I was faced with a dilemma that made me choose between loyalty and trust. Even though I
believe in having both moral values, when faced with a dilemma sometimes you must choose
between the values, which can be a hard decision.
The dilemma involved my peer that I had been working with for a few years. During our shift
she would ring up drinks that a customer had which they would pay for, but she would put the
money in our tip jar. She would keep up with what drinks she put in the tip jar and how much
they were, then ask the manager to comp off those drinks. This went on for two months
causing me to feel guilty and have conflicting values.
One night when I was closing my manager asked me why we were having so many comps
during our shift. At that moment I had to choose between loyalty I owed to the restaurant and
trust from my peer. I went ahead and told my manager what was happening and even though
he was upset that I had not told him sooner, he did understand the dilemma I was in.
The reason why I did not go to my manager when I knew this was going on, was because I didn’t
want to be retaliated against by my peer. My manager not knowing about the unethical actions
my peer was making, made it easier to choose trust because I didn’t have to make a hard
decision between the two values right then. When I finally had to make a hard decision
between trust and loyalty, I based my decision on what would benefit me more. Choosing trust
would benefit me by having my peer’s trust, but with this value still comes guilt of knowing
something unethical was happening. Choosing loyalty would benefit me by having a good
relationship with my employer and having a clear conscious. Even though I would lose my
peer’s trust, I justified this by thinking another person’s actions should never put my moral
values at conflict. With the analysis of which moral value I benefited more from, I believed I
gained more by choosing loyalty.
The relief that I got from telling my manager lead me to believe I made the right decision. I do
wish I would have told him sooner so that my values wouldn’t have been at conflict. I do believe