The Code Section To Be Interpreted:
Code 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.
Examples of Misconduct Under This Code Section:
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A orders Employee B to give a straight answer as to whether or not Employee B will complete a given task by a certain time. In order to be confident in answering the question correctly, Employee B would have to spend time eliminating error in the estimation of how long the task will take, which would make it impossible to complete the task on time. Otherwise, without the extra time spent making the estimation more accurate, the uncertainty in Employee B’s estimation makes it entirely possible that the task will not be completed in time. Thus, Employee B answers, “No, if you want your question answered accurately. Maybe if you will accept some inaccuracy.” Employee A responds, “I need a straight answer, yes or no.” Employee A is guilty of misconduct under code section 2.4. The reduction of the complicated real answer to a yes or no would in this case be an act of deception which would be misocnduct in accordance with code section 3.4.
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A sees a thief attempting to abscond with property belonging to The Company, and orders Employee B to restrain the thief. Employee A is guilty of misconduct under code section 2.4. If Employee B were to restrain the theif, then Employee B would be guilty of misconduct under code section 3.3.
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A orders Employee B to offer Employee C a promotion. Employee A has not performed any evaluation of Employee C’s proficiency. Employee A is guilty of misconduct under code section 2.4. Employee B would be guilty of misconduct under code section 2.1 if they complied with the order because offering to advance Employee C because of an order is something other than offering to advance Employee C based on Employee C’s proficiency.
Examples Which Are Not Misconduct Under This Code Section:
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A orders Employee B to give a straight answer as to whether or not Employee B will complete a given task by a certain time. In order to be confident in answering the question correctly, Employee B would have to spend time eliminating error in the estimation of how long the task will take, which would make it impossible to complete the task on time. Otherwise, without the extra time spent making the estimation more accurate, the uncertainty in Employee B’s estimation makes it entirely possible that the task will not be completed in time. Thus, Employee B answers, “No, if you want your question answered accurately. Maybe, if you will accept some inaccuracy.” Employee A responds, “What is keeping you from answering with a yes or no?” There is no misconduct.
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A and Employee B see a thief attempting to abscond with property belonging to The Company. Employee A orders a security contractor to restrain the thief. There is no misconduct.
- Employee A is Employee B’s supervisor. Employee A has performed an evaluation of Employee C’s proficiency which indicates that it surpasses that of Employee C’s coworkers. Employee A gives this data to Employee B. Employee B performs an independent evaluation and makes a decision based on that as required by their employment specification. There is no misconduct.
