Ethical communication

1. Find at least one example when you were not ethical in your communication as a speaker. Describe the situation, your goals for the communication encounter, and the reasons for the unethical behavior. Then list ways to change the behavior in the future.

The last three days I have been observing my communication encounters. At first, I thought that I would have a hard time writing this but now I have come to realization that it is much easier communicating unethical than it is being ethical.

Well over the last three days one communication encounter stands out more than the rest. My wife and kids were planning on being out of town for the weekend so my wife was worried about not getting the laundry caught up and the house cleaned. I told her not to worry about it that I would take care of it and to go and have fun, knowing that I was not being truthful. My goal was to get her out of the house without worrying about the chores so she could enjoy her trip with the kids. I did not want to do the chores so I intentionally lied so she would go and not feel guilty. At the time it was the easy way out, but when she returned I realized that it was not worth it.

She was very angry when she come home to discover that nothing had been done that I had promised her that I would do. Now she feels that when I tell her I will do something she will not feel at ease because she does not know if I am just saying that to make her happy or if I am being sincere and truthful when I tell her something. I started this whole thing by being unethical and telling a white lie which led to a disaster. I realize that being ethical and straight forward up front with someone is not only the right way to communicate, but it can be easier and more rewarding if you are just honest with the person you are communicating with.

2 .Find at least one example when you were not ethical in your communication as an audience. Describe the situation, your goals for the communication encounter, and the reasons for the unethical behavior. Then list ways to change this behavior in the future.

I work in a long term care and rehabilitation nursing home and had an unethical experience I would like to share for this question. At our facility, like many others we are understaffed and are overwhelmed by our job duties and responsibilitites. At times people try to do things they should not do to save time or help another employee out. I was working with another nurse aide doing patient care when the other nurse aide told me to pull the curtain and shut the door.

She pulled out a dressing kit the nurse had given to her and asked her to do it to “help her out” Well I thought to myself that it was no harm and that it was a simple procedure that anyone could do so I decided to assist her in the procedure. My goals at the time was to work as a team member and make sure all of our daily duties were completed. I thought that by doing this for our nurse we would be helping her out and in the future she could help us out.

I come to realize that this incident was unethical of me by an audience for not standing up for myself and the safety of the resident even though I did not actually do the procedure. I realize that I am just as guilty.In the future I do plan to stand up for people and myself when things are being done that should not be. I know that I will feel better about doing the right thing and I think I am going to let people know up front that I want to work in an ethical environment and I will do what it takes to maintain my goal.