just in balancing my time between the two.

Unfortunately, something that I have overlooked as a result is my studying. I knew when I registered for two classes this semester that it would be a heavy workload for me, so I made sure I got off to a great start. I was very happy with where I was through the first or second week of October, but then things outside of my control began happening, and the workload became even heavier. Something has had to give, and now I must work even harder, on top of everything else, to catch up.

What will I learn from this? As I wade through these extra challenging times, I must not lose sight of the potential rewards that I could reap by behaving ethically. I have worked tremendously hard to perform responsibly at work, and I have pushed myself to keep up with my roles at home. I am free to make my own choices and prioritize my responsibilities however I choose. As long as I continue considering the needs of my family, our students, my coworkers, and everyone else who is affected by my choices, then I believe the payoff will be tremendous.