Eth_Week1

I personally have gone through an ethical dilemma in the workplace. In 2007 I was working for a company as an administrative assistant. My job was pretty basic as it was a typical office position. I did a lot of filing, some computer work, some phones, and I was in charge of ordering the supplies for the office and warehouse. I had been in this position for just over a year when I found out I was pregnant with my first son, Blake. Once I was about 10 weeks into my pregnancy, I privately told my employer that I was expecting so that they were aware of what was going on, but that I had choose to wait until I was a little further a long before announcing it to everyone. He did not seem happy with this information and stated that he didn’t want to have to worry about getting my hours covered because I decided to get pregnant. About a week later, he was announcing it for me without my permission which I was pretty upset about. I had no issues with my co-workers knowing, but I felt that it was my business to tell, not his. One day I was sitting at my desk filing paperwork when my roommate called me at work to inform me that there was an ad in the paper that the company I worked for was hiring an Administrative Assistant. The description was exactly my job position! With this information, I approached my boss, inquiring what was going on and why we were hiring another person when I had previously expressed that I was interested in the opportunity for more hours. That is when he proceeded to tell me that he was not looking for an additional person, he was looking to replace me. His reasoning was that I was not experienced in Microsoft Excel. This was not something that was required of me when I was hired for this position, nor was it something that I was asked to learn the entire time I has been employed with them. He told me that he felt bad with this happening to me now with me just finding out I was pregnant, so to ease the pain of losing my job he was going to give me 2 weeks before letting me go so that it gave me time to find something new, and it gave him time to hire someone that I could train to be my replacement. Needless to say, in my eyes this was not fair and I felt like the only reason I was losing my job was because I was pregnant. My co-workers agreed and they helped me write a letter to the higher ups in the company. I wrote a letter to the next person in charge above my boss. I simply stated what was happening and that it was not fair that I was being expected to know something that was not required of me. I was never asked to learn anything new and if I was I would have been more than happy to learn what I needed to. I then stated how upset he was when I told him I was pregnant and how I felt this was the reason he was letting me go. Soon after that letter was sent, my boss approached me in a very rude manor in front of the entire office and screamed at me that I was getting him in trouble and accusing him of things that were not true. In the meantime, while all of this was going on I had started looking for a new job. Although I enjoyed my job, I did not enjoy being treated the way I had been over the few weeks and I knew it was time to move on to something better. We ended up having a meeting with the higher ups where they stated that I was not being let go because I was pregnant and they gave me my job back and gave me 30 days to learn Excel. Little did they know, I had already interviewed for another position and was offered the job so when they told me that I was not losing my job, I said “Thank you for the opportunity, however I am giving my 2 weeks’ notice.” This infuriated my boss, but at the time I did not care. I knew that this place was not a healthy place for me to be working, and leaving was my best option. I needed to be in a place that respected and valued their employees. If I were to face the same issue today I do feel that I would have handled it the same. I think that the way I went about things was the best that I could have in a situation like this. The only thing that I might have changed is that I would have gone further with who I got involved. I think that an issue like that is not something that should be swept under the rug and it is something that the owner of the company should have been made aware of so that he knew how one of his branches was being managed.