Ethical Departure

Institutions often get it wrong when it comes to dismissing their employees, but the individuals on the receiving end of the “We’re sorry but we must let you go” speech are also guilty of doing damage to the institutions from which they are departing.

One student told me about his experience during the spring semester at his college. He showed up for a class in April and, to his amazement, a new professor came into the classroom. This professor told the class that their regular professor had resigned from his position at the college and that he would no longer be teaching any of his classes. So this new professor was going to be finishing out the semester with this class. The decision not to teach was made by the outgoing professor who was apparently so hurt and angered by the events occurring on campus that he decided to hurt the school and his students by refusing to teach any of his courses through to the end of the school year.

Another way departing faculty members can hurt a school is by joining a rival institution and actively recruiting students to go with them. What is unethical about this sort of behavior is not finding employment at a rival institution. Rather, an ethical failure occurs when students at the former place of employment become the target of recruiting efforts made by the outgoing faculty member. Now there is always the possibility that students enamored by a favorite (departing) professor may choose to transfer to the school where that professor goes. But the departing faculty member should make no overt efforts to encourage his students to follow him. That decision is best left to the students and their parents.

Very few faculty members express joy over being let go, and institutions often fail to follow ethical procedures when dismissing employees (see my previous post). Thus, some feel themselves justified to file lawsuits against their former employers. As far as I can see, there are never any positive results in such scenarios: 1) the institution must dedicate funds needed elsewhere to legal support (if the school loses the lawsuit, it will be forced to pay thousands of dollars to the plaintiff and even if the school wins the lawsuit, it will suffer significant financial loss defending itself); 2) the institution will receive much negative publicity regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit; 3) if the dismissed employee wins the suit, he may receive a financial benefit, but what are his options––going back to work for a school that does not want his services or trying to find work with a school that likes to hire known “rabble rousers”? 4) if the dismissed employee loses the suit, he still has no job and it is unlikely that any institution would look favorably upon a potential employee who brought a lawsuit against his former employer.

Perhaps more benign than any of the  examples mentioned, but nonetheless lethal, is the response of complaining. Outgoing faculty members can complain to their students, modeling a poisonous spirit of discontent. They can also complain to their colleagues, promoting a spirit of disunity and dissension.

Leaving a school is almost always difficult. But regardless of the circumstances, a faculty member ought to leave quietly and honorably. While departing faculty members might find it hard to support the institution they are leaving (and I’m not suggesting that they do so), they must not act in a manner that detracts from its ministry. Anyone who departs needs to remember this important principle: the school and its ministry are much bigger than me.