ETHICS ASSIGNMENT
(Chapter 2)
John Harrison is the owner of Harrison Enterprises, Inc., a small metal fabrication shop located in Poughkeepsie,
New York. Andrew Jameson, an employee of Harrison Enterprises, has approached John with a request.
Andrew is the proud parent of a newborn son, and he would like to take the next two (2) weeks off from work in
order to “bond” with his new child. John knows that Andrew does not have any accrued vacation time (shortly
before his son was born, Andrew had taken a final “two–person family” trip to Florida with his wife, Sara). He
also knows that Harrison Enterprises is not legally required to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act
(FMLA), since the company only has seventeen (17) employees (FMLA mandates that businesses employing
more than fifty people provide their workers with up to twelve weeks’ unpaid leave every year for a host of
specified reasons, including the birth of a child).
John wonders whether his company has an ethical obligation to comply with the “spirit” of the Family and
Medical Leave Act, even though he does not have a technical, legal obligation of compliance. Advise John
whether his company has such an ethical obligation. Should John Harrison allow Andrew Jameson to take his
requested two (2) weeks of leave from work?
John is facing what is referred to as an ethical dilemma (pg. 14) in our text book, which states that
an ethical dilemma is a problem about what a firm should do for which no clear, right
decision is available. While he is certainly under no obligation to honor Andrew’s request, if his
