Ethics Thread

[Cider123]

Ok i have one... I have been traveling for work since August. Every week i fly to Chicago. We work in hotel meeting rooms. I always take the soaps, lotions, etc that are left out at the end of the day and stick them in my bag.

Just before Xmas time i took a GARBAGE BAG FULL of lotions, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, tooth brushes, tooth pastes, mouth wash, etc to the local homeless shelter.

Am i a stealing if hotels set them out for us to use but i take them to donate to the homeless?

You're kinda like Robin Hood

 

[maxamuus]

Yup, but i dont wear tights.

Funny thing is i am always in nice hotels like the Westin, Hyatt, Marriott etc. So the homeless in my town are using top of the line personal hygine products and i am using the 99 cent Pert Plus or whatever the cheap a$$ shampoo it is that i buy.

 

[opus345]

So heres one for you. A friends wife is heavily involved in the PTA. She stores a lot of the things at her house, i.e. plastic cups, plastic ware, plates, etc. once the functions are complete and there are remaining items, she sometimes uses them. The PTA paid for the items for a specific function and these are the leftovers. Ethical or unethical?

Can't really judge. While I would feel justified that my effort and work would make it justified to use the leftovers, I would also not do it thinking that it could be viewed as being inapropriate and violating trust of the association. Now if you add more info to the scenario that this has been a standard way of hanlding the leftovers, well then....

 

[pwkblue]

Ok, I'll bite and I even got one that is beer related. So I have a friend who goes to Northern Brewer and Midwest and almost always buys either Golden Promise or Maris Otter as a basemalt and marks it down as regular old Rahr 2-Row which can save a bit of money especially if brewing a big beer like the 27# Barleywine he did the other week. I did it once (ok, I did it twice) and felt moderately bad about it. Ethical? Or just skimming profit off a company that makes enough and keeps money in our relatively tight pockets?

most retailers consider that theft....many prosecute it! Now in a "self serve" situation it is also clearly unethical.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Here's another. You have good job, making a good salary. Your company treats you very well and in return you really put in the extra effort. You have an expense account. Sometimes when you and your friends go for drinks and you are broke, you expense the tab. Your friends are also customers but this was not business. Ethical? How bout taking your wife to lunch and expensing it as a business lunch?

 

[opus345]

Good example, but I would bet most serious companies already have this covered under the business conduct policies. Mine does and clearly states that those actions are taboo.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Good example, but I would bet most serious companies already have this covered under the business conduct policies. Mine does and clearly states that those actions are taboo.

The friends/customers or the wife? With my old company, which i hated, i would take my wife for lunch ince in awhile. I did feel guilty about it at times. The guilt, to me, is what shows it is unethical. The friends/ customers i dont see as being unethical since they do give you business and technically they are customers. Taking advantage of it would be unethical to me.

 

[opus345]

Usually it comes down to what the company will reimburse after filing the expense report. I haven't seen full reimbursement of a CC in some time. I think SOX and the IRS have had a huge impact on the controls being utilized.

 

[Airborneguy]

I have a free Metrocard due to my employment. We were basically told that as long as it was in our hands, we could use it however we wanted. Basically, I can't give it to my wife to commute to work, but I can put her on the train every day if I do the swiping.

When we first got it, I went to a minor league baseball game with a friend. The booth at the station was closed for repairs, so they had a guy standing there and he was being a real jerk to people who didn't have exact change for him to swipe them through. I cut to the front of the line and showed him my ID, then proceeded to swipe about 20 people through the turnstile. That felt good.

(PS, Creamy, DON'T EVEN ASK!!!!)

 

[KayaBrew]

CG, great thread.

Aren't you up a little late tonight. I don't mean past your bedtime kinda thing. It's just most of the posts/threads I see from you are during the day. Vacation?

Posting during the day for CG usually means he's wasting time at work. There's your ethics question! Is making the HBT community collectively smile with hilarious posts on your employer's time ethical? To me, yes sir! and carry on...

 

[Cbaddad]

Oh come on guys, you got to save the person. Dogs are great and all, but that is someone's son/daughter/husband/wife etc....

 

[Brewsday]

Besides being theft...where does this attitude come from "Or just skimming profit off a company that makes enough and keeps money in our relatively tight pockets?" The idea that all businesses are filthy profitable and deserve to be robbed is ludicrous. Especially friendly and good HB stores.

Now mine...wheeled my groceries out and loaded into my car. Noticed a cart parked nearby with a huge bottle of laundry detergent in the bottom rack. Nobody around. Tossed it in my car almost without thinking. Felt a little guilty. Paid the price when the teenage son used the car and apparently couldn't hear the 200 ounce bottle bouncing from side to side as he blasted the radio and turned corners on 2 wheels. Spent the next day rinsing 200 ounces of detergent out of the trunk.


Should I have left the bottle in the cart...you bet...

karma!

 

[inhousebrew]

Alright I knew it was wrong all along. Just had to bring it up and yes I still feel bad about it. Gonna have to send a link to this thread to my buddy although I doubt they will care much...

 

[passedpawn]

Torrents. Movies and music. If you know what I'm talking about, you're probably guilty.

 

[whoaru99]

Didn't see this one yet...you go to the store, make your purchase, and get too much change. Woohoo! lets get the heck out'a here, or "You gave me too much change back."?

 

[whoaru99]

The friends/customers or the wife? With my old company, which i hated, i would take my wife for lunch ince in awhile. I did feel guilty about it at times. The guilt, to me, is what shows it is unethical. The friends/ customers i dont see as being unethical since they do give you business and technically they are customers. Taking advantage of it would be unethical to me.

Conflict of interest, perhaps.

 

[nasty_rabbit]

Didn't see this one yet...you go to the store, make your purchase, and get too much change. Woohoo! lets get the heck out'a here, or "You gave me too much change back."?

This happened at a local, privatly owned biscut joint when they “over-changed” me by $5.00. I gave it back and the next three visits I got a free biscut. I quit going in for about two weeks to hope that they would forget, I fealt a little uncomfortable about that.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Ok i have one... I have been traveling for work since August. Every week i fly to Chicago. We work in hotel meeting rooms. I always take the soaps, lotions, etc that are left out at the end of the day and stick them in my bag.

Just before Xmas time i took a GARBAGE BAG FULL of lotions, soaps, shampoos, conditioners, tooth brushes, tooth pastes, mouth wash, etc to the local homeless shelter.

Am i a stealing if hotels set them out for us to use but i take them to donate to the homeless?

No, they put them there as a courtesy for you to use as you wish; you did so. The fact that you donated the soaps & such was a very nice thing to do for your fellow human beings & your community. Kudos to you sir!
Regards, GF.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Ok, I'll bite and I even got one that is beer related. So I have a friend who goes to Northern Brewer and Midwest and almost always buys either Golden Promise or Maris Otter as a basemalt and marks it down as regular old Rahr 2-Row which can save a bit of money especially if brewing a big beer like the 27# Barleywine he did the other week. I did it once (ok, I did it twice) and felt moderately bad about it. Ethical? Or just skimming profit off a company that makes enough and keeps money in our relatively tight pockets?

Ethical? NO. Thievery? YES.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Conflict of interest, perhaps.

Possibly. But I have been in the same industry for 23 years. Almost ALL of my friends work with me in one way or another. Some are customers, some are vendors and some are fellow employees. I just don't know too many people outside of my industry.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

I like the onion story. Good for you.

Not to get too serious, but one of the more interesting hypothetical situations I have heard posed goes like this:

You walk by a river and you see your pet dog and a complete stranger drowning. You can only save one. What's your choice?

Now this is kinda tough. On 1 hand, I'd like to save the human, I think most of us have been (for lack of a better term) "taught" in one fashion or another, that human life is more important/more valuable than animal life.

But the fact that it's MY DOG is a BIG factor. Granted, it's only a big factor to me, but then I'm the one with this ethical dilemma. I don't know the human, but I LOVE my dog...

The human has the power of reason, opposable thumbs & the ability understand abstract concepts. He should've either learned to swim, or had enough sense to stay out of the water. Sorry bub, ethical or not, I'm saving my dog.
Regards, GF.

 

[CGVT]

Absolute no-brainer. Save the person screw the dog. A dog is an animal. If I was starving to death, I'd eat my dog. (and feed some of him to my starving neighbor)

 

[headbanger]

Is it unethical to stop in the middle of the road and lean out your car window to check your mail because you are simply too fat and lazy to pull into your driveway and get your fat ass out of the car to walk over to the mailbox?

 

[worksnorth]

Is it unethical to stop in the middle of the road and lean out your car window to check your mail because you are simply too fat and lazy to pull into your driveway and get your fat ass out of the car to walk over to the mailbox?

Ha ha Nope this isn't an example of ethics. ;-) it is something though.. possibly fodder for another thread?

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Time to cross-pollinate the ethical threads.

Posted by CG, "Sure, but you would agree that this is and ethical misdemeanor, not an ethical felony?"

I really like that concept, but to run with it, we would need a legislature to define what is a misdemeanor and what is a felony. Then we would need an ethics enforcement group to determine when individuals violated the ethical rules, etc.

If I found out that the President, another elected official, or the head of my company had been caught using another person's wireless... I wouldnt be scandalized. I think thats kind of my personal criteria...

 

[CreamyGoodness]

OOOO I just thought of a good one (not to close off those already posed).

If your vegan friend comes over for dinner, and without thinking you use butter or an egg while you are cooking... is it unethical to remain silent and serve anyway, since she isnt allergic to that food and wont know the difference anyway?

 

[jtd_419]

But the fact that it's MY DOG is a BIG factor. Granted, it's only a big factor to me, but then I'm the one with this ethical dilemma. I don't know the human, but I LOVE my dog.

This is definitely it..... my dog is family and is treated as such. I would save my own first

 

[JonM]

OOOO I just thought of a good one (not to close off those already posed).

If your vegan friend comes over for dinner, and without thinking you use butter or an egg while you are cooking... is it unethical to remain silent and serve anyway, since she isnt allergic to that food and wont know the difference anyway?

Or clear your beer with gelatin or isinglass ...

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

This happened at a local, privatly owned biscut joint when they “over-changed” me by $5.00. I gave it back and the next three visits I got a free biscut. I quit going in for about two weeks to hope that they would forget, I fealt a little uncomfortable about that.

I want to know what a biscuit joint is and how to get one here in Denver, it sounds delicious!

 

[jerrodm]

OOOO I just thought of a good one (not to close off those already posed).

If your vegan friend comes over for dinner, and without thinking you use butter or an egg while you are cooking... is it unethical to remain silent and serve anyway, since she isnt allergic to that food and wont know the difference anyway?

I have a friend who is strictly kosher, and I invited him over for dinner one night and forgot to mention that fact to my wife, who proceeded to feed him lasagna made with sausage. He loved it, and asked what was in it...I didn't have the heart to tell him, although I realized about two bites into the meal. Was it ethical that I kept it from him? I felt bad and slightly embarrassed, but mostly I didn't want him to feel like he'd violated his religious principles (it's not like he knew what he was eating after all) and I thought it was better to leave him unaware...