Question

You work for a heavy equipment company. Sam Scumm was hired a few months. Only one of his past five employers was contacted for references and that one merely confirmed position and salary. Sam works for a few months, with many reports of serious safety violations and erratic behavior towards other employees. At one point he became so angry at another employee that he threw a glass bottle at him, just missing his head. He quits just before he would have been fired for his prior conduct and causing an incident in which a co-worker was injured. Today, you receive a reference request for Sam from another heavy equipment company. How do you respond? Write a paragraph justifying your position using sound legal principles. Make sure you consider the risk of a defamation suit. Write a paragraph justify your decision from an ethical standpoint.

Answer 1

My response for the reference for Sam would not only focus on the essentials like his position and salary but will also include a description of his behavioral attributes that was observed while his employment with my company. The reference report will mention that Sam was an employee only for few months but during this short period of time his behavioral attributes came to the fore. Sam’s employment saw several instances of serious safety violations. Besides the safety violations Sam’s behavior towards other employees was erratic and sometimes aggressive. He had even hurled a glass bottle towards another employee once.

The above reference paragraph is justified from an ethical point of view as it is my moral duty to inform prospective employers of Sam about his erratic, reckless and aggressive behavior. This is because such a behavior could be detrimental to the smooth operations of Sam’s prospective employers and based on the ethical policy of ‘utilitarianism’ it is my moral and ethical duty to provide this information. The principles of ‘utilitarianism’ say that an act should maximize benefits for others. By informing prospective employers of Sam about his behavior I am helping them avoid the pain of having a reckless and aggressive employee who is not only careless with safety rules but can also cause physical harm to other employees.