In reading the article, “Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices,” I was reminded of my own life experiences. I have faced excessive pressure from unrealistic goals which has caused me to take shortcuts in my work. At a previous job, I was under a lot of pressure and I was under many deadlines and pressure to perform well. I would not do the work to the best of my ability due to the pressure to perform quickly rather than accurately. I felt negatively about myself because I was not performing to the best of my ability. But, with the pressure I was facing I did not feel as if I had an option to act differently.

I do not think that I have read a text like this. Many pieces do not highlight pitfalls in leadership. Leaders in the workplace are often praised and their opinions are regarded as always correct. The piece in the article about people feeling afraid to speak up resonated with me and should definitely be spoken about more. A workplace where employees feel unsafe and not empowered to voice their opinions can have catastrophic results. Employees may make “unethical” choices in order to please their boss or out of fear. I would enjoy reading more articles like this one because I can relate to it and I believe that other people would also be able to relate.

This article has many real world applications. Post COVID, online jobs have become more popular. With remote work, face to face interactions and workplace bonding have decreased while the need for constant productivity has increased. Remote work highlights a lot of the issues that Carucci mentioned in his article. People may feel the need to take shortcuts due to the amount of productivity that is expected of them.

“Why Ethical People Make Unethical Choices.” Harvard Business Review, 16 Dec. 2016. hbr.org, https://hbr.org/2016/12/why-ethical-people-make-unethical-choices.