I have wrestled with this issue a lot it seems over the years as has several
other
people in the field. I've come to two conclusions with regard to working as
a
compliance engineer in the industry. Not as someone who works in a
regulatory lab:
1. I can't make an unethical boss ethical. And therefore, it isn't my
resposibility
to make him/her so. Quite bluntly, if someone is going to make an
unethical
decision, it's not going to be me. If this is a continual problem with
me at
work, I really shouldn't be working at the place.
2. Even with bosses who are ethical, there's a whole psychology to
compliance
with those in management. This appears to stem from the need to control
with just about any manager I've had. Standards aren't something they
can
manipulate. They can't get their hands around it in a managerial way.
You
either pass or fail and someone outside the company decides that. And
that
drives managers nuts sometimes.
I have run into people in other companies at seminars regarding something
such
as the RoHS issue where they've said quite matter of factly ... 'well, I
guess we
ship till they find out.'
Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm also sorry to hear that within a system
with which
my company is trying hard as hell to comply there's holes big enough so that
whole
other companies can drive through.
But I'm also sorry in that it's not my job to make those people ethical.
Even if I
were working for some regulatory arm, it's also not my job to make unethical
people ethical. It would be my job to penalize them for being unethical.
Regards, Doug McKean
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