4 Ways To Navigate Ethical Dilemmas at Work
by Malissa Mackey
As followers of Christ, how should we think about the big and small ethical dilemmas that come our way during the workday? Sometimes it’s a gray area and it’s just easier to go with the flow and do whatever our co-workers are doing. Are there principles to help us process what to do? I think there are, but first, let’s get specific and identify some of these scenarios.
There are some situations that we might call major ethical dilemmas...
Your boss tells you to do something that is illegal or that you feel is ethically questionable at the least.
You’re put in a compromising situation with a co-worker or client. Perhaps asked to lie or cover something up for them.
Maybe you’re asked to look the other way and promised the same will be done for you in the future.
Maybe you haven’t been in these situations, but can you relate to any of the following?
No one really checks in so you start work later or leave earlier than you really should
You find yourself doing your personal shopping or banking while working virtually or on a Zoom call
Everyone engages in workplace gossip and coarse joking over lunch and it’s easy to join in
You passively allow the intern to take the blame for a mistake when you know you shared some of it
You give away company products or proprietary knowledge because that’s just normal amongst your co-workers even if you really don’t have permission to do so
Honestly, these are things to which many of us could likely say yes. We can think of these as everyday moral choices.
Whether big or small situations, as those who claim to follow Christ we must take seriously the reality that the gospel has something to say about the whole of our lives. This includes what we do with our time at work and how we treat our co-workers, clients, and the institutions we work for.
The Theology of Work Project does a great job outlining 3 approaches to Christian Ethics. See their longer article here for much more detail. They propose thinking about these kinds of ethical decisions in terms of Command, Consequence, and Character. I would add a fourth “C,” Community.
COMMAND APPROACH
One of the first questions we should ask is if Scripture directly addresses the area in question. While the Bible doesn’t give us a command or set of instructions for every issue we encounter in the modern workplace, Scripture is actually quite clear when it comes to issues like lying, gossiping, stealing, caring for the poor, etc. Sometimes it’s not hard to figure out what the application is for verses like “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” (1 Peter 2:1), it’s just hard to obey!
Looking to Scripture when we are facing difficult ethical questions is always wise. But, we should remember that Scripture is more than a rule book, it is the story of which we are a part. The story of a King and His Kingdom that helps us make sense of the brokenness of our world and the hope we have in Christ. The ethics of God’s Kingdom are love, patience, kindness, humility - the fruit of the Spirit (Eph 5:22-23). More than simply obeying a list of commands, we want to enact a lifestyle that reflects life under the reign of God.
CONSEQUENCE APPROACH
Another way to approach ethical dilemmas at work is to think about what the consequences will be if you make one decision or another. If you overestimate your sales numbers or fudge your time card this week, what will the consequences be? Perhaps you will get in trouble. Perhaps you will be fired. But even if no one ever knows, you’ve made the conscious decision to cheat your employer. While we don’t like to think about it in such black-and-white terms, there are consequences to our actions beyond what might only impact us at the moment. We will stand before the Lord one day and give an account of what we do with our time, money, and gifts. Praise God we find forgiveness in Christ, but we should take seriously the truth that what we do in secret matters. Paul reminds us, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Col 3:23-24).
CHARACTER APPROACH
Beyond asking questions about consequences or what is the right or wrong thing to do, the character approach asks, “What type of person am I becoming?” and “Will my actions help me be more or less conformed to the image of Christ?” This approach recognizes that knowing the right thing to do doesn’t ensure you will do it in the moment. Doing the right thing in each new, unpredictable situation, takes character and spiritual formation. This means cultivating habits and being shaped toward loving God and His Kingdom so that Christ-like responses come more naturally when faced with moral dilemmas. We don’t just become virtuous people on the spot, it's a process that begins long before you’re faced with a decision about over-selling your product’s capabilities or telling a “little white lie” to your co-worker. Knowing the kind of person you want to be and putting practices into place (daily time in the Word, regular prayer, fellowship with Christians) shapes us over time. It might not seem like a 15-minute devotional reading every morning is accomplishing much, but it is the deep soil cultivating work that bears fruit in our lives beyond what we could ever measure.
COMMUNITY APPROACH
We already said that as Christians we know our lives are just a small part of God’s incredible story. He created this world good and gave us a role in stewarding His creation. Sin has distorted God’s creation, separated us from Him, and made our work toilsome and frustrated. We know that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our relationship with God and His design for humanity can be restored. We don’t have to try to justify ourselves or make a name for ourselves through our work, instead, work can be free to love and serve our neighbors. And that we know that we are moving toward a New Heaven and New Earth where one day everything will be healed and restored, including all the brokenness and pain of our daily work.
But, this isn’t the story that we hear in our culture or in our office. We need to be immersed in the story of Scripture and surrounded by others who know it and are living it out as well. We need our brothers and sisters in Christ who can reinforce what it means to live in this counter-cultural narrative. We need people who can remind us that we’re not crazy for not going along with everyone else who takes office supplies home, inflates their cold call numbers, or spreads the latest workplace gossip.
Let’s not separate our “church friends” from our work life. How could you invite brothers and sisters in when you’re wrestling with ethical dilemmas? Who can you ask to pray for and with you? Who could you ask for perspective on the commands and consequences related to a situation you are facing? Could you meet up for coffee or time in prayer or the Word before work one day a week? God has given us one another, and the family of God is a great resource to help you work through difficult questions you face in your work.
The reality is that it will be some combination of these approaches that we utilize when presented with ethical questions in our daily work. What we emphasize depends on the nature of the situation and how much time we have to address it. As inn many situations in work and life, there simply isn’t one perfect solution that we have to try to find.
But we can have confidence that in every decision, every situation, no matter how hidden from everyone else it might be, God knows the struggles we are facing. More than that, we can be assured that He is with us. He loves us and wants to give us wisdom when we ask. And He provides the power for us to obey.
This is good news! God’s grace is sufficient for us and the Holy Spirit can and will guide us each moment of our workday. And when we fail to live a perfectly moral and upright life, when we feel ashamed of something we did or said, we remember that that is why He died for us and we fall upon His grace and mercy, and we glory in the cross. Failing one hundred times in these gray areas gives us one hundred more times to avail ourselves of His grace, ask His forgiveness, and rely on Him the next moment.
These blogs came out of our Winter 2023 6 Urgent Questions series of talks. You can listen to them on our podcast below