When faced with explaining tough decisions at work, some people like to say, "It's nothing personal." But that may not always be true. Personal ethics help us to navigate relationships in all facets of our lives, including the workplace. The intersections between personal and professional ethics can feel natural or be quite difficult, but they are always fascinating.

Via our Professional Codes of Ethics tab in Week 6, we looked at some examples of how organizations lay out appropriate professional behavior and practice, reflecting the needs and values of a given group and those who rely upon them.

In our lesson this week, we learned how to structure a personal system of ethics.

To explore personal and business ethics further, let's assume both personal and professional roles as we work through this fictional dilemma. Please read it all the way through before you begin writing, as there are several steps, including one that asks you to lay out your own personal system of ethics.

It's 2025, and General Foryota Company has opened a plant in which to build a new mass-produced hovercraft. This hovercraft will use E-85 Ethanol, will travel up to 200 mph, and will reduce pollution worldwide at a rate of 10% per year, effectively ending global warming and allowing the environment to thrive.

It is likely that when all automobiles in the industrial world have been changed over to hovercrafts, emission of greenhouse gases may be so reduced that global warming will end and air quality will become completely refreshed. However, the downside is that during the transition, GFC's Hover-Vee will most likely throw all transportation as we know it into major disarray. Roadways will no longer be necessary for some, but others will still use them. New methods of controlling traffic will be required, and there will be a period when drivers are on a learning curve. While cars are still being driven, Hover-Vees will cause accidents, parking issues, and most likely class envy. The sticker price on the first two models will be about four times that of the average SUV. Even so, GFC's marketing futurists have let them know that they will be able to pre-sell their first 3 years of expected production, with a waiting list that will take between 15 and 20 years to fill.

The Chief Engineer of GFC has commissioned a study on potential liabilities. The preliminary result: Hover-Vees will likely kill or maim humans at double to triple the numbers for automobile travel because of collisions and crashes at high speeds. Projected annual fatalities are 100,000 to 200,000. However, again, global warming will end, and the environment will flourish.

The U.S. government gets wind of the company's plans but has not seen the study. Congress begins to discuss ramifications. Who can own and operate a Hover-Vee? If there are any issues, to what degree is GFC responsible for public safety? How can the government benefit or help people benefit from this new technology?

Meanwhile, GFC's stock skyrockets. The chief engineer and chief project manager take the results of the study to the chief legal counsel, and together they agree to bury the study, going forward with production plans. Target dates and production deadlines are set.

This is where we step in. We are young lawyers, project managers, engineers, and congressional aides who are involved by employment or public service in helping to get this project off the ground and managing its consequences.

Going by the first letter of your last name, you are one of the following:

A–G: Attorney on the GFC team
H–N: Project manager on the GFC team
0–S: Engineer on the GFC team
T–Z: Congressional aide

Now: Someone has just sent a large envelope to you at your home address. A slip of paper inside reads, "THEY KNEW. THEY BURIED THIS. PLEASE SAVE LIVES." The envelope contains no other information except the report, which shows proof of the increase in accidents and deaths.

Each of you is loyal to your employer and country. Each of you has a mortgage and a family to feed. But you also have your own personal system of ethics, one that probably includes things like "don't lie" and "leave the world a better place than you found it." It is likely that if you blow the whistle on this report, you will lose your job and your livelihood. You know that anyone who was part of "THEY KNEW" will likely lose their job and livelihood, too. And don't forget, this technology will heal the planet. But at what cost? You have to live with yourself, and those you love are watching.

Please do the following in your first post:

1. Lay out your own personal system of ethics point by point 

2. Note how your own personal system of ethics would ask you to react to this dilemma, and why.

3. Consider major points of your assigned profession's code of ethics  and note how it would ask you to react to this dilemma, and why.

4. Note and discuss where the personal and professional mesh and/or diverge, here: How does it feel when personal and professional ethics align? What happens when they don't?