Use the ABIH Code of Ethics (page 5 and 6) of your text to assist in evaluating this case study.
250 word with to reply 150 word
Originally published in The Synergist October 2005.
Coping with Change, Will this IH Sink or Swim?
by AAron Chen
Jim has now been out of school for six years. After receiving his dual MS/MSPH agreeing from HiLee Accredited University, Jim received numerous job offers and took a position as the lab industrial hygienist and safety officer for Acme Petroleum Company at their main R&D facility. The pay offered was excellent and benefits were abundant.
Acme has recently gone on a major buying spree and now controls the largest share of petroleum refining in the Western Hemisphere. They have grown in revenue by 300% in the last five years and are now extremely stretched for experienced human resources, including EHS professionals. Because of this fact, the vice president of the HS, security and sustainability (who hired Jim six years ago, before the growth) recently made the decision to promote Jim to the director of EHS for the downstream business unit of petroleum strategic business unit. Jim would replace the former director, who suddenly had to go on permanent disability after suffering a stroke at work. Jim recently obtained his certification in industrial hygiene and this feeling quite confident. When the VIP informed him of this promotion opportunity, Jim responded quickly that he felt he had the confidence, experience and talent to take on the challenge. Jim and his wife have two children, and the promotion would certainly help-since beginning their family, Jim and Nancy have been having a tough time covering the bills. But Jim has been consulting on the side, taking short industrial hygiene, safety environmental assignments on weekends and his during his vacation time. He now has ongoing contracts to do short- to intermediate- term EHS consulting for six firms. Two of the firm’s he consults with compete with Acme for some of Acme’s chemical business.
Jumping into the Deep End
Along with Jim’s new position comes an exceptional leap in responsibility. He is given a cell phone, laptop computer and a company car to travel between three of the closest sites. He now has 17 professionals reporting to him. Most, with the exception of two, have less than five years experience, and none are certified in any of the EHS fields, Jim is told that he will need to mentor and bring four of the professionals reporting to him up to speed fast, as they teach have responsibility for either safety or industrial hygiene at their sites but have little field experience.
The following week, Jim is informed that one of the senior EHS professionals he was counting on two assist him with safety issues has decided to retire at the end of the month. Jim talks with HR to see if they can hire another safety professional with at least 10 years experience. HR informs him that this will be most likely take 3 to 6 months.
Five weeks into the new assignment, Jim finds himself in a major quandary. He is now working constant 12 hour days in coming in every Saturday. He continues to get further and further behind, and his employees at the four sites are encountering significant problems because of plant shutdowns. Jim has not had the time to monitor them very much, and he is also finding that many of their problems are related to the environmental and process safety management arenas. Since Jim has been working at the company’s R & D. facility his whole career, he was banking on the now retired safety person helping him out in these areas
Jim’s six consulting clients constantly call him that work inquiring about when he can address the EHS issues he promised to work on (and had taken retainers on). He spends more than insignificant amounts of time talking with his client’s while at work.
Looking for a Life Preserver
Jim is shopping with his wife at the local grocery store in happens to come across one of his college classmates. Jim and Tom had been good friends at school, but Tom was a wild party and his grades showed it. As they talked, Jim finds out that time has been doing consulting on and off for the past six years but has never latched onto a full time job. A light bulb goes off in Jim’s head: this would be a great time to hire his friend as the downstream senior safety consultant. This may finally get them over the hump. The next day is Jim is driving to work his beeper cannot stop beeping and he notices a lot of black smoke coming from the direction of the main refinery where he is located.
The Problem
What can Jim do to work his way through this hot minefield of issues? He has already taken on many new responsibilities that cause him to potentially or actually violate the code of ethics. His whole career to date has been in the laboratory environment. Jim has very little, if any process safety management experience, which would be his biggest issue in a petrochemical company. He also has no previous supervisory experience or training to help him win trying to manage 17 reports, most of whom are green.
What steps should Jim take to remedy the situation? What codes has he violated?
