By Eline Kullock
In a country with serious corruption issues, like Brazil, it’s essential to talk about ethics. I remember reading a book by the journalist Cláudio Abramo titled “A Regra do Jogo” (“The Rule of the Game”) which really speaks to the point I’d like to convey through this post.
Often we say that we know what ethics are. We proclaim this proudly, and yet we do things that go completely against the principle.
The first thing that the book talks about is how, if you are an ethical person, you will exercise this attitude, no matter the circumstances. It doesn’t matter if you are a Politician or a factory worker.
Last week something intriguing happened here at my company, Grupo Foco. An individual who masked his true identity by calling himself “Pedro Ethos” declared that my business was unethical. Do you know how Pedro Ethos protested this? By sending e-mails to several of my clients saying this, without having any proof of what he was talking about.
In his opinion, the fact that we offer courses, in a separate branch of the company called “Foco Futuro,” which attempt to prepare young candidates as they enter intern and trainee programs, makes us unethical. He says this is unethical because another branch of our company helps select young people for diverse intern and trainee programs in Brazil.
He expresses the view that Grupo Foco creates a “market for job positions” because these young people pay for classes that are intended to help them as they embark on selective processes. Perhaps what he doesn’t know is that these young people are selected by the businesses themselves, and not by Grupo Foco. The courses we offer are focused on helping young people understand how the selective processes work, and help them not to fail due to small things like nervousness for instance.
I founded this business 17 years ago, and little by little I’ve built its reputation. Would I really put my entire image on the line like this? We are proud of being innovators. That bothers a lot of people. Launching new products, and doing things differently is difficult.
What intrigues me in the messages sent by Pedro Ethos is that it’s completely unfounded, and based on nothingness. Even his identity is empty. He even concealed his IP so that we wouldn’t be able to identify him.
The situation is so ironic, that one must ask Pedro “is he being ethical?” We’ve asked this individual to have a coffee or to come experience the course in question for himself. And guess what? With all the ethics he questions, he won’t answer. He won’t show his face. Even in his e-mail. Nothing.
And I ask myself does Brazil really need people like this? Pedro Ethos’ ethics certainly don’t fit into Claudio Abramo’s definiton of ethics, that’s to say the ethics that evaluate others in the same way one evaluates one’s self.
It’s really sad to see that certain young people (I imagine that this individual is young, perhaps an ex-trainee, especially based on the way he writes) enter the workplace with this sort of attitude.
The Internet is here for us to protest. However, it’s difficult to see that people sometimes use this resource without showing their face, precisely because they have no concrete proof of what they are trying to say.
Wouldn’t it be great if Pedro agreed to meet us for a coffee and help us better what we’re trying to do, which is give orientation to young people? It would no longer be the void face of Pedro Ethos. It would be truly ethical to complain to Foco Futuro by revealing who he is. He should sign his protest.
It’s cowardly to try and break a solid business like Grupo Foco by concealing your own identity. I’m sorry to disappoint you Pedro, but you haven’t succeeded. A business which works so hard to conquer its place in the market, won’t crumble in front of an anonymous Pedro-without-ethics.
My biggest desire is to see this generation flood into the workplace with the ethics Cláudio Abramo describes. Armed with the courage to show one’s face and to try and better the world. Must be the idealism of a baby boomer… I’d like to see a cleaner world. This generation has an extremely potent tool: freedom of expression. We didn’t have this at their age. That’s worth more than anything. We’ve conquered it together, for you. Now let’s use it responsibly.
