Ethics in the workplace.
Although I wasn't at the campus session, I tried to use the same approach with finding words that I felt explained the meaning of Ethics. I found that many of the words weren't just words to describe work ethics, but also words that I also use in my personal life too. The right and wrongs of the workplace, and the code of conduct we work by, but also your own personal values, like honesty and loyalty. These all come into play in your professional work as well as following the rules of your work place and what is required from you in your profession, making you a better employee.
I recently had some personal issues within my workplace with regards to another cast member. Although it wasn't anything to do with work initially, the effect of her actions to me personally made it difficult to work professionally around her. It made me think a lot about how our personal attitudes and our personal values can come into play within our workplace and affect the overall mood. The fact that my cast member had no compassion or loyalty and definitely did not treat me the way I hope she would want to be treated made me realise that our personal values towards people we work with can then affect the whole balance of the team we work in.
After realising this I wanted to look at the work place ethics but also a more personal side of code of conduct as I feel that this also brings a lot to being a better employee.
Work Ethics.
*Attendance - Firstly, an obvious one is attendance. Making sure you attend all scheduled rehearsals and performances.
*Punctuality - Always being on time. Making people wait is not professional, arriving at least 5 minutes before your call time is a good start. "Early is on time, and on time is late"
*Wearing correct attire - A uniform, or turning up to rehearse in suitable dancing attire.
*Being responsible for your body - Warming up, and giving yourself extra time if required to make sure you've warmed up and cooled down after a show.
*Have a good attitude - Be ready to learn in rehearsals and pay attention to what is happening around you.
*Be professional - Be on stage when your meant to be, don't fool around on stage, and be conscience of others on stage.
*Respect the theatre - Be respectful of the other people working with you, stage staff, production manager and understand the importance of there jobs to.
* Always give a 100%.
Code of Conduct.
* Respect - Respect the people you work with.
* Honesty - Be honest, if you can't make a rehearsal, tell the producer, or dance captain. Never just miss rehearsal.
* Loyalty - Most of the time you will be working with the same people for a while, so have loyalty to one another.
* Treat people how you would like to be treated.
* Be helpful - Help out with extra tasks if possible, help people with quick changes, help a stage staff if something is going wrong.
* Reliable - Be someone that can be relied on.
An interesting summary of an important aspect of industry practice, what is means to work in a professional environment. I am interested in the wider debate about codes of conduct and ethics. What doe you think are the similarities and then the differences? Where do values come in? Are some codes like laws that you can't break otherwise punishment is the result and are other codes more like things you aspire to? Things that motivate you to become better, hold higher values or behave in a more professional and if you fail o do so, what is the result? Is it a punitive action (fines, dismissal) or supportive (training, mentoring)
ReplyDeleteHi Peter,
ReplyDeleteYes I definitely feel like some of the codes of conduct are more like laws that we definitely can't break otherwise it would cost us our jobs but then some codes are more just personal values and they don't have the same kind of punishment. Why? I don't know, maybe because not everyone has the same personal values so there is more room for error.
I feel anyone can just follow the professional code of conduct easily but what really makes you great in a professional atmosphere are your own personal values that you bring. You cannot tell someone to be respectful of others and to be considerate, that is something that you have to aspire to be yourself.
Therefore I feel that if you fail to comply with the general code of conduct in your workplace you could potentially get fined or immediate dismissal, depending on your company but if you break more of a personal value that is something expected of everyone in your profession your more likely to be verbally punished with intent to further mentor you on the workplace values of say a cast.