Sample Short Essay on a Value Conflict

The Situation

The value conflict that I experienced was on a former job that I held with a retail service company. I worked as a bookkeeper in the accounting department. One of my accounting duties was to total the time cards so that the payroll clerk could process the paychecks. The company had over 100 employees at any given point in time. There were five different departments at this location.

It came to my attention that Linda, who worked in the parts department, was clocking in for herself and her co-worker, Gloria. Both employees started work at 7:30 in the morning. My start time was 7:00 in the morning. For some reason I happened to be in the parts department when Linda came in that morning. And I observed Linda taking out both her time card and Gloria’s and punching both of them in. The behavior was expressly forbidden by company policy. The company had very strict attendance rules. Anyone with excessive absences or who came in late wads first given a verbal warning, then if the behavior continued the employee was given a written warning that their job was in jeopardy. Shortly after Linda had punched her in, Gloria came in and went straight to work. I noticed that she did not go to the time clock to punch in. This lead me to believe that Gloria knew what Linda had done. I chose not to say anything at that point because I was not their supervisor; and, I did not want to cause a "problem" for anyone. If an employee was caught clocking in for someone, it was grounds for dismissal. The parts manager started his shift at 8:30 in the morning.

Over the course of the next month, I observed Linda clocking in for Gloria. Linda and Gloria invited me to go to lunch one day. I accepted the invitation. Over the course of the lunch, Gloria brought up the subject of the time clock. She asked me if I was going to report Linda and her to the management. I told the woman I was aware of what had been taking place but as of yet, had not said anything to anyone. I explained to Linda and Gloria that I felt awkward knowing about the situation but that it was not something that I wanted to get involved in, since I was not their immediate supervisor. I asked them whether they were aware that they could be fired for what they were doing. Both said that were aware of the company policy.

Gloria explained to me that during the summer months she could not drop off her kids any earlier than 7 o’clock in the morning. She had asked her boss, Rick, if she could change her start time to 7:45 but he had denied her request. He told her that if she could not start at 7:30, he would find someone who could. Gloria told me that she usually got to work by 7:40 and she would not take her morning break or she would come back from lunch early without clocking in to make up for the time that she came in late.

The Conflict:

This was more information than I really wanted to know. I felt awkward and conflicted knowing what was going on. I could understand from Gloria’s position that she was not trying to take advantage of our employer. She was a single mother of two young children and was an excellent employee. Linda and Gloria worked very well together and had raised the morale of the parts department by their positive attitudes and hard work. But, I could also understand the position of our employer: that each and every employee was responsible for their own time card. The company had a very clear policy about work hours. It would be unfair for other employees to clock in for a co-worker who was in fact not on the job.

Reflecting back on this situation, I was in a spot where I could have been a whistle blower. I weighted the pros and cons of the situation and decided not to say anything that summer. I felt that if I did speak up, then not only would Linda and Gloria lose their jobs, but the company as a whole would also lose because these two women were a true asset to the company. At that time, I was not aware of the principle of utility, but in hindsight this was how I chose to resolve the conflict. I chose to stay silent. I knew that what Linda was doing for Gloria was a violation of the terms of employment. But given the situation was it truly harming the company? Would it have been better for Linda and Gloria to lose their jobs? I did not think so. The summer came to an end, and no one ever found out about the situation.