When I hired onto ExxonMobil, an O&G company, I was confident in the decision based on the culture of the company. ‘Do the right thing’ was a regular Marta. I was told by supervisors and upper managers that their #1 expectation of every employee was Ethical behavior. And I should never compromise my ethics to do my job. I should flag ethical violations, always. (And to the Trolls, this is absolutely true.)
Then come the last 5 years: Discussion of ethics is completely absent. I haven’t heard the word ‘Ethics’ mentioned at all. I continue to see managers compromise honest and transparent discussion for their own career interests and self-preservation. I see messages massaged and tweaked, way more. I see problems buried, way more. I see employees treated in an unfair manner, way more. The organization is so siloed that HR will chase a $1k/yr savings at the expense of an employee getting fed-up and quitting (and that employee may bring $5M/yr of irreplaceable value to the organization.)
And Trolls….sorry, nothing illegal. But plenty that is unkind, self-serving, short sighted….and no one stops, anymore, to really think ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ Not the right thing for my career. Not the right thing for cost. Not the right thing for my manager. But am I doing the right thing for the greater world and full-body of the company within that world.
And that is my cultural complaint. We have forgotten that general human ethics is #1, all the time and every time.