Editor's Introduction: A New Column on Ethics & Business

Most of the articles we publish on CanadaOne focus on how-to advice and information, yet many of the questions we get through the ask-the-expert section on our site are really ethical questions where the person writing to us has been treated badly, and possibly unethically.

Brian Keen, a new contributor to CanadaOne, is an ethicist and entrepreneur who strongly believes that good ethics equals good business. In a seres to be published throughout 2012, Brian will examine situations of ethics, both from questions submitted to our site and important events happening around the world. In his first column he tackles a question related to a company owner who is trying to push out a worker after finding out she was pregnant. I hope you enjoy it!

-- Julie King, managing editor, CanadaOne®

The scenario: constructive dismissal of a pregnant worker

An assistant manager at a small company is eighteen weeks pregnant when the company owner hires a 'personal assistant' and asks the manager to cut back the hours of the assistant manager -- because she is pregnant. The owner intends to slowly transfer work done by the assistant manager to his new assistant. The manager feels trapped, pressured to comply with the owner's request or his own job would be at risk, while feeling the request is both unethical and probably a violation of employment standards laws as well.

Brian Keen: The ethicist's view

As a fellow entrepreneur you don’t want to create a problem.  We entrepreneurs create wealth through resolving problems!

This situation is not only unethical, but illegal. By doing anything illegal you face the possibility of receiving bad publicity - even if you are innocent. Always try to operate within the law.

Since the family is the basis of a civilized society it is imperative for employers to recognize the necessity of supporting staff that have children. This starts through pregnancy. The alternative to this reality is to hire monks. Just kidding! Let us consider some realities of life from an ethical perspective.

I will work on the basis that either sex can be the employer as well as the employee who is involved in the pregnancy. I will utilize the feminine for the pregnant employee and the masculine for the entrepreneur for ease.

Let us remember that employees are a human resource asset rather than an expense, as traditional accounting holds.

There are numerous reasons why an employer would engage in this type of behaviour. Let us look at a few of these excuses.

• A small enterprise may find it inconvenient to save a job for the pregnant employee. This is irrelevant since there are numerous inconveniences for entrepreneurs. An entrepreneur would never consider refusing to pay business taxes because they are not only inconvenient but a cost to the enterprise.
  
• An employer may feel that they may have to reduce hours due to concerns about the health of their pregnant employee. This excuse is based upon the idea that women require medical assistance throughout their pregnancy. This rarely happens today. Most pregnancies continue without any health concerns.
  
• An employer may feel that a new employee may have better qualifications than the person on leave. Perhaps, the employer doesn't realize that they should hire the best qualified in the first place. They need to concern themselves with reality.
  
• An employer may feel that his employee is seeking leave, since she lacks loyalty to her job. This is a rather strange excuse. The fact that she is seeking a leave means that she is, in fact loyal to her employer. Pregnancy is a fact of life. Employers need to realize that this has nothing to do with a lack of loyalty.

In each case, the excuses are not valid.

Let us consider the repercussions to the enterprise.

Obviously, there was a potential seen in hiring the employee. How does the employer know that the employee will not have a breakthrough idea that could benefit the employer? Does the employer really want the employee going to a competitor with inside knowledge of his enterprise?

This is the result if the employee is allowed to seek employment with a competitor. The competitor will thank you for providing training for their new employee. The employee will be highly motivated to perform to a level of excellence that will cause damage to the original employer. Is loyalty important to the employer or not.

An employee can build on the deficiencies of her employer. Would it not be better to have the employee working for her present employer than to make her expertise available to competitors?

Training a new employee is an expense that is often not considered by an entrepreneur. This is an important expense to keep in mind whenever considering hiring or firing employees. As an employer, it is necessary to realize the investment that has been made in every employee. If you waste this valuable asset then your enterprise can be doomed to failure. In order to be successful both employers and employees have responsibilities toward one another. Loyalty is a two way street.

It is imperative for enterprises to grow through honest communications between all staff members. When unethical and illegal behaviours are even entertained it causes problems in the morale of staff.

Every employee must be considered important in every enterprise. This is the basis of ethics.