Ethics Issue at Work

alina Posted: Dec 30, 2003 06:12 PM

Ethics Issue at Work

I work with a small group of 5 persons, with 1 boss, 2 mid-level people, and 2 jr. persons (I am one of them). A portion of our job is to write short 5-10 page memos, with a good amount of paraphrasing from other sources due to factual nature of the information.

A few months ago I have been training a new Jr. person and with regard to memo writing mentioned that its ok to paraphrase, but we can't 'COPY' word for word.

We've had a slow week, with only one mid-level person and 2 jr people here. This mid level person gave the other jr. analyst a memo to proofread and the girl noticed complete and total copying, WORD FOR WORD, sentense after sentense from another source. And she mentioned it to me. While I didn't say anything yet, I am wondering if I should or should not mention it to our senior boss boss (she is out on vacation this week)?

I am tempted not to, only b/c I am not the one who discovered this plaigarism, but should I even suggest this to the other Jr. girl or should I stay out of it?

shamma Posted: Dec 30, 2003 07:10 PM

Re: Ethics Issue at Work

I think something should be said, especially if its going out to others, ie public, outside your dept etc. She needs to quote her sources. Plagerism is never right. Do not take credit for other people's work, not right IMO

cooky11111 Posted: Dec 30, 2003 10:34 PM

Re: Ethics Issue at Work

I agree with Shamma. Something should be said.

Cira Posted: Dec 31, 2003 08:57 AM

Re: Ethics Issue at Work

Hmmm ... that's a tough one. I would think the best thing to do is for the person who caught the plagiarism to say something to the mid-level person who plagiarized (preferably via email or something she has proof that she told this person). If she continues to use the same wording in the memo, then I would then talk to the ethics officer in the company before spilling the beans.