Loyalty, ethics and self interest.

Just to relate an experience which I went through early this week.

My house needs a termite exterminator. So I called a nearby exterminator company and their representative came over. In fact that company has a e-mail address, and I wrote an e-mail to them the previous night. When I checked with them before noon on that day, the person answering the phone said that they have not received my e-mail. Well, fine I thought, maybe the e-mail really arrived late.

When the company representative came over, we related to him our concern of termites in the house. A nice young men he was, in the company’s uniform and he explained to us quite in detail what his company could do to exterminate termites. I was bored so I let my wife do the negotiation. When my wife explained to me later, I was surprised that he quoted a price for doing the extermination if his company does it and he quoted another price if the job was given to him privately. I was shocked. Where was his loyalty to the company? Where is the ethic of a person being entrusted by the company to negotiate a deal? Was he just being selfish? Or was he a young man who did not understand the concept of ethic and loyalty? Or was he just being selfish? Or is our society accepting such behaviour? A sad sad situation indeed! No wonder in some places corruption is rife.

After that I was quite reluctant to deal with him. I believe strongly in loyalty, and ethics in doing my job. Maybe the society accept such behaviour, so let it be. At 65, probably I am out of touch with reality.