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  • Joe vs Susie
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Joe versus Susie

What makes Susie radically different than Joe is this—she is a person with uncommon moral courage. She stands up and speaks up for what she believes in. In addition, she is her own worst critic. She constantly reminds herself that certain behavior is wrong and, even if no one else knows, she will know and that knowledge is enough to make her behave ethically. As a result, Susie really does not need anyone monitoring her work, which makes her an especially valuable employee.

Unfortunately, Susie’s moral courage is often her greatest liability. She makes Joe and his buddy look so bad that he, and a group of like-minded individuals, conspire to get rid of her. If they have enough political influence, they will either get her transferred or outright fired. It is difficult for Susie to get hired in key positions, especially those that involve finances, because her ethics make it difficult for those who want to rip off the tribe. She is such a danger to Joe The Tribal Worker that he goes all out to prevent her from getting appointed to committees/boards and will do anything to prevent her from getting elected to the Tribal Council. Once appointed, or elected to any of these positions, Joe will more than likely drum up some false charges in an attempt to get her recalled from those positions.

You would think that in a choice between Joe and Susie that the logical choice would always be Ms. Sainte, but sadly, that is not the case. There are a variety of reasons. One is that problem of the by-standers again. When Joe attacks Susie, her co-workers know his charges are not true but they "don't want to get involved". There are also those who act in their own best interest, that old individual relativism. They know that Joe is in the wrong, but they haven't been coming to work every day, have charged their gas on their tribal credit card for the last three years and a lot of other 'minor' ethical violations that Susie could use as a reason to have them fired. At the very least, she'll make them start paying for their own gas and coming to work every day.

Still, we all know that we need more Susies and fewer Joes. Read the next section to learn about positive ethics and how to become less of a by-stander and more of a Sainte!