It occurs to me that I’ve been writing sort of a mix of guidelines and rules in my “What makes a good employee?” musings. Here I will start to make a conscience effort to collect those thoughts into the beginning of the code that I would use for any company I own.
The beginning of the code of business conduct:
Part 1 – Governing the internal economy of The Company
1.1. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they demand or beg personal favors or personal property in exchange for doing the work for which they are employed by the company.
1.2. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they perform or offer personal favors for any other employee or offer or give personal property with the stated or otherwise demonstrable expectation of receiving work, money, personal favors, or advancement in return.
1.3. All employees of The Company shall have a prearranged monetary and/or monetary valued benefit compensation for the work for which they are employed by The Company.
1.4. If The Company expects to require an extra commitment of work (such as overtime work), then The Company will pay a prearranged monetary compensation for that extra work.
1.5. Any employee shall be guilty of misconduct if they threaten to or attempt to cause physical harm, slander, or otherwise negatively effect the reputation of another employee for the purpose of extorting personal favors, personal property, money, or career advancement or as punishment for the denial of personal favors, personal property, money, or career advancement from any other person (not limited to other employees).
1.6. Any employee shall be guilty of misconduct if they give non-public intellectual property belonging to The Company to any other employee or any other person or company that has not previously entered into an enduring non-disclosure agreement with The Company.
Part 2 – Governing the leadership of The Company
2.1. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they advance or offer to advance any other employee to a supervisory or management position for any reasons other than that employee’s proficiency in the performance of the work that they will supervise and that employee’s proficiency in the delegation and apportioning to other employees of that work such that it is completed properly and within the required time frame.
2.2. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they disobey an order or directive from their supervisor, unless that order or directive would require that the employee commit some other form of misconduct as described in this code.
2.3. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they issue an order or directive to the employees that they supervise which would cause harm to any person or The Company. Note that this prohibition on causing harm shall not extend to banning the defeat of a competitor if the competitor is defeated without any other form of misconduct, dishonesty, or illicit action.
2.4. Any employee of The Company shall be guilty of misconduct if they issue an order or directive to the employees that they supervise which would require any one of them to do something that would otherwise make them guilty of any form of misconduct as described in this code.
