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Ethics Q & A
November 29, 2004
By Jane Garthson, Mills
Garthson & Associates
The dilemma:
I see other staff at my nonprofit who take supplies home or make personal use of our equipment. Is this acceptable?
Jane says...
As usual, it depends. It depends on whether:
- The use is minor and reasonable, such as jotting down a grocery list or making
occasional brief personal calls.
- The supplies or equipment are needed for work being done away from the office
on behalf of the nonprofit.
- The employee had permission from management (such as to take home a printer
with no book value that would otherwise have been thrown out).
- The use is permitted within an organizational policy.
- The use relates to organizational requests, such as making extended child
care arrangements in order to work unexpected overtime.
- The use is lawful (e.g., no use of the office computer for activities that
might be deemed workplace harassment).
- The use costs the organization (causes direct or indirect costs to be incurred
or wastes paid time).
- The use might harm the organization's image (e.g., using the organization's
name - which might form part of an e-mail address or signature - in
public discussion forums to express personal opinions).
- The use interferes with the organization's work, such as tying up the only
Internet line to shop for gifts at a time when others need access.
- The staff member has an explanation acceptable to management.
None of these possibilities justifies stealing assets and resources. Being angry about not getting a raise or promotion is not an acceptable excuse either. Your colleagues should not be walking off with supplies for their child's school project or copying a personal book on the photocopier. Nor should they be keeping the books for the family business or running an unrelated legal practice from their cubicle (I have seen both), at least not without permission and adequate compensation to the nonprofit.
I have even heard of people who furnished entire home offices with stolen items up to and including a desk! This is theft, and the police can be called. So is "borrowing" from the organizational bank account, regardless of good intentions to repay.
If your colleague checks the stock market at lunchtime, it is likely no one is being harmed. Many nonprofit staff work very long hours, often without overtime pay (an entirely separate ethics issue), and when else would they have daily access to a computer? The equipment use policy can allow for such reasonable purposes. Nonprofits should remember that many of their volunteers are allowed to use company resources to get e-mail from their nonprofit, write reports or make fundraising calls. Unless there is an explicit policy, they should get permission from their management for this, and so should nonprofit staff.
Having a personal e-mail address, checked via a web site, avoids mixing
personal e-mails in with organizational ones. Then check
personal ones only during unpaid time. It also avoids giving the organization's
person with system administration privileges access to job search or romantic
e-mails. Remember, however, that determining which web sites are visited
from the office computer is quite easy. Anyone making even authorized
personal use of organizational resources is giving up some personal privacy
rights.
If you think you see an unjustified use, remember that you may not have all the facts. If you feel safe, you could ask your co-workers for an explanation and then decide whether or not you feel you have to act. They may stop any inappropriate use once they realize they have been noticed. If you are their supervisor, you have an obligation to protect the organization's assets, and also to help communicate or develop the organization's policies. Regardless, you should tell the truth if someone asks what you have seen or if you know why the supply cabinet is always out of pens.
***********
Because nonprofit organizations are formed to do good does not mean
they always are good in their own practices. Send us your ethical questions
dealing with volunteers, staff, clients, donors, funders, sponsors, and
more. Please identify yourself and your organization so we know the questions
come from within the sector. No identifying information will appear in
this column.
To submit a dilemma for a future column, or to comment on a previous one,
please contact help@charityvillage.com. For paid professional advice about an urgent or complex situation, contact Jane directly.
