BUSINESS ETHICS

[HOW FREE ARE FREE AGENTS?]

Joseph Jetts account of his tumultuous career on Wall Street isnt just a story of
racism and greed. Its also a cautionary tale for knowledge workers.

A REPORT ON

How free are free agents?

INTRODUCTION
This article is based on the book Black and White on Wall Street: The Untold Story of the
Man Wrongly Accused of Bringing Down Kidder Peabody written by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
Along with his account of Kidders fall, Joseph Jett offers a detailed memoir of his tumultuous
career on Wall Street. Despite its title, Black and White on Wall Street is not a onedimensional book. In fact, it can be read as four different but related stories.
JOSEPH JETT: BIOGRAPHY
Maintaining integrity was of paramount importance to Jett. He considered himself as an
outsider as most whites didnt accept him. He refused to conform to the black norms he
discerned at school and at work. He has two degrees from MIT, a degree from Harvard, and
strong mathematical skills, he viewed himself as a nerd. He was famous for his trading
strategy. With no family connections to help him, he held affirmative action programs in
contempt, and his father had imbued him with an intense work ethic and an independent
spirit. He wanted to work in a place where he would sink or swim based on his skills and
effort. Jetts sense of who he was, what he valued, and how he wanted to make his way in
life all pointed him to Wall Street. In short, Jett thought he would be his own man. He was
the biggest bond trader at Kidder Peabody, named as Man of the Year in 1991. But three
months later, he was accused of single handedly faking $350 Million.
FOUR STORIES
STORY 1: The Dark Side of Wall Street
The vulgarity in communication was soaring very high. Along with billions of dollars, millions
of dirty jokes were exchanged every day. A software was tried to block offensive language, it
got widespread frustration and outrage. On the other side, we should also acknowledge
prominent people of thorough decency started their careers in the Wall Street.

Ethics Perspective:Curse words, "swear" words, whatever you call them, the use of foul
language seems to be on the increase. There's no law against swearing in the workplace, but
it can create harassment problems if the swearing is directed at a particular group (like
women).In some workplaces, there's a lot of swearing by a lot of employees and no one
thinks anything about it, but since some employees complain, either an existing policy
should be enforced, or one should be created. If there's a policy about professionalism and
respect for co-workers it would probably apply. Or someone can ask the offending employee
to clean up his/her act.
Swearing is used in social interactions to:

Establish a group identity

Establish membership in a group and maintain the group's boundaries

Express solidarity with other people

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Express trust and intimacy (mostly when women swear in the presence of other
women)

Add humour, emphasis or "shock value"

Attempt to camouflage a person's fear or insecurity

"People also swear because they feel they are expected to or because swearing has become a
habit," the site notes. "But just because swearing plays all these roles doesn't mean it's
socially acceptable, or even legal."
In fact, in the workplace it often leads to claims of a hostile work environment, harassment,
racism, sexism, or other types of illegal discrimination. As such, it is up to employers to set
the boundaries by using policies for professional conduct and harassment prevention, and up
to supervisors to enforce those policies and model good behaviour for employees.
Vulgarity and profanity have no place in the workplace. Not only is profanity unprofessional,
the use of it can spread through a workforce and if the problem is not curtailed, it may
become commonplace. Controlling vulgar language in the workplace is not an easy task for a
small business owner, but it is one that must be handled. By setting up specific rules and
guidelines and reprimanding those who do use profanity, a more peaceful workplace culture
can be achieved.
Step 1
Establish a zero-tolerance profanity policy. Release a new company policy addressing the use
of vulgar language in the workplace. Detail which words and phrases are not acceptable and
let employees know that action will be taken if the new policy is not followed.
Step 2
Encourage the use of a swear jar. When an employee utters a vulgar phrase, he will have to
deposit money into the swear jar. Set up an increasing system for profanity. Less offensive
words can be worth 25 cents, while very offensive words will cost a dollar. Use the proceeds
for office petty cash or for future office parties. When an employee is hit right in his pocket,
it is a powerful motivator for change.
Step 3
Hire a professional coach. Services like the Cuss Control Academy offer workplace
interventions and coaching on the appropriate way to speak in the workplace and with the
public. If an employee has always had a vulgar mouth, he may need training to learn new
behaviour.
Step 4
Reprimand offenders swiftly. If employees see that one person can get away with breaking the
profanity policy, your policy will carry no weight. Be swift about reprimands and if necessary
institute a stair-step policy, such as a verbal warning for the first offense, a written warning
for the second offense that will go in the employee's record and if necessary more severe
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steps, such as demotions or dismissals. A word of caution with severe penalties--make sure
the punishment fits the crime. A simple, un-offensive swear word should not be treated the
same as a truly vulgar one.
Step 5
Reward employees who do not use vulgar language. You can even make it fun by using a
system similar to the work safety promotional, "X amount of days without an accident." Set up
a system to record how many days go by without profanity and once a certain amount is
reached, the entire workforce is rewarded. This will increase peer pressure to control vulgar
language.
STORY 2: The TrueColor of Wall Street
Endless obstacleswere faced by members of minority groups like black men. There were
instances where colleagues were pre-occupied with sexuality of black men. His boss tried to
monitor Jetts personal life in hopes of finding grounds for dismissal. The bias on wall-street
towards African-Americans is confirmed by the low number i.e. only 5% of all AfricanAmerican employees at Wall Street.
Ethics Perspective: Race discrimination is when you are treated unfairly because of your
race, or because of the race of someone you are connected with, such as your partner.Race
includes colour, nationality, citizenship and ethnic or national origins.Race discrimination can
be direct or indirect. It may also take the form of harassment or victimisation.Race
discrimination does not need to be deliberate. Someone may be discriminating against you
without realising it or meaning to, but this might still count as discrimination.
It is direct race discrimination to treat someone less favourably than someone else would be
treated in the same circumstances, because of race. To prove direct race discrimination, it
will help if you can give an example of someone from a different racial group who, in similar
circumstances, has been, or would have been, treated more favourably than you. Racist
abuse and harassment are forms of direct discrimination.
It is indirect race discrimination to have a rule, policy or practice which people of a particular
racial, ethnic or national group are less likely to be able to meet than other people, and this
places them at a disadvantage.
It is illegal for an employer to discriminate against you because of race. This includes all
employers, no matter how few people they employ. Most workers, including employees,
agency workers, trainees and those who are self-employed have protection from race
discrimination at work. This includes:

recruitment and selection

promotion
training, pay and benefits
redundancy and dismissal
terms and conditions of work.

To fight racism in our workplaces, we need to understand and fight systemic racism. Systemic
racism is not a remote, or abstract concept. Its impact is real and devastating on workers of
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colour and Aboriginal workers more so now than ever as downsizing, restructuring and
privatization sweep across CUPE workplaces.
If we take a look at our workplaces, we can see that in spite of the inroads were made on
equity issues, we still dont have equality. Instead, in our workplaces and elsewhere, systemic
racism continues.
The fact is, CUPE members of colour and Aboriginal members tend to be concentrated in
lower paying occupations with poorer working conditions, whereas white workers tend to be
in workplaces with higher paying jobs and better working conditions. If we had true equality,
our workplaces would not be segregated.
Workers of colour and Aboriginal workers are not well represented overall in unionized
workplaces, which have higher wages and benefits. In some cases, they are shut out by
discriminatory hiring practices.
In Canada and in the industrialized countries of the world, workers of colour and Aboriginal
workers are concentrated in non-union, low-wage jobs with poor or no benefits or job
security, or in sectors which are extremely precarious economically.
The public sector has been the major source of decent jobs for all workers. As public sector
jobs disappear through privatization and restructuring, its last hired, first fired. Workers of
colour and Aboriginal workers are particularly vulnerable because they are among the most
recent entrants into CUPE workplaces. They are also among the groups who depend the most
on the public services that are being cut back.
The populations of cities, especially those of large cities, are changing and becoming much
more diverse. The face of the workforce, however, is not keeping pace with these changes.

Racism keeps profits up

We need to be clear that racism is a working class issue. Racism benefits the wealthy and
powerful. For centuries, racism has been used to generate incredible profits through the
perpetuation of job ghettos and differential wage levels and working conditions.
Racism is also a way for employers to attack our solidarity as workers. As long as we allow
racism to exist in our workplaces, we will face our enemies divided and weakened.
The very reason for our existence is to defend and promote the rights of all people and to end
exploitation. Thats the definition of solidarity. As we enter a difficult century for all workers,
we must use our solidarity to step up the fight against racism, so that all workers can reap the
benefits we gain through common struggle.

Taking on racism
We cant afford to be sidetracked by debates about whether people or institutions intend to
be racist or not. We need to deal with whats really happening to CUPE members of colour
and Aboriginal members in the workplace. This means taking an activist approach to ending
racism in our workplaces now. We need to go beyond employment equity committees and
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plans, and filing grievances. We need to organize and mobilize all of our members to act to
force employers to make our workplaces fair.
To challenge racism in the workplace our union must:
Identify and support locals who are on the front line fighting racism
Lets identify strategic targets in every province that is, locals that are willing to take on the
issue of workplace racism and give them the support they need to make real breakthroughs.
These local campaigns will also serve as examples of what we should be doing on a broader
scale. For instance, if a particular community has a large Aboriginal population, but a mostly
non-Aboriginal CUPE workforce, we should be on the front line taking on the issue. The union
can help locals develop concrete strategies to counter employer resistance, gain membership
support, and build community support to ensure the workforce reflects the diversity of the
community it serves.
Get the hard data on who works in CUPE workplaces
Very few statistics or hard information exists about whats actually taking place in CUPE
workplaces and jobs with respect to workers of colour and Aboriginal workers how many there
are, what job classifications there in, their wages, how many have been downsized or
privatized out of jobs or now work in part-time, temporary or casual jobs. We need to do our
research and use it to press home our case for making our workplaces more representative.
Reach out to all our members and to all our communities
Our anti-racism fight can only be effective if we reach out to members of colour and
Aboriginal members to find out what they are experiencing in the workplace. We must include
them in developing anti-racism strategies for the union. We must also go beyond our
workplaces and work with community organizations representing people of colour and
Aboriginal people particularly when workers from these groups are not represented in the
workplace.
Take on systemic racism through legal and legislative action
We must use the legal mechanisms already available to us to challenge racism in the
workplace. A recent example is the B.C. Health Services Division of CUPEs complaint to the
B.C. Human Rights Commission. The complaint is part of the unions strategy to end
employment discrimination against some workers of Asian origin at a long-term care facility in
Victoria workers who are paid less than counterparts in the same job classifications doing the
same work.
We must also continue to work with the rest of the labour movement and community groups
to build legislative support for employment equity laws and to strengthen human rights laws.
Make organizing workers of colour and Aboriginal workers a priority
As part of our continued campaign to organize unorganized workers, CUPE must make it a
priority to reach out to workers of colour and Aboriginal workers in our traditional sectors.
Involving the Rainbow Committee and provincial committees against racism and
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discrimination, we should address the organizing requirements and integrate an anti-racism
component into our organizing plans to reach out to these groups of workers. This includes
training and using rank-and-file members of colour and Aboriginal members in organizing
drives as member organizers.
Develop anti-racism education for members, leaders and staff
We must continue to develop courses to help all members understand the systemic and classbased nature of racism. In particular, the union should focus on countering the myths that
sustain racism and divert attention away from the real cause of the problems we are facing
(for example, that immigration is a threat to our members job security and the cause of the
economic problems we now face). We must show our members that at the root of racism is an
unfettered, globalized, free market system that profits by exploiting all workers and superexploiting some.
We must continue to integrate an anti-racism component into all of our campaigns and our
education programs into our training programs for shop stewards, and all our leadership
development courses, for example. We must take every opportunity to build solidarity and
sensitize members about the nature, prevalence and destructive effects of racism in the
workplace.
The union must also develop anti-racism training and materials for leadership and staff. This
anti-racism training should include how to respond quickly and effectively to complaints
about workplace racism. It should emphasize handling problems using an activist approach,
rather than a strictly legal approach. We want employers to feel immediate pressure to
remedy situations of racism, instead of doing nothing until complaints run their course
through a grievance or complaint procedure.
Put anti-racism on the bargaining agenda
We need to encourage locals to go beyond negotiating commitments to formal (and often
complicated) employment equity plans as a way of breaking down the barriers for workers of
colour and Aboriginal workers. Locals must negotiate clear and specific collective agreement
language to ensure a more representative workforce. Such measures could include training
clauses to provide real opportunities for promotions and transfers and eliminate job ghettos,
more equitable hiring and promotion clauses, and faster, more effective systems for dealing
with racism complaints.
Many of our existing collective agreements contain clauses we can use to fight racism and we
should be using them! For example, our anti-discrimination clauses could be used as one way
of fighting back against layoffs or contracting out when they have a particularly negative
impact on workers of colour and Aboriginal workers.
Make our union more representative and supportive
Making our union more representative of our entire membership is about making our whole
union stronger. At this convention, we will be debating the creation of two diversity seats on
the National Executive Board. Already, seats have been created on the Ontario, Alberta and
B.C. division executive boards.
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Representation on decision-making bodies is critical to our ability to provide a collective voice
for all CUPE members, build strong solidarity and deal with the systemic racism in our own
structures.
But our efforts at better representation should not be limited to leadership bodies.
CUPE must provide the tools to empower all members of colour and Aboriginal members to
participate in their union and fight racism. This will involve:
Strengthening the work of the Rainbow Committee by developing a strong and active network
of anti-racism activists all across the country.
Providing special training and leadership programs for our anti-racism activists.
Putting in place an effective communications system amongst members of colour and
Aboriginal members to help overcome the isolation many experience.
Our members need to know that they can turn to their union as the front line of defence
against discrimination in the workplace. CUPEs anti-racism office must become known as a
centre for specialized assistance for members who experience racism.
Build links with other groups fighting for equality
In the interest of strengthening solidarity, CUPEs anti-racism activists must continue to forge
links with other groups that experience discrimination, such as women, lesbians and gay men,
people with disabilities and youth. The upcoming international Womens March 2000, for
example, will be an excellent opportunity to build solidarity with women and to highlight the
double oppression faced by women of colour and Aboriginal women.
Fight racism as a worldwide problem
We must continue to build and maintain solidarity with workers in developing countries to
fight the corporations and international financial institutions that exploit workers. In
particular, we must fight the federal governments current plan to give the World Trade
Organization the power to dictate Canadas social and economic policies, undermine our
public services, and increase the exploitation of workers around the world. In providing
education and tools to our members about the dangers in this latest round of trade talks, we
must expose the racist policies of the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund, and their role in perpetuating racist employment practices on a global scale.

STORY 3: The Scandal at Wall Street

This story is the reason why Jett wrote the book. He gave detailed descriptions of all
investigations he faced. It was clear that Jett and his superiors concealed $30 Billion in assets
and some of these funds was used to finance Jetts transactions. He argued that he was
transparent. Only convicted for suspicious record keeping which might lead to fraud.

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Ethics Perspective: Fraud is a serious problem for all organizations, whether they are
corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, and even non-profits. Regardless of
the line of business, the fact is that employees (and non-employees also) commit fraud.
Most fraud is ongoing; once it starts it does not stop by itself, and as it continues, it grows.
Very few thefts occur for the first time in large amounts.
Many business owners will contend that there are sufficient internal controls in place to
deter, or even eliminate, fraudulent actions. But, as experience has shown, internal controls
do not entirely prevent fraud. Also, last years internal controls may no longer be as effective
as when they were developed. Businesses change, and as they do more/different employees
are hired for old and newly created positions. Rarely are internal controls considered in these
circumstances. Fraud generally does not occur in a vacuum; many times it happens within an
environment that, while maybe not overtly, is a breeding ground for this type of behavior.
Many of the frauds we have investigated were perpetrated in offices where the
managers/owners were very busy with their daily routines and did not pay appropriate
attention to areas which, when left unguarded, presented opportunity for fraud.
Some common methods of committing fraud are:

Skimming
Larceny
Expense accounts schemes
Fraudulent disbursements

Fraud is divided into three major categories:

Embezzlement

Corruption

Fraudulent documents

Some of the methods to prevent fraud:

Use pre-employment Background checks

Check Candidate Reference
Proactively communicate conduct guidelines
Audit
Recognize the size
Set the right management tone

STORY 4: The Light for future Bankers

He discussed the difference between Old and New era in investment banking. He was a free
agent and what were the perks of being a free agent has been discussed in details.
Maintaining integrity was paramount importance to him.
He posed questions like:
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What ideals and values should guide my decisions?

How can I live good life amidst pressures and temptations?

The Promise of New Work Place: New Era Implications

Free agents are loyal primarily to themselves, their talents, and not to companies and pay
checks. They work for their mentors and guides, not bosses. There are several opportunities
for excitement, self-expression, and social contribution. They take big risks and work
furiously and endlessly. Even this scenario, free agents like Jett earned as low as $3 Million
per year.
Old Realities in the New Economy: THE OPTIMISM IS PARTIALLY ACCURATE
We cannot expect the new economy to be radically different from old one. Even though
economic relations have changed, human nature has not, even as free agent, he has to deal
with old-fashioned, self-interested bosses. His bosses were like friends and supporters till his
spectacular success and become rivals after the award. There were undermining and rumor
mongering everywhere. The struggle for power continued.
Selective benefits, favoritism in assigning accounts was seen everywhere. Even the
performance based free-agent workplace has not yet wiped away age old biases. Cynicism is a
related risk. Agents working close to hundred hours a week and exercising lucrative bonuses,
everyones expectation is raised. The pressure crushes the personal policies of the weak.
FIVE LESSONS FOR FREE AGENTS
Dont Kid Yourself: What has happened to Jett can happen to anyone. Any one, saints
aside, can be confused and even corrupted.
Be a Fighter: His early years were tough, yet he managed to reach the peaks. He
fought for rightful compensation, against snooping bosses, against General Electric, its
battalion of lawyers, NBC, Justice Department, and SEC with his entire life savings. He
is now rebuilding his life and career.
Have something worth fighting for: The American Dream: Work hard, make a lot of
money, and keep your options open. From time to time, we should ask ourselves,
What we want to do with our hard-won freedom?. Every business has its
temptations. So, dont lose the fundamental issue - Integrity.
Dont Isolate: Dont let long, unpredictable work hours and frequent job changes
isolate you. When Aristotle wrote, Man is a political creature, he was not referring
to lobbying and elections, but to his belief that the best and most natural life for
human beings id with close community. Free agency erodes loyalty and stability.
Consider Underachieving: Extreme work is spreading. Single minded focus on job is
often viewed as high virtue rather than as a disconcerting competition based on
peoples ability to shrink lives. Need to find ways to keep the cult of extreme work
from carrying out a takeover of their mind and spirit. It takes courage to tell the boss,
Im sorry but I cant make that trip-Ive been on the road too much lately. If you
dont make the trip, someone else will- and he or she may move a notch above you.
But that is the inevitable price for creating sphere of life that is truly your own.

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CONCLUSION
Is it important to be defined only by ones work or is it more important to be defined by
ones personality. The author wants to send the message that there is more to name, fame,
success and money which is what to do with name, fame, success and money. Life doesnt
cease to expand after the achievements of these. He urges people to set their goals in
broader perspective, go beyond these set limits. People are supposed to set their goal and
work hard to stick to it and not sway. Self-Discipline is of utmost importance then only one
can be truly free.

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