Question

I hired my best friend as my secretary. Things were great for a while. However, as time went on, it was clear that she was not able to handle responsibility, stress, or new work. I was redoing, or doing, 80% of the work from her desk. I tried to train and retrain her. We talked about the problems; but even though she tried, it wasn’t working. I felt she was giving me 110%, but she just wasn’t “cutout“for office work. This put a serious strain on our friendship, on our work relationship, and on my relationship with my boss. The employee, myself, and everyone we live with, due to the emotional aspect of the decision, and our boss were affected. The company suffered because I was not able to free myself up as needed to relieve the workload of our boss. Also, we were paying a salary and benefits for an extra employee, but production was very low.

What do you consider as Ethical to be actioned? Support your answer with evidence.

Answer 1

It is not ethical for the company to have an employee who is not able to increase the productivity of company or not a suitable person for the particular assigned job. The basic rule of or ethics of hiring is selecting a right person at a right place in a job. But in this case you hired someone (because of your personal relationship) who is not able to work which is assigned to her. And by continuing her at the job you are not only damaging your relationship with her, but also, encouraging other employees to become unsatisfied from their job. You personally also suffering as your workload increased to approx double and you are not able to help your boss whenever he or she needs you.

The ethical decision in this situation you should take is, find new and suitable job at different company (where she will be happy to work) for your best friend. So, it will result into- increase productivity of the company (new suitable employee who can increase productivity); reduce workload of yours then you will also be able to help your boss whenever he or she requires; encourage other employees to work more effectively; and reduce unwanted cost and wastage of money.