Wall Street Ethcal Failures Not Just a Wall Street Problem - Part 1
Wall Street's getting much deserved criticism these days. Ethics don't seem to matter with a lot of these guys. The Barclays CEO who lied and resigned from his job recently was only the latest example of lying and cheating in the financial world.
But let's not kid ourselves. It's not just Wall Street that's thrown ethics into the toilet at work these days. Just look around.
Let's start with honesty and integrity in the workplace - two virtues on life support these days.
Too many of us give ourselves and those we work with a pass when it comes to honesty. Being honest means you never lie - ever. Look carefully at yourself and those you work with. Do you ever lie? Do people around you ever lie? Ever?
Now ask whether anyone - including yourself - really cares about lying in the workplace anymore?
My experience has been that over the last few decades, the word honesty continues to be used, but people don't really take it seriously.
Here's an example of what I mean. A basically good, honest colleague made a statement one day at meeting. He said that a certain product our bank was selling was as safe as U.S. treasuries. He said we could tell our customers this. The guy was Catholic. I think he had 4 or 5 kids. He struck me as a good guy. But what he said wasn't true.
So I challenged his comment. I didn't challenge him personally. I just pointed out to the group that we should probably come up with another way to express the idea of how "safe" this product might be. Because by saying it was as safe as U.S. treasuries, we weren't being accurate. (Note: I didn' say we weren't being honest, just that we weren't being accurate.) Without getting into all the details, the point was that this product was backed by a bank and U.S. treasuries were backed by the U.S. government. Seems pretty clear that being backed by a bank and being backed by the U.S. government are not equivalent guarantees, even if you don't know anything about finance, doesn't it?
I might as well have punched him in the face. He immediately responded that there was no way the bank's backing could be considered in any way a problem. This bank was huge. (Today we would call it "too big to fail." This was before the 2008 collapse, by the way.) Our boss (who was present) looked disturbed. How could I disrupt his sales meeting with this trivial point?
As you might imagine, once 2008 rolled around, the same bank that backed this product got shaky. People started talking about how such products being backed by banks were not as safe as government-backed securities.
The thing is, I'm not financial genius. I wasn't saying anything that anyone who took the concept of "honesty" seriously would not be able to figure out or understand.
The point of this story is to show how honesty isn't really taken seriously. It's also to show how if you think that there are ever times when you shouldn't take absolute 100% honesty dead seriously, you're making a mistake. Perhaps you're even committing a sin.
We Catholics really can't allow this sort of attitude towards honesty or any of the other virtues creep into our lives. We've got to be the ones to hold the line on virtue. I'm not saying that I or you are or will always be perfect in our lives. I know I'm not. But I also know that I don't kid myself. When I do something wrong, or I see someone else do something wrong, I know it's wrong.
When it comes to me, and when my wrongdoing is sinful, I confess it. When it comes to others, I try to take appropriate action in the most charitable way. And believe me, it's not always the most comfortable thing to do...and I'm not the courageous sort to begin with.
Well, we talked about honesty. Next time I want to discuss "integrity." If you think having integrity means that you're honest, you'd be correct. But you'll see that the concept of "integrity" involves more than just being honest.
But let's not kid ourselves. It's not just Wall Street that's thrown ethics into the toilet at work these days. Just look around.
Let's start with honesty and integrity in the workplace - two virtues on life support these days.
Too many of us give ourselves and those we work with a pass when it comes to honesty. Being honest means you never lie - ever. Look carefully at yourself and those you work with. Do you ever lie? Do people around you ever lie? Ever?
Now ask whether anyone - including yourself - really cares about lying in the workplace anymore?
My experience has been that over the last few decades, the word honesty continues to be used, but people don't really take it seriously.
Here's an example of what I mean. A basically good, honest colleague made a statement one day at meeting. He said that a certain product our bank was selling was as safe as U.S. treasuries. He said we could tell our customers this. The guy was Catholic. I think he had 4 or 5 kids. He struck me as a good guy. But what he said wasn't true.
So I challenged his comment. I didn't challenge him personally. I just pointed out to the group that we should probably come up with another way to express the idea of how "safe" this product might be. Because by saying it was as safe as U.S. treasuries, we weren't being accurate. (Note: I didn' say we weren't being honest, just that we weren't being accurate.) Without getting into all the details, the point was that this product was backed by a bank and U.S. treasuries were backed by the U.S. government. Seems pretty clear that being backed by a bank and being backed by the U.S. government are not equivalent guarantees, even if you don't know anything about finance, doesn't it?
I might as well have punched him in the face. He immediately responded that there was no way the bank's backing could be considered in any way a problem. This bank was huge. (Today we would call it "too big to fail." This was before the 2008 collapse, by the way.) Our boss (who was present) looked disturbed. How could I disrupt his sales meeting with this trivial point?
As you might imagine, once 2008 rolled around, the same bank that backed this product got shaky. People started talking about how such products being backed by banks were not as safe as government-backed securities.
The thing is, I'm not financial genius. I wasn't saying anything that anyone who took the concept of "honesty" seriously would not be able to figure out or understand.
The point of this story is to show how honesty isn't really taken seriously. It's also to show how if you think that there are ever times when you shouldn't take absolute 100% honesty dead seriously, you're making a mistake. Perhaps you're even committing a sin.
We Catholics really can't allow this sort of attitude towards honesty or any of the other virtues creep into our lives. We've got to be the ones to hold the line on virtue. I'm not saying that I or you are or will always be perfect in our lives. I know I'm not. But I also know that I don't kid myself. When I do something wrong, or I see someone else do something wrong, I know it's wrong.
When it comes to me, and when my wrongdoing is sinful, I confess it. When it comes to others, I try to take appropriate action in the most charitable way. And believe me, it's not always the most comfortable thing to do...and I'm not the courageous sort to begin with.
Well, we talked about honesty. Next time I want to discuss "integrity." If you think having integrity means that you're honest, you'd be correct. But you'll see that the concept of "integrity" involves more than just being honest.
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