WORK ETHICS

Work ethic is a belief that work and diligence have a moral benefit and an inherent ability, virtue or
value to strengthen character and individual abilities. It is a set of values centered on importance of
work and manifested by determination or desire to work hard.

A strong work ethic is an important part of being successful in your career. Work ethic is a
set of values based on the ideals of discipline and hard work. Building a strong work ethic
will allow a person to train themselves so that hard work is almost automatic. Forming good
habits such as focusing, staying motivated, finishing tasks immediately, and more helps to
create a good work ethic that will impress employers.
Focus and Persistence

People with a good work ethic have the ability to stay focused on tasks for as long as
necessary to get them done. Building persistence will allow you to basically train yourself to
work for longer periods of time while also working harder. It is important though, to balance
persistence with adequate rest to reduce the risk of burnout. Focus is equally as important
as persistence when it comes to work ethic. Focusing will allow you to finish tasks more
efficiently while avoiding distractions.

Finish Tasks in a Timely and Efficient Manner

People with a strong work ethic do not procrastinate and instead immediately tackle their
work tasks. In addition to getting to tasks right away, a good work ethic involves doing
things properly. Employers do not want to see sloppy and incorrect work and may question
the work ethic of people who produce poor quality work.

Always Be Punctual

In order to make a good impression, you should always be punctual for school, work or
appointments. Some people have a hard time getting out the door, so setting the clock
ahead a few minutes or planning to leave the house extra early can help. Showing up late
for work can signal to employers that you are not devoted to your job.

Be Professional

Being professional means more than wearing business attire. Professional includes
demeanor, attitude, and values. People who want to develop a good work ethic should
practice being cordial and positive and should always refrain for partaking in gossip.
Professionals are respectful of others and work to develop a reputation of being an honest,
hard worker.

Create a Work Life Balance

While it is important to show your employer that you are willing to work hard, it is important
to create a healthy work life balance. Working too much can cause you to become
overwhelmed and start messing up work. Getting enough sleep and taking the time need to
recharge and relax is very important.

If you are motivated, it is easy to develop a strong work ethic that will be appreciated by
employers and coworkers. Having a strong work ethic can also increase your chances of
being considered for promotions, new jobs, and can lead to other positive outcomes.

10 WORK ETHICS
ACCORDING TO GEORGIA PIEDMONT TECHNICAL COLLEGE
The ten work ethic traits: appearance, attendance, attitude, character, communication,
cooperation, organizational skills, productivity, respect and teamwork are defined as essential
for student success and are listed below.

1. Appearance: Displays proper dress, grooming, hygiene, and manners.

2. Attendance: Attends class, arrives and leaves on time, tells instructor in advance
of planned absences, and makes up assignment promptly.
3. Attitude: Shows a positive attitude, appears confident and has true hopes of self.
4. Character: Displays loyalty, honesty, dependability, reliability, initiative, and self-
control.
5. Communication: Displays proper verbal and non-verbal skills and listens.
6. Cooperation: Displays leadership skills; properly handles criticism, conflicts, and
stress; maintains proper relationships with peers and follows chain of command.
7. Organizational Skill: Shows skills in management, prioritizing, and dealing with
change.
8. Productivity: Follows safety practices, conserves resources, and follows
instructions.
9. Respect: Deals properly with diversity, shows understanding and tolerance.
10. Teamwork: Respects rights of others, is a team worker, is helpful, is confident,
displays a customer service attitude, and seeks continuous learning.
WORK PLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

workplace rights. the right to engage in industrial activities. the right to be free from unlawful
discrimination. the right to be free from undue influence or pressure in negotiating individual
arrangements.
It’s important to understand your workplace rights and responsibilities in
regards to pay and conditions, health and safety and workplace bullying.

By law, your employer is responsible for making sure:

 your work environment is safe and providing appropriate protective

equipment if necessary
 workers are free from discrimination and bullying
 you receive all your entitlements in terms of pay and conditions.

As a worker, you are responsible for:

 understanding the conditions of your employment. This includes

knowing your rate of pay, working hours and entitlements to breaks
and leave
 working in a way that is not harmful to the health and safety of
yourself or others
 knowing what to do if you think your employer is not meeting their
responsibilities.

Make sure you:

 understand the conditions of your employment. This includes your

rate of pay, working hours and your entitlements for breaks, leave
and public holidays
 know your rights in regards to discrimination and bullying. Know
what to do if you experience or witness this in your workplace
 know the health and safety requirements of your workplace.
Know how to maintain a safe environment for yourself and others
 have access to all of the appropriate safety gear and
equipment. Know what to do in the event of an accident
 know where to get help on workplace health and safety issues
relevant to your state or territory.

To know your workplace rights and responsibilities, understand the

conditions of your employment and where to get information when you
need it.
Workers' Rights & Responsibilities
Every worker has the right to a safe workplace, but they also have responsibilities to keep their
own workplaces safe.

Worker Rights:
1. The right to know about hazards in your workplace and how to deal with them.
o What hazards exist on the worksite? What are the safety procedures that reduce
risk of injury? Where are the emergency supplies? What are the emergency
procedures?
o You have the right to know the answers to these questions BEFORE you start
working.
o You have a right to know how to do your work safely and properly.
o Your supervisor must make sure you know all the hazards on a worksite, and how
to deal with them.
o You have the right and the responsibility to receive proper training to manage any
risks of getting hurt.
2. The right to participate in making your workplace safe.
o See something unsafe at your workplace? Have suggestions on how to make your
workplace safer? Concerned about your health and safety, or a coworker's? Tell
your supervisor. You have the right to participate in ensuring your workplace is
safe.
o At a smaller workplace, you can become the Safety Representative. At a larger
workplace, you can join the OHS Committee as a worker representative.
3. The right to refuse unsafe work.
o Don't do any work if you are not sure how to do it safely and properly.
o If your work situation puts you or others in unusual danger*, you have the right to
refuse that work. Tell your supervisor.

Steps to Refuse Unsafe Work

STEP 1

Stop work and report immediately to your supervisor

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STEP 2

Investigation begins immediately with you, your supervisor, and another worker.
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STEP 3

You have the right to have a union representative, OHS member, or a co-worker of your
choosing, present with you during the investigation.
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STEP 4

You have the right to watch the investigation from a safe place.
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STEP 5

Your supervisor notifies you of the investigation results and the steps taken to correct the danger.
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STEP 6

You agree and return to work or

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STEP 7

If you believe the unusual danger still exists, notify the WSCC to investigate further.
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Worker Responsibilities:
Training and Education

Your employer has to ensure you know how to safely perform any task in your job, and must
provide you proper training. They must explain your job duties and show you how to do them.
You should be able to explain and show how to do your duties to your supervisor.

When you are not sure, ask for training

It is important that every worker understands their duties. Your employer may not know that you
need more training. If you feel you or someone you work with needs more training to do a job
safely, tell your supervisor. Don't perform any task until you receive proper training.

Follow procedures

Learn and apply safety rules and procedures. You are responsible for following all the steps of
safety procedures in your job. This includes checking to make sure personal protective
equipment (PPE) works properly; knowing how to use it; and making sure you use it.

Don't leave your work site area unless your employer tells you. Other work areas may have
hazards you don't know about, such as power lines, slippery floors or toxic chemicals.
Report incidents, unsafe conditions and unsafe work practices

If you see or have an incident, if work conditions become unsafe, or if you see unsafe work
practices, report them to your supervisor immediately.

Know your work site Emergency Response Plan

Employers must make sure everyone knows what to do in an emergency; whether it is a fire
alarm, power failure, or other situation. Employers must provide an emergency response plan
that you must have easy access to and be familiar with.

WORKPLACE CONFIDENTIALITY

Why Is Confidentiality Important?

Workplace confidentiality refers to any confidential information that you come
across in the course of business.

There are three main types –

1. the personal information of customers

2. employee information that managers collect, and

3. “proprietary information”

Maintaining Confidentiality In The Workplace

There are legal and non-legal steps you can take to make sure that
confidential information is protected in and outside of your workplace.

Do You Have It Down In Writing?

Confidentiality Clauses
It’s always a good start to make your approach to confidential information
clear from the outset when you bring new employees, contractors, service
providers, suppliers or customers on board.
You would start with a legally binding contract, but it’s always a good idea to
include a “confidentiality clause”.

This is an important first-step: safeguard your business information from being

stolen by anyone that comes into contact with your business.

Non-Disclosure Agreements/ Confidentiality Agreements

Confidential information can sometimes make its way outside of the workplace
– so you want to make sure you’re protected from that too.

Even though you may not be formally engaging with someone as an

employee or contractor, you might still be sharing business information
through commercial discussions.

For example, an investor may be interested in your business.

This could involve a series of discussions where you might be disclosing lots
of confidential business information to make your business look good – from
your financial data to clientele and sales strategy.

If this is the case, it is always a good idea to have a Non Disclosure

Agreement (NDA), or a Confidentiality Agreement, to make sure that investor
doesn’t use or share that confidential information anywhere else.

Not sure how these work? IP Australia gives you a quick run-down here.
IP Assignment Deeds
This is a type of legal document that completely transfers ownership of any
intellectual property (IP) created by one person to another person.

IP is key to the success of many businesses – and making sure that your IP is
protected also makes sure that your business is protected (we wrote about
IP here!).
In business, having this legal contract will make sure that any employees,
shareholders or contractors who access or contribute to any intellectual
property made within the course of your business will therefore assign that IP
right back to you.

For example, if you hire a contractor to help create your company logo, you
want to make sure that company logo belongs to your company.

Otherwise, that contractor will have every right to resell and distribute that
logo to other businesses.

Under an IP Assignment Deed, that contractor will assign all rights of the logo
to your company, so that only you and your company have an exclusive right
to use it.

If you’re not sure about what protecting intellectual property means for your
business, you can read our guide.
Confidentiality Policies
Lastly, you may also want to consider a Workplace Policy.

When you run a workplace, it’s important to make sure all your workers
understand their roles, responsibilities and obligations.

Well-drafted workplace policies ensure your guidelines are consistent and

practical.

This is a good opportunity to include rules around workplace confidentiality,

which will constantly remind your workers that you take it very seriously.

GDPR is a new data privacy regulation adopted in 2016, the most significant and
far reaching of its kind, which applies in full from 25th May 2018. The regulation,
which repeals and replaces the EU Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC and all
other EU national data protection legislation, asserts new and expanded privacy
rights for over 500 million individuals in the EU.
The regulation applies to a wide definition of personal data, in short "any
information relating to" an individual (i.e. includes identifiers such as name, ID
numbers, phone number, online ID, mobile device ID, or one or more factors
about an individual’s physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural
or social identity). Supervisory authorities and courts are already applying various
principals of the regulation (e.g. compulsory disclosure of personal data
breaches).
In the event of a data protection breach or other types of infringement, the
European regulatory body has been given the mandate to act. For organisations
– GDPR regulates every entity worldwide that provides services and / or handles
information relating to individuals in the EU – compliance to GDPR is key, as
non-compliance to the regulation can result in big penalties. In cases of serious
infringement, fines up to €20 million or 4% of worldwide turnover (whichever is
higher) can be given, and organisations can be banned from processing of
personal data. 

To comply to GDPR, organisations broadly speaking need to embed six privacy

principles within their operations:
1. Lawfulness, fairness and transparency
Transparency: Tell the subject what data processing will be done. Fair: What is
processed must match up with how it has been described. Lawful: Processing
must meet the tests described in GDPR [article 5, clause 1(a)].
2. Purpose limitations
Personal data can only be obtained for “specified, explicit and legitimate
purposes”[article 5, clause 1(b)]. Data can only be used for a specific processing
purpose that the subject has been made aware of and no other, without further
consent.
3. Data minimisation 
Data collected on a subject should be “adequate, relevant and limited to what is
necessary in relation to the purposes for which they are processed” [article 5,
clause 1(c)]. In other words, no more than the minimum amount of data should
be kept for specific processing.
4. Accuracy
Data must be “accurate and where necessary kept up to date” [article 5, clause
1(d)]. Baselining ensures good protection and protection against identity theft.
Data holders should build rectification processes into data management /
archiving activities for subject data. 
5. Storage limitations
Regulator expects personal data is “kept in a form which permits identification of
data subjects for no longer than necessary” [article 5, clause 1(e)]. In summary,
data no longer required should be removed.
6. Integrity and confidentiality
Requires processors to handle data “in a manner [ensuring] appropriate security
of the personal data including protection against unlawful processing or
accidental loss, destruction or damage” [article 5, clause 1(f)].

CONLFLICT RESOLUTION AND TEAMWORK

Workplace conflicts are very common; there are very few offices where all the
employees get along. Because of this, conflict resolution is a necessary
component of the workplace, and those in a leadership position must be
skilled in conflict resolution techniques.

When conflicts go unaddressed, they can have a negative impact on

productivity and teamwork. Using conflict resolution strategies in the
workplace will help maintain a healthy work environment. Conflict resolution
requires specific leadership skills, problem-solving abilities and decision-
making skills.

Conflict Resolution Techniques

Consider the following conflict resolution techniques to help resolve issues in
your office:


o Listen, Then Speak Out
 Believe it or not, just listening to an employee’s issue is the
first and most important step in resolving conflict. You
should simply listen to all parties involved to completely
understand the nature of conflict and then start
troubleshooting solutions.
o Gather the Group
 As a leader, you’ll need to arrange a meeting with all
involved parties to discuss the issue. Give everyone a chance
to speak; this is a good opportunity to hear all sides and
gain a full understanding of the conflict. Having a group
meeting may also expedite a resolution that will satisfy
everyone.
o Be Impartial
 Don’t take sides! In a leadership position, you shouldn’t
display any sort of opinion that favors one person over
another. If you are partial towards one person, try to access
the situation from all sides to come up with a fair and
reasonable solution.
o Do Not Postpone Conflict Resolution
 Address the conflict immediately. Otherwise, the situation
could escalate and could affect employee performance. Just
make sure not to address the situation too quickly or
without careful consideration, as your decision will directly
affect the demeanor and performance of your staff.
o Promote Teamwork
  Encouragement and motivation are powerful. Remind
your staff of successful projects that required teamwork to
complete. This is one of the most effective conflict
resolution techniques and will really make the employees
think about the importance of working in a team.
o Broadcast Praise
 As stated above, the power of encouragement and
motivation can be multiplied when it is spread to recognize
those who are modeling the teamwork and cooperation that
is desired within any conflict. Try to give suitable models in
these instances because behavior modeling can be risky if
there are elements in the model that are undesirable.

It’s important to note that while resolving workplace conflicts, you need to
consider your company’s regulations and policies. With the right conflict
resolution training, you’ll have the tools and techniques necessary to keep
harmony among your team!

ffective resolution is a set of teamwork skills that every team needs to

understand. Here is a simple, six-step approach to reaching conflict
resolution:

1. Get everyone to agree that a problem exists: A classic example; no

one wants to talk about the elephant in the room. Get it out in the open
and get agreement that there is a problem.
2. Brainstorm potential solutions: This is critical and everyone involved
with the problem needs to be involved. Remember, it is a brainstorming
session and not a problem solving session.
3. Discuss all of the solutions and come to a mutual agreement: After
the brainstorming session, let ideas settle for a little while and then
gather everyone together to discuss solutions and come to an
agreement on the next process, then set an agreement in place.
4. Expect cooperation from everyone and share these
expectations: This stage is one that many dismiss – by getting
everyone to share his / her expectations they are, in effect, gaining
mutual buy-in and creating mutual accountability.
5. Sign the agreement discussed in step four: The buy-in gets deeper
when all parties sign the agreement.
 6. Have a systematic follow through plan in place. If you are not
tracking progress, how will you know if the plan you put into place is
indeed working? This allows you to provide appropriate feedback to
everyone along the way.

When you follow a plan, you increase the likelihood of resolving conflict in a
win/win scenario that helps everyone.