Ethical situation:

[rustydog]

The company I work for has decided to dissolve the department I work in and replace us with contract workers.

I will be kept on to run the department. I can't tell anyone in the department because it will ab a month or two before contracts are finalized.

Could you keep quiet about this as asked or would you warn co-workers thereby guaranteeing you would be out of work too?

[Az]

1. Well keeping quiet is certainly good for the company

Lousy for your fellow workers.

Keeping quiet would certainly raise the opinion of your bosses on the job. But then these are the bosses that are undercutting your fellow workers. They mean nothing to the company. Why should the company mean anything to you?

In the end it depends on how much you value your job. They have your ethics ahoist in a petard. So the question is, are you part of the machine? Are you the one that stands up and says no more? Knowing of course the first one to stand up is usually the first one to get shot down.

The system America is running on these days relies on our dehumanizing each other. Becoming more and more dependent on the Corporation. We are become vassels to the new Feudal Lords, the CEOs. The system will continue to head into this draconian direction unless enough people stand up and make a difference.

You will not win the day by sacrificing yourself. You are alone. Just the way the Corporations want you. I wonder when they will come for you.

[jobycom]

2. Negotiate with your bosses

Go to them, tell them you want to make sure your department is treaty fairly. See what severance packages are being worked out. Let them know you feel your employees deserve some warning, and ask when you will be allowed to let them know.

Letting them know yourself could have any number of effects. It could cause some to quit, which could cost them a severance package, if one is planned. It could cause your company to accelerate plans and fire them sooner. Or it could result in your department organizing somehow to fight for their jobs. If your company is not ready to replace them, and they threaten to leave, it may give them some leverage, either to keep their jobs, or to get a better package, or something.

You need to have an idea of what might happen before you decide.

Tough choice, man. Sorry to hear you're in that spot.

[rustydog]

10. I am a grunt like my coworkers.

I happen to be the senior person (25-years) and do training, scheduling, interviewing job applicants etc.
I will be made the "supervisor" because my director is too busy to do day-to-day operations of a security department and he convinced corporate I am needed.

We were down-sized two years ago, and now the corporation wants to save pennies by getting rid of the rest of the officers and hiring contract guards.

I don't know if yáll are aware of the incredibly tight job market and that contract security pays lower than dirt.
If I decided to warn my coworkers, I'd be out of a higher-paying job and possibly abosrbed via the contract company at 7.00 an hour (might as well shoot myself) and a phony rank..(Lt. Capt. etc)

[mourningdove92]

3. You should keep your word to your employers. If this is something

that you cannot do, you should resign, then with a clear conscience, you can tell your co-workers.

[NewHampster]

4. You work first for the company then yourself

Sorry but you asked about ethics and they are trusting you with the supreme confidence. Their reasoning is to help the company smoothly transition.

This is business not romance.

edit: sp

[Taverner]

6. Unfortunate, but true

This is business, not romance.

[Az]

7. I disagree

You work to live, not live to work. You are not your job. You may make a descision that your need for this particular job outweighs a moral dilema. But if you find yourself facing a moral issue that you cannot abide you owe the company very little.

To put the issue into an extreme condition, suppose they asked you to do something illegal. Your first duty is to yourself and making sure you distance yourself from them as quickly as possible.

At one time there was a certain loyalty between a company and its employees. Workers have become the commodity of choice to eliminate when a company winds up short of resources. As such there is no longer any reasonable expectation of loylty from workers to their company. It is the nature of the world the Corporations have created. They will do what they need. You must do what you need. This is not how it should be, it is merely what it has come to. It will get worse under the guidance of the Corporations.

[NewHampster]

9. And I disagree with you

- You work to live, not live to work. -

In a perfect world. Look at the Obituaries sometime and tell me if they start out 'John Smith was a gentle man with many friends" or does it say "Long time Teacher, John Smith"

We are defined in many ways by our jobs.

Sorry, Real world, not MTV

[rustydog]

11. I know you are right..but...

These are people I hired and trained. We are a team and it just started to click and these for-profit assholes want to save $$$ by dumping the department and freeing up the money they paid in employee benefits etc.

This is a tough pill to swallow.

[NewHampster]

12. When you become the boss make a promise

to yourself not to be like them. be an agent for change when you are able to affect the change.

[DrWeird]

15. That's why it's an ethical question.

Not a save-your-own-ass question.

[Mikimouse]

5. Not as easy as some might think...

I don't envy you that decision one bit, because no matter what you decide, someone will find fault with it. I guess, if I found myself in the same position, I would have to assess the situation based on my responsibilities (to myself, family, etc.), as well as my responsibilities to my employees or co-workers. Your management surely did you no favors by informing you of this. Sometimes we get stuck by circumstances, but if you are otherwise 'free', so to speak, go with what you feel is right. After all, you only really have yourself to answer to.

[pinto]

8. One good thing to do would be to question the severance arrangements

you're being asked to support. You know, how much notice time, severance pay, etc...if you're in a supervisory role, it's your job. Good luck.

If this is another stupid Lounge question game, though, you're fired.

sorry, I'm leery about posting here.

[rustydog]

13. I am asking a real question.

The funny thing was several years ago I was told that if the place ever closed, I'd be the one left to lock up the building.

People develop friends and friendships through the workplace, but when you work in the public safety arena, a tight bond is formed when you are backing each other up in tense confrontations.
Not too many people have to control people in a drug-induced hysteria or paranoia. have you faced a person bent on stabbing you?
We have worked together long enough to know one would step in front of the other to protect the other.

This is tough, man.

[pinto]

14. Sorry. sounds like you have some tough choices.

One idea....if it's a budget situation that's closing your department, I'd start talking about those problems with your co-workers. Make it a departmental situation, not personal, without disclosing any info you have agreed to hold. Prep them some in a way.
And, again, if you're in a supe role, see about those bennies. Is a union involved?