Rejie N.

Ando

Grade 12- ABM-B

Business Ethics

Case Analysis # 1

Using the Office Phone

Suppose a Makati Manager, Tommy Laoc, using the phone at least once a
week to talk to her sister in Cebu for an hour or so. The manager confronts her
with the discovery by asking Lynn, if, in fact, she is making these long- distance
personal telephone calls.

Lynn answers, yes. Why? Have I done anything wrong? What is so terrible
about my using the phone anyway? The company is big enough to afford it; what is
one phone call or two to Cebu? Feeling expensive, she adds, I phone my mother a
couple of times last week because I wanted to find out about her trip to Hong Kong.
What is the problem?

Questions and Answers

1. How do you think her manager respond?

Tell her that she can use the phone only in an emergency, and what she did
is a kind of theft to the company

2. What are the views on using the company phone to make personal
calls?

My views on this one is first; what Lynn did is very wrong. Because, the
phone that she used is owned by the company that she is working for, and
the telephone should be used only for an emergency calls or for any business
matters. But she used the phone for her own interest only, without any
significant effect for the betterment of the company. Second, the phone call
was not a sort of emergency, because she just checks her mother about the
trip in Hong Kong. The phone call was in fact very expensive for she calls her
mother distantly from other country. Lastly, even though, the cost of the
phone call can just be afforded by the company, she still has no right to use
the phone for her interest alone. Because the phone was not hers, it is
owned by the company and its purpose is for the company’s interest solely
and not for hers. Unless, she is the owner of the telephone, she is free to use
it as often as she can.