Raising an Issue of Participation in a Professional Society
Sara has been employed by a company for over 20 years. At
the beginning of her employment, she was encouraged by her
superiors to join a professional society. Sara has become quite
active in the society and has held several board and committee
positions. She even obtained her company's approval before
accepting the positions.
Sara's immediate superior, Perry, feels that Sara should
participate in this professional society on her own time,
despite the fact that the company encourages excused leave for
these purposes. Perry feels that participation in a
professional society is not employee training and does not
benefit the employer. Sara approaches Perry with a written
request for leave to attend meetings. Perry refuses to forward
Sara's request to higher level management.
What should Sara do at this point?
Sara gets summoned to meet with the chief executive officer
(CEO) on another matter. Should Sara use this as an opportunity
to bring up her situation? Would this be whistleblowing? If Sara
should say something, how should she approach the subject?
Sara asks for the CEO's opinion of participation in
professional societies by company engineers. The CEO reaffirms
her encouragement. Sara prepares a travel request that is to go
through her supervisor (Perry) to the CEO, but again he refuses
to forward the travel request. Perry tells Sara that he does
not appreciate her going over his head to discuss this matter
with his superior.
What, if anything, should Sara do now? What is your
assessment of Sara's taking paid leave in order to attend
professional society meetings? Given his beliefs, was it
ethical for Perry to hinder Sara's efforts to obtain leave? Is
there any additional information that would change your
judgment of the scenario?
--adapted from NSPE Case No. 82-7
Current NSPE Code of Ethics
An earlier version may have been used in this case.
Original Case and BER Judgement