Well-meaning ethical platitudes don’t necessarily help employees understand how to be ethical in a given situation. Ask an Ethicist columnist Vera Cherepanova tackles the challenging truth: There isn’t always a “right thing.”
“At my company, we’re constantly told to ‘do the right thing.’ It’s on posters, in training sessions, even on coffee mugs. I understand the intention, but honestly, in real situations, I often find myself wondering: what does that even mean? Sometimes I face choices where there’s no clear answer — like whether to speak up about a colleague’s behavior or push back on a business decision that feels off but isn’t obviously wrong. ‘The right thing’ feels more like a slogan than real guidance. Is there always a single right answer? And if not, how are we supposed to figure out what to do?” — Anonymous
Your question — What does it actually mean to do the right thing? — may sound rhetorical, but it’s one of the most serious challenges in ethics and moral philosophy. The first step in untangling this is to admit something most compliance training never does: In many situations, there may not be a single, clear-cut answer. Ethics isn’t math or accounting. It’s not about plugging values into a formula. In fact, trying to make it that tidy can…
