Essay on Business Ethics

Many companies may face ethical dilemmas and issues with policy and procedure. Business ethics is important for businesses to have and when operating a place of business with ethical standards, it helps businesses to handle the challenges that the business will face. For a business to be successful, they must pay attention to ethical business practices so that they can operate with integrity. This response will influence how a company serves its customers and treats its employees in the workplace.

At a Red Lobster restaurant in Pleasant Hills, Pennsylvania, a waitress named Ruth Hatton was fired from her job for taking a comment card from the comment box that an angry customer wrote. Hatton served a black couple, and which the woman ordered a well-done piece of prime rib. The prime rib was not to her liking and therefore was not pleased with the service they received from Hatton. Hatton then made efforts to please the couple by offering free dessert, but the customer was still not satisfied. Hatton was a 19-year-old veteran employee and felt that she was wrongfully fired. The customer being displeased decided to fill out a restaurant comment card and placed it in the comment box. Hatton began to wonder what the customer wrote on the card, so she got the key from hostess Dawn Brown and took the comment card. Ruth Hatton put the comment card in her pocket and wanted to show it to her supervisor Diane Canant, but she ended up throwing it out. The customer complained to Canant and found out that her comment card was removed from the box. The customer felt that her comment about the food was not addressed, and she felt violated. At Red Lobster it is policy that employees cannot remove company property. Therefore, Hatton was fired for removing company property and violating company policy. 

Another policy issue was that the company was serving reheated meat to its customers from the prior day. In Red Lobster’s policy it also states that it is against policy to serve reheated meat to customers. With Hatton feeling that she was wrongfully fired for the incident, she then chose to go through the peer review process instead of filing a lawsuit. The peer review program is a program that is being used by many companies as another option for employees to get their side of the story heard without the stress and time of a lawsuit. The peer review program has been successful in giving employees the opportunity to dispute unfair terminations. Ruth Hatton’s peer review panel consisted of Red Lobster employees in different areas and different job titles. The panel took time to hear the testimonies of the employees involved which were Ruth Hatton, Diane Canant, and Dawn Brown. Through cautious discussion the panel took into consideration every person’s testimony including the customers concerns and feelings. Through discussion, the peer review group came to a compromise on what the results of the case should be.