Darby has been working for 14 months at Holden Associates, a large management consulting firm. She is earning $95,000 a year, which sounds good, but does not go very far in New York City. It turns out that her peers at competing firms are typically paid 20% more and receive larger annual bonuses. Darby works about 60 hours a week, more if she is traveling. A number of times she has had to reschedule her vacation or cancel personal plans to meet client deadlines. She hopes to go to business school in a year and has already begun the application process.
Holden has a policy that permits any employee who works as late as 8:00 p.m. to eat dinner at company expense. The employee can also take Uber home. Darby is in the habit of staying until 8:00 p.m. every night, whether or not her workload requires it. She then orders enough food for dinner, with leftovers for lunch the next day. She has managed to cut her grocery bill to virtually nothing. Sometimes she invites her boyfriend to join her for dinner. As a student, he is always hungry and broke. Darby often uses the Holden Uber to charge a ride back to his apartment, although the cost is twice as high as to her own place.
Darby has also been known to return online purchases through the Holden mailroom on the company dime. Many employees do that, and the mailroom workers do not seem to mind.
Is Darby doing anything wrong? What ethics traps is she facing? What would your Life Principle be in this situation?
