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The Principle of Ethics
Each society has a standard code of ethics. Laws can dictate those ethics. But many are determined by what is fundamentally right in the eyes of most people.
We would do well to follow what is expected of us. Anything deviating from the norm would be frowned upon as immoral by the unspoken rules of most.
Even when the outcome may end up being the same, we are obliged by certain principles of behavior to follow a defined or even undefined set of ethics.
The principle is above all else
(This happened 10 years ago, which explains the prices.) But the principle remains the same.
My husband and I went out to lunch on Friday at a local restaurant. We like to arrive a bit before noon as to avoid the lunch time rush. We were seated with menus and prepared to order our usual over the top calorie appetizer sampler.
We waited for quite sometime, even though the restaurant was filling up, it seemed a bit longer than necessary. Finally a nice young (good looking I might add) chap came to our table. He seen that we had no silverware or cloth napkins and immediately retrieved some and placed them in front of us.
He was very charming and soon the thoughts of having had to wait soon disappeared. He took our order and we also requested 2 glasses of water. He asked if we would like ice with the water. Never had been asked that before, so it was a bit of a surprise. But he was very attentive and I had high hopes for a wonderful dining experience.
In this restaurant the people from the kitchen bring the food to you, but everything else is supposed to be brought by the waiter. So our food arrives and someone else happened by at the same time. They both asked if there was anything else they could bring us. “Yes, plates and we asked for water and it was never brought.”
Our waiter never dropped by and asked how things were going. When we were finally done with our meal he showed up and grabbed the coupon off the table and immediately returned with our bill.
The total was $12.86 and not having more than about 8 one’s we paid with a $20 bill. He quickly returned with the check presenter book. Inside was a $5 bill. My husband’s usual comment “Now that is dumb. If he thinks I am going to leave him a $5 tip.” So he opened up his wallet to replace it with a couple of dollars. “I said wait a minute, wasn’t the bill $12.86?” Well in my books 12.86 plus 5 does not add up to 20.
This is where the ethics come into play.
He took his tip without permission to do so. Yes, he would have got that even though his absence was inexcusable, maybe it was his dashing good looks and charm in his favor.
Never ever had that happen to me before and we were a bit taken back by his brazen behavior. The more I thought about it after the fact the more it did not sit right.
Unfortunately I did not take the print out or I surely would have called the restaurant and talked to the manager. Of course if this ever happens again I will definitely request to speak to the manager.
If something had not seemed right to me, he would have got a few more dollars that we never intended for him to receive.
When you factor in a possible sneaky way of getting more money than what someone intended then ethics move front and center. How many people has he managed to swindle by this method? The truth is, if he hadn’t been dishonest, his tip would have been larger than what he took.
The positive thing was we never seen him at the restaurant again. May be he was caught and fired. I have given bigger tips, but they have always done their job and given us a great dining experience. This kid didn’t even do what was required as a server. Good looks can only take you so far in life and hopefully he soon found that to be the case.
I know it takes all kinds to make this world of ours, but thank goodness most follow a good code of ethics otherwise we would always have to be watching over our shoulders!
How about you:
♦ Ever had an experience that you couldn’t believe how low some people’s ethics are?
♦ Ever had someone try to pull this at a restaurant on you?