Everyone, I would assume, is familiar with the reference to “HR” or at least to it’s mention in “The Office.” And while I have never been quite certain what an HR person does (I’ve actuallty always pictured them as elementary school counselors “sexual harassment- Jimmy don’t do that”), I was even less familiar with the role of the ethics officer. And just the title, seriously? 

So, last night we had an ethics officer come speak to our class- GW strategic PR- about business ethics. (According to Christi Harlan (my instructor and former reporter) PR people are just lying obstructionists). She was pretty good. Interesting even. And while I’m not sure what pearls of wisdom she was relaying to our class full of tired, overworked, young professionals, I did glean the “be honest and obvious” message.

Now in retrospect my initial thought was, shouldn’ that have been a no-brainer? was it really necessary that a ‘professional’ come and discuss that? But- she is a former attorney, she is successful, and she did have a sunny disposition- so maybe ethics officers are good. (?) 

Maybe, it’s necessary to remind someone when they’re about to make an illegal decission, maybe they didn’t know they were about to lie, or slander, or deceive their audience. But- I would think that by the time you actually have an ‘audience’ you should already know that those practices aren’t good ones. Maybe these CEO’s are actually at a disadvantage though, they were raised in an era that didn’t have the ‘internet’ that didn’t have a ‘blogosphere’ that didn’t have ‘twitter.’ Maybe they were taught that everything is okay as long as no one finds out. 

It’s too bad that these unethical individuals didn’t talk to their college applying children before thinking they could e sneaky and nobody would notice. Because then their kids would remind them “Dad, everything comes out. It’s all on the internet.”