What is a sticky wicket. It’s an English term coming from the game of Cricket. Simply put, it’s a difficult shot that is exasperated by external environmental influences like moisture. In the context of our usage, it refers to an ethical issue that is not easily resolved.
We all have ethical dilemmas in our lives. Sticky Wickets is a place to discuss those issues. From time to time we will present situations that we hope you’ll comment on. Also, if you have issues you’d like to present to the group, this is the place.
Competing with a topless bar. You are a female sales engineer working for a small company that services the oil field equipment industry. You have recently been bidding on work with another larger oil field equipment company. Your product/ services seem to be comparable to others that are also bidding. However, one of your competitors, a male, has been entertaining the procurement officer that you having been dealing with, by taking him to topless bars on a regular basis. This, even though you know that the biddors company has a policy about not giving or receiving gifts or gratuities. What would you do? This is a significant contract.
After it leaves my house, it’s not my responsibility anymore
A man decides that his garage is too messy and that he needs to get rid of some of his junk. There are old paint cans, aerosol cans, old lumber and sheet rock, and an old TV set. Enough for a good truck load. He assembles it on one side of the garage but can’t figure what to do with it. One day as he’s driving down the street he sees a truck with side boards on it with a sign scrawled on the side saying, “Hauling Done Cheep” He jots down the number, calls the number and after some negotiations makes a deal with the truck owner to haul off the trash. No questions are asked and no explanations are given as to what’s to be done with the debris; just that the trash will be taken care of by the truck driver. Unbeknownst to the home owner, the trash is taken to a neighborhood in an underdeveloped area of town where the trash is thrown into the ditch by the side of the road.
Speed Limit Maniacs
Have you ever been driving down the freeway with cars whizzing by you at more than the speed limit? What do you do? Do you speed up too? How is this an ethical issue or is it?
Ray
Agri Fuel ethics
Should it be acceptable to grow food (corn, sugar cane, etc.) to power cars instead of to feed starving people?
Allison Gower
nilknarf1940
If a property owner contracts with a remodeler to perform work on his property….residential or commercial….generally speaking
one of the terms of the contract is that the contractor is responsible for the removal of all trash and debris, whether or
not the material is hazardous. The owner has a legitimate right
to expect that the material will be removed and disposed of
in a professional and workmanlike manner and in terms with
the laws of the governing municipality. That translates: no
illegal dumping. The owner’s legal and ethical obligation ends
with his reliance upon a written contract with a professional
who has made specific guarantees to him.
The foregoing account does not conform to that model. Rather
it comes under the heading of paying someone else to get
ride of something in our lives that we are not willing to make
the effort or undergo the expense of dealing with ourselves
even when we have reasonable knowledge of the legal
expectations and ramifications. Even small municipalities
offer heavy trash hauling on a regular basis. The only
requirement is that the homeowner remove the debris to
the curb. The rule of law is that it be written in such a way
that any reasonable individual with the ability to understand
the language in which it is written can understand what is
exoected of him. This homeowner cannot claim that he did
not understand that he had access to legal disposition of
his trash and debris whether curbside or through re-cycling
centers. He would also be hard pressed to offer a legitimate
explanation for his failure to question the hauler with whom
he struck a deal as to his licensing for debris removal and
disposal. The fact that the hauler disposed of it in an
underveloped neighborhood is beside the point. He could
have disposed of it in an obscure dumping ground of his
choicle (probably marked “positively no dumping allowed”,
and the offense would be just as egregious. This is simply
another example of people attempting to launder their conscience at the fountain of pretended ignorance.
IJWTS wow! Why can’t I think of thnigs like that?