12. Discussion of ethical practice (cont)

Employees unappreciated

For example, a person works many extra hours for a company much of it unpaid. They do their best for the company, then a 'code of conduct' comes along that stops them using the company facilities as they used to, for example browsing the web in their dinner time.

Suddenly imposing new rules may harm the trust and good will built up between a company and its employees. So introducing a code of conduct should be done carefully and with consultation with staff.

'Moonlighting'

This is the practice of working for someone else other than your normal employer, but with the same skills.

For example, you are employed as a full time electrical engineer for a certain contract company. They win a contract to install some equipment in a factory. You go into the factory to install the equipment, but then the foreman invites you to do a similar installation job 'on the side' in another part of the factory. You may gain financially, but effectively it has harmed your main employer because they will not get a contract for that piece of work.

The ethical issue here is a conflict of interest. For instance, working as a postman in the day and a barman at night has no conflict of interest. But in the example above, working as a full time engineer and then moonlighting as the same type of engineer is deemed unethical.