The workplace is one of the strictest areas in terms of discipline to attain goals and objectives set by the management and investors. There are rules set to ensure workers produce quality work and at the same time maintain high moral and professional ethics. In most cases, workers find themselves torn between individual rights and freedoms and professional ethics. This situation occurs in almost all professions and seems to be a thorn in workers’ flesh (Jones and George 2010). This discussion analyzes conflicts between professional ethics and human rights and freedoms using a work case study.
The main issue of concern in this case study is the inevitable conflict of interest between Mr. Margulis and Maria Lopez. It is necessary to evaluate their interests and predicaments which drive them to experience conflicting emotions. There is sufficient evidence to prove that Maria, as well as Margulis, is divorced, and she is experiencing emotional insecurity as a result of loneliness. Even though it is their right to decide whether to get married again or remain single, they must draw a line between their interactions and profession.
There are thousands of cases where spouses met at workplaces got married and live happily thereafter. However, almost a third of these marriages fail to work due to failure to deliver expected results at work. Whichever the case, there have been substantial negative impacts on an individual’s performance and psychology (Whalen 2006). When couples work at the same place, there are possibilities that their relationship issues will affect their performance.
Mr. Margulis and Maria are indispensable employees in their company and thus the company relies on their efforts for better performance. However, they should not contemplate having an affair since this will affect their performance, and impart negative perceptions with regard to other employees in the company (Whalen 2006). The fact that Maria has discovered Mr. Margulis may be having hidden intentions means a lot to her future with the company. Professional ethics demands that employees treat their bosses and subjects in a formal manner. This means that all their activities must present themselves in a formal way. However, when Mr. Margulis requests to have dinner with Maria to discuss work issues this becomes a scapegoat to fulfill his intentions. Maria should decline further invitations and should only let them take place during working hours and at the company offices. In fact, they are subjective since their intentions are to bring Maria closer to Mr. Margulis. Therefore, she should avoid such meetings and any favors from him.
Secondly, there are enough evidences that Maria is trying to communicate her worries to other employees. However, since these communications do not seem to bear fruits she should face Mr. Margulis and tell him her dissatisfactions. In case, he insists on meeting her at odd hours she should tell him that she will forward the issue to higher authorities. Communication among employees enables them to understand each other and solve their problems maturely (Monarth 2009). She should tell him how uncomfortable she feels when he stares at her for long hours. Moreover, she should express her dissatisfactions to him regarding his suspicious offers.
Thirdly, Mr. Margulis seems to have high hopes of winning Maria to his side. This means he will do anything to win her regardless of the consequences to the company. Therefore, Maria should ensure she keeps away and avoid sitting very close to him during any of their meetings. Mr. Margulis will suspect she is retreating. Therefore, he will behave well.
On the other hand, there are possibilities that Maria is ignorantly offering herself for Mr. Margulis. She should ensure her dressing is formal and should not provoke unnecessary attentions from other workers. She should look, smile and talk with other employees without flirting to maintain formal relationships between them and her. In most cases, people attract unnecessary attentions from other employees without knowing the consequences of their actions (Monarth 2009). Maria should ensure her dressing is formal to avoid distracting other employees from their duties.
However, if Maria and Margulis continue to going out and having late dinners there is a high possibility that they will end up being intimate friends. Mr. Margulis has vested interest in Maria, and that is why his advances are taking an intimate turn. His long stares and touch means that he has hope that he will convince Maria to be his lover. They should not discuss company issues during lunch dates yet they have enough time to do this during working hours. For that reason, he is using uncompleted work as an excuse to meet her and express his personal issues. This gives their relationship a delicate twist and subjects the company to a crisis. Maria tries to stop their relationship from crossing professional borders. On the other hand, Mr. Margulis is working hard to win Maria. This conflict will continue as long as Maria accepts offers from him.
There is an inevitable disaster looming regardless of Maria’s choices. If she decides to keep off from Mr. Margulis’ informal activities he will without doubt notice the sudden change of events. Consequently, he will do all within his power to make sure Maria has no alternative except to accept his advances. He may use dirty tricks to win her by force regardless of the consequences of his actions. This includes frustrating her performance and harassing her at work to make her accept his advances. This will affect their performance and risk the company’s reputation (Konar 2009). Therefore, Maria will have no option except to accept Mr. Margulis’ advances in order to keep her job, but she may decide to reject the offer and risk being sacked.
On the other hand, if Maria accepts his advances their relationship will have negative impacts on the company. It will be impossible to maintain a formal relationship between them. For that reason, one of them will resign or seek employment elsewhere. Whichever the case, this will affect their performance and subject the company to unexpected yet avoidable risks. Therefore, Mr. Margulis is taking advantage of his position to achieve personal objectives. On the other hand, Maria Lopez is risking her position by accepting Mr. Margulies to take advantage of her. Therefore, she should remember she worked hard to get her job and no one deserves to mistreat her.
Workers must learn to draw lines between emotional and professional needs. Therefore, couples should avoid risking their marriages at the expense of their professional requirements by working in the same company. However, it requires a strict person to manage emotional and professional issues at the same time. All in all, workers should use nonverbal communication effectively to avoid drawing unnecessary attention from workmates.
References
Jones, G. and Jennifer George. (2010). Essentials of Contemporary Management. New York: McGraw Hill.
Konar, N. (2009). Communication Skills for Professionals. New Delhi: Phi Learning Private Limited.
Monarth, H. (2009). Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect like a CEO. New York: McGraw Hill.
Whalen, D. (2006). The Professional Communications Toolkit. California: Sage Publications.