Ethic Discussion
Janet Garner works as an administrative assistant in Eco-Waste Environmental Services, which is a small waste disposal company. The company is famous for its ethical leadership and concern for the environment in the industry, and that was the reason Janet chose to work in this company. As a divorced and with two children in her thirties woman, EWES is a very ideal company. Having been here for three years, Janet promoted twice and raised the salary for three times, offered for four weeks’ paid vacation, and medical and dental insurance. Janet is very satisfied with her work.
However, yesterday, Janet saw an envelope printed “CONFIDENTIAL” in the copy room, and peek out of curiosity. She found that her employer put a hospital client’s medical waste disposal in a local municipal landfill. She was shocked, thinking that was illegal to do so, wasn’t it?
Back to her office, Janet searched on the Internet and found that if it is inadvertently inevitable discarded trace amounts of toxic medical waste is not illegal. But she thought the company was not unintentional, and the definition of “trace amounts” was not available on the Internet. At the same time, she found that in some previous cases, the companies dumped medical waste in municipal landfill just be fined and had never been investigated for criminal responsibility. Before leaving, Janet went to read the document again. This time she was relieved for the deposal the company dealt with was really a small amount. But she thought that even a trace amounts will bring harm to public health.
This morning, Janet gathered the courage to go to talk about this matter with her immediate superior, Fred Lamb. He also surprised with that, but at the same time he didn’t think it his or Janet’s concern. He said that their job was record-keeping instead of deciding how to deal with the medical waste.
After leaving Fred’s office, Janet went to the office of Angela storm, who is the company’s Vice President of Operations.
However, yesterday, Janet saw an envelope printed “CONFIDENTIAL” in the copy room, and peek out of curiosity. She found that her employer put a hospital client’s medical waste disposal in a local municipal landfill. She was shocked, thinking that was illegal to do so, wasn’t it?
Back to her office, Janet searched on the Internet and found that if it is inadvertently inevitable discarded trace amounts of toxic medical waste is not illegal. But she thought the company was not unintentional, and the definition of “trace amounts” was not available on the Internet. At the same time, she found that in some previous cases, the companies dumped medical waste in municipal landfill just be fined and had never been investigated for criminal responsibility. Before leaving, Janet went to read the document again. This time she was relieved for the deposal the company dealt with was really a small amount. But she thought that even a trace amounts will bring harm to public health.
This morning, Janet gathered the courage to go to talk about this matter with her immediate superior, Fred Lamb. He also surprised with that, but at the same time he didn’t think it his or Janet’s concern. He said that their job was record-keeping instead of deciding how to deal with the medical waste.
After leaving Fred’s office, Janet went to the office of Angela storm, who is the company’s Vice President of Operations.