Why is it that Starbucks, and places like it put a smile on our faces? I cannot speak for everyone, but I can tell you that from my own experience it can change an otherwise dreary day into one of hope. This may sound a bit overstated, but bear with me for a moment.

As a society we have become one with our computer, and sadly that means we find ourselves locked away behind a keyboard and screen for most of our day. This also means that we do not “get out there” and greet the world like we used to. Yes, there are social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and hundreds more, but we are socializing through a computer screen! I am a big fan of these sites and belong to a few of them.  In fact, I have caught up with many old friends from various stages of my life that I thought I had lost contact with forever so I am definitely a 21st century geek in very real proportions; however, they do not replace being out in the public and meeting new people.

So, this week I have been feeling a bit down. Perhaps it is the change of seasons. Perhaps it is the state of the economy. Perhaps it is that I know I have a mountain of grades to post, or perhaps it is the fact that I had a summer cold. Whatever the reasonI knew that I needed to get back “out there.” So, I packed up my briefcase and headed out to my favorite Starbucks, and here I sit with a grin on my face.

Starbucks and my “skinny latte” have not changed the state of the economy or posted any of my grades for me, but it has brightened my mood. I can sit here for hours working and watch people come and go. Some have become familiar faces over the months, while others are new and transient customers grabbing a bit of caffeine during their whirlwind of a day. We all have one thing in common. We took a moment to be part of life; part of something greater than our own momentary pathos. Could be just a nod or a smile. Could be a lengthy discussion on economics with a group of regulars. Could be sharing a table with a stranger. It doesn’t really matter. It forces us to connect; in the literal way and not through a fiber optic cable.

The moral to the story here is that we can all let the sorrows of our lives and the world get to us until we drown, but if we take a moment out, and connect with the world around us we will all start smiling again.  Even if just for a brief moment over a grande, double, half caff, soy, sugar free vanilla, iced, upside down latte.

Oh, and hold the whip.

Some residents of Big Tujunga in the Los Angeles area are making claims today that their homes were lost when firefighters were diverted to the Palos Verdes fire. Now, for those of you not located in Los Angeles I will give you a little geography and fiscal education. Big Tujunga is fairly well populated with older smaller homes dotted throughout the canyon while Palos Verdes is populated with larger, many newer, more opulent homes. Now let’s do the math:

According to several real estate websites the mean home price in Palos Verdes, CA is just under $1 million. The mean home price in Big Tujunga, CA is between $400,000 – $500,000.  If property taxes are assessed at around 1% we can easily see that between the two areas Palos Verdes is the big ticket item for the state.  A state in dire financial crisis I might add.

Right now you are saying “that can’t be!” How can a professor of business ethics jump on the accusatory bandwagon of alleging financial favoritism? Has the latest news story gotten to her head without doing the research? Have conspiracy theorists invaded her cerebellum? No. Quite the contrary. I am not jumping on a bandwagon, not a conspiracy theorist, but most importantly am speaking from personal observation.

What the residents of Big Tujunga are claiming rings true. Almost every other year now I have been evacuated from my own canyon home above Chatsworth, CA due to raging, out of control fires. I am not complaining about this fact because I accept the pitfalls of living in paradise. Four years ago we were evacuated and I attended an NBC news conference being held by Mayor Villaraigosa and the fire chief just below the canyon. They proudly announced to the crowd and the cameras how the water drops were taking place at that very moment in Bell canyon. Now, this would have been good, but the homes most in danger were in Box and Woolsey Canyons. The fire had not even reached Bell canyon at that point, but rest assured those homes were protected while not one water drop had occurred in Box or Woolsey. When I confronted the mayor about this he hemmed and hawed so I pressed the point and inquired as to whether the higher property taxes in Bell canyon had anything to do with why we were not receiving the needed water drops. While watching the television camera go from my face to his repeatedly he appeared to be a deer caught in the headlights then sputtered out that he would personally go check on our homes. To his credit he did just that, but I wanted water drops like Bell Canyon was getting not a mayoral visit. We did begin to get water drops just minutes after his trip up our canyon, and I am not saying definitively it was because of my confrontation, but I also don’t believe in coincidences.

So, when I saw Bert Voorhees, resident of a burnt out home in Big Tujunga Canyon, make his claims on the news today I gave a silent cheer and ran to my blog. After all, I have a blog on ethics and what could be more unethical than greed on the part of our government? Some may argue that it makes financial sense. I say garbage! It is not okay, nor is it ethical to decide whose home gets saved by the value of their property tax! Next thing you know the government will decide whose life is worth saving by how much money they have. Uh oh, they already do that. It’s called health care and war.

I was just thinking back to my youth today, and while it sometimes seems a long time ago I can’t help but thinking of how things have changed in such a short time. Growing up in Southern California was not unlike “anytown” U.S.A. We worked hard, played hard, and when it was time to go on vacation we packed up the family GM for the customary two weeks and hit the road for parts unknown. My mother and father insisted we buy American, and it was an easy thing to do because you were buying a solidly made beast of the highway. We were a GM family, but some of you out there could have been Ford or Chrysler families. It matters not because that was just an issue of taste and family upbringing. Kind of like being a Pepsi or Coke house. The products were good quality, the price was right, and the corporations cared about what the customer wanted and what would make them happy. I am not saying it was a scene out of Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best, but it certainly was simpler. Things today are no longer simple by any stretch of the imagination, but I am also not saying this is a bad thing in most cases. After all, I wouldn’t be able to “blog” here without the complicated life we live today, but not everything had to change. The lost art of customer appreciation and satisfaction seems to have been crossed off of the curriculum of most business schools in favor of “Bottom Line 101″, “Shareholders 250″, and “Upper Management Bonuses 550.” The last one is taught in both the BA and MBA program.

I guess I was busy this morning lamenting the America we see today, and sad at the thought that I don’t think our parents and grandparents would be proud of us. Those that lived through the depression and fought in WWII gave their lives so that we could enjoy the life that we have today, but somehow, somewhere along the way much of it was squandered. GM, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists as an American company. Chrysler is in the process of being sold to Fiat, and who knows how long Ford will hold on. These were powerhouses of American industry, and now what? Hummers made in China, Chryslers made by a company that hasn’t been able to sell a car in the U.S. for more than twenty years and is not considered to be top notch. What is next?

If we want to ask ourselves why we have to do a combination of things. Yes, we need to look in the mirror, but it is far more than just a turn away from “buying American.” It has been a long time since these companies have given us something worthy of buying. While foreign car companies were being innovative American car makers were giving us more of the same and losing focus on the customer. They were late to the game of hybrids, still producing oversized monsters designed to make soccer moms and underachievers feel powerful, and providing such low quality in order to get the customer buying more frequently. This was not and is not the American way, and yet somehow it became the American business model in a relatively short time for Detroit and others.

Two years ago I finally shook the invisible cultural shackles I had been raised with and purchased my first foreign vehicle, and I have never been happier. The first thing I noticed is that I am treated like a valuable customer; something that had been lost along the way in my years of dealing with GM and Chrysler. Simply said, they stand by their product. The last American car I had happened to be a convertible and when the rag top blew off after only a year and a half they told me it was my problem because it was “not a covered item.” In my foreign car I have been to the dealer twice in two years. Both times were for a “yearly” oil change. That’s right; YEARLY.

My father is still alive at the ripe old age of 78 and will probably live to well over a hundred at the rate he is going. He spent many years in the auto industry and helped to frame my “All American” girl persona. Is he proud of what has happened? No, and the sad part….he also drives a foreign car.

I have talked many times about the theory of “the customer is always right.” Once again, it is not necessarily that the customer is in the right, but they should at least be left with the perception that they are being given the benefit of the doubt. While many companies out there are very good with this others are not. It should be remembered that not all customers can be satisfied, but when a company goes the extra mile to make a customer angry their existence in the business world at all should be questioned. When this occurs it not only breaks the basic rules of customer service but delves into unethical behavior.

A perfect example of not only bad customer service, but unethical behavior can be seen in the company Music Express Limousines. About a year ago I utilized their service for a pick up at LAX airport, which a friend had booked through her company at the suggestion of Music Express’ VP of Sales, after a grueling business trip to Mexico City. My flight arrived very late, and needless to say I was exhausted. The driver was there waiting, as I was his last run for the evening, and promptly took control of my luggage cart while escorting me to the car. He opened the door, gave me a nice cold bottle of water and proceeded to put my luggage in his trunk. It took us approximately 45 minutes to get to my house during which I could barely keep my eyes open. Upon arrival he handed me my bag and shut the trunk. I immediately asked him for my second bag at which time he indicated that there was only one bag. Trying not to lose my mind I asked him why he didn’t put BOTH of the bags on the cart into the trunk. He spent the next 10 minutes arguing with me and insisting there was only one bag all the while I became more and more frantic at the knowledge that he had left my carry on bag with my computer and camera on the cart. He never for a single minute took responsibility, and he even called his dispatch to say I, the customer, must have left it at the airport. I was livid, and his response was to call his dispatch and have someone get back to me in the morning. At that point I demanded that he drive back to the airport immediately WITH me in the car. While in the car I called the VP of Sales, whom I had known for many years and let her know what was happening.

After 45 minutes more of pure hysteria at losing all of my equipment, and his lack of care, we arrived back at the parking spot in the nick of time. A very honest LAX employee collecting carts saw the bag on the cart and called the airport police. We had pulled into the lot just behind the police vehicle, which informed us that they would have treated it as an explosives scare, but luckily they carefully reviewed my ID and released the bag without further incident. At this point you would think all’s well that ends well, but you would be wrong.

The driver not only still never took responsibility for his critical error, but the situation got worse. The VP of Sales defended the driver! Let’s face it folks, when you hire an expensive limousine you are paying to be picked up and taken care of. When the driver tells you to get in the vehicle and he will secure your bags you also expect professionalism. THAT is what you are paying the exorbitant rates for.

The VP of Sales for Music Express finally offered to refund my money or give me a complimentary airport run at a future date. I thanked her for her help and accepted the future ride in good faith. From there I thought we had solved the problem, but alas this was not the case. She called the company that I booked the limo through in order to try and get my friend in trouble, which was curious considering I had paid the bill and it had nothing to do with my friend’s company. Still I left it alone.

Cut to today, a year later, at which time I wanted to collect my agreed upon “make good” transportation. After asking nicely to redeem the make good, this is what I received:

From: Maureen *******
To: mpawl@pawlconsulting.com
Sent: Jun 1, 2009 11:27 AM
Subject: Re: Hey you

Hi Morissa,
I hope this email finds you well.
Unfortunately time has expired to use the one way transfer and ****
******* Travel is in agreement of our decision.
Thank you, Maureen

This was interesting as I am NOT an employee of this Travel company that made the booking, nor was it a “free ride.” They booked it for me after this same person had suggested I do so, and it was a paid trip. One in which, I might add, almost cost me thousands of dollars in equipment due to their driver’s error.

So the moral to the story is that for many companies customer service has not only become disposable, but executives tend to feel that they are impervious to normal ethical behavior. When a company is wrong they should admit it! The customer is not always right, but to go out of one’s way, as with the case of Music Express, is not only a poor business practice but highly unethical. In this case, there are plenty of good transportation companies that treat customers properly. Not only will I not use Music Express, but I will encourage all I know to not use them as well.

All fifty states operate under the guise of “at-will ” employment to some extent. This essentially means that an employer may discharge an employee without cause. It was originally designed to protect both the employer and employee on several levels but has not really lived up to its intent. The theory is that both the employer and employee can get out of a situation without recourse, but in reality only the employer has that capability while the employee has the unspoken responsibility to not leave the employer “high and dry.” Why? Because if they do there will surely be no glowing employment references.
When you consider the implications it essentially gives employers carte blanche to dismiss employees on a whim. This was not much of a problem when the odds were in the worker’s favor due to it being an “employee market”, but in times of economic crisis it becomes less and less ethical. No one is ever going to ask employers about their record of giving advance notice to employees, but if an employee wants that job on their resume they had better give plenty of notice and leave on the best of terms. So, while the law is intended to protect both parties it is decidedly one sided.
Aside from the ethical question of whether or not this law should be changed perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture. Our workforce is overworked, burnt out, stressed out, and just generally mistreated. We ask the world of our personnel in unpaid overtime, little to no vacation time, and dedication all in the hopes that they might someday climb the corporate ladder and see a payoff only to get tossed out with the trash in favor of someone younger, less expensive, and equally as expendable. Loyalty is expected from employees with very little offered in return; most often in the name of increasing the bottom line and C level bonuses.
Wake up corporate America and earn the loyalty and respect of your workforce before it is too late. You’ll be glad you did.

It is very important for vendors and consumers to have a clear understanding of the companies they deal with or purchase from. There are three distinct ways one can do this by way of looking at how a company treats its customers, vendors (partners), and employees.
CUSTOMERS
1. Does the company ignore customers?
2. Does the customer have the perception that they are being given the benefit of the doubt, which is sometimes mislabeled “the customer is always right?”
3. Is the company guilty of poor customer service?
4. Are customers passed off to an overseas call center with no authority to problem solve?

VENDORS
1. Does the company treat its vendors with honesty?
2. Does the company treat its vendors with fairness? (ex: selling fair trade products)
3. Does the company pay vendors in a timely manner

EMPLOYEES
1. Do employees feel undervalued?
2. Do employees feel over scrutinized? (not trusted to do their jobs)
3. Do employees feel expendable?
4. Do employees feel underpaid for the level of work they are doing?
5. Is there high turnover in the company?
6. Is there a consistent pattern of using employees to gain contact lists or knowledge and then letting them go?

If a company fails in one or more of these areas it could be a clear indicator that you would not want to deal with them on any level. The greater implication here is that the business is operating in an unethical manner. Aligning yourself with a company such as this will undoubtedly place a black mark on your reputation in business or have you suffering as a consumer. Additionally, it could also be an indicator of a misuse of company funds, but that will be saved for the next time……

The California courts have recently determined that the right to privacy does not extend beyond death in the case of Nikki Catsourus. While this gets escalated to the appeals level, and then most likely on to the Supreme court, we have to wonder why. Perhaps more importantly, we should ponder as to why we feel the need to be so voyeuristic. This is a tragedy beyond compare, and the family must be suffering in unimaginable ways. This young lady was not famous and should therefore not be subject to the same rules of privacy.

What is our obsession with the gruesome details? Why is human nature such that we just cannot look away? And why in the world would a California Highway patrolman find it necessary to send these pictures to friends and then have them end up all over the internet? Can we say common decency?

As this story unfolds, and the case winds its way through the court system let us accept that this behavior, while not currently illegal, is unethical to say the least. Surely there must be something else for people to obsess about that is not quite so vile. It is bad enough that people read the rag magazines about the famous and infamous, but leave this poor child and her family alone. Haven’t they suffered enough?

Okay, so I am going to go out on another limb with something controversial here, but I just feel that it is time to chime in as it is becoming an ethical issue. For years now I have been hearing, and understanding, how everyone has a right to their “opinion.” This is true, and freedom of speech and expression are two of the factors that make this country great. Now, let’s go a little deeper into the idea of “opinion.”

Once “opinion” crosses over into “action” it is no longer a “point of view.” I always see both sides to an argument and value people’s differing opinions, and this subject has been no different until now. With states like Maine legalizing gay marriage day by day and public figures such as Miss California joining organizations to prevent the legalization of gay marriage the debate is heating up, but it is now more than a debate. I understand that there are many people in this country that oppose gay marriage primarily on the foundation of religious reasons, and that is to be respected to a degree, but we also have laws in this country that protect a person’s civil liberties. In this case we are left arguing based on the Principle of Rights, i.e. one person’s rights versus another’s. Allowing a gay couple to marry is not infringing on the rights of those with strong religious beliefs, however, the campaign to prevent them from marrying does infringe on another group’s rights.

Our civil judicial system operates under this very principle of rights and so it is doing in this case. The courts are deciding whether or not gay couples should be allowed to marry. The courts are where cases of rights are adjudicated not by public vote. If this were not the case then there would be many things in this country that would never have changed. It is not, in any situation, appropriate or ethical for the majority to dictate to a minority on basic human rights.

It wasn’t that far back in recent history that African Americans and Caucasians were not allowed to marry. The “majority” felt it should be prevented based on religious moral convictions. Sound familiar? We look back on this today as ridiculous, but the fight for this right was long and arduous. The majority’s moral, religious conviction against the allowing of multiracial marriage was deemed unethical and a violation of rights of another.

Our system is designed to protect the rights of the minority against the whims of the majority. It is our ethical duty as Americans to address this. Not to pick on this one person, but if Miss California had stood on the Miss USA stage and ranted about taking away the rights of multicultural partners to marry we would be outraged. We would be quick to call her and others like her racists and un American. Why then is it “okay” to do the same to another group of tax paying Americans?

Now I am going to jump on the bandwagon. About a week or so ago I witnessed a minor accident on a main thoroughfare and without missing a beat I automatically stopped to give my business card to the non-responsible party. I was in between meetings so I really did not have time to chat, but I could see the shocked look on his face as I handed it to him and briskly got back in my car to zoom away to my next appointment.

I stopped for many reasons. Foremost, it is the right thing to do, despite the fact it is rarely done. Secondly, although it would have appeared to be a rear end/right rear quadrant collision, the party that was hit was actually one hundred percent at fault. She decided to cut across four lanes of busy traffic to grab a parking spot and the poor sod in front of me had nowhere to go. Third, I firmly believe in random acts of kindness, and I knew the unfortunate fellow was going to get blamed when he was in no way at fault, and lastly, it could just as easily have been me in his position had I been two minutes earlier for my appointment.

So I felt good about being a Good Samaritan and doing the right thing, but my moral to the story is exactly why people rarely stop in the first place. Later the same day the victim’s insurance company, AAA, called me and asked for a recorded statement. I was more than happy to accommodate and was done swiftly. Now, two weeks later I get a cryptic letter from Mercury Insurance, which I despise for their business practices to begin with, asking me to type out a statement and mail it back to them. I have two problems with this approach. To begin with, I am extremely busy and do not have the time to type out random statements. More importantly, they expected me to put my own stamp on the envelope and take the time to mail it out. This was really not a big deal, but remember, I was just being a good citizen and this was the insurance company of the guilty party, who by the way was trying to say it was not her fault. It was the principle of the matter. They could have at least provided the stamp!

This is exactly the reason people do not take the time out of their busy day to “do the right thing.” The Good Samaritan seems to always get bitten somehow. How many times have we all heard stories of a caring citizen coming to the rescue only to get sued in the end themselves, etc. Remember Richard Jewell, the hero of the Atlanta Olympic bombing? He died last year a broken man and all he did was the “right thing.” As for me, I will continue to pay it forward as often as possible, but I most certainly understand why people are reluctant to do so.

Reprinted from my blog at a national travel magazine April 10, 2008

Okay, so credit card companies have always raised their fees on a whim, but this just seems to take the cake. I can understand that the fees need to be raised when someone misses a payment date, and I am well aware that banks make the lion’s share of their money on these fees. What I cannot understand is the audacity of banks to be doing this after accepting millions of dollars in bailout money.

Traditionally, this is one step a business can take that will help to build its capitol, but to continue to do this at this particular stage of the game is unconscionable. The mere definition of that word says it all. According to Encarta it is defined as “shocking and morally unacceptable.” The Oxford English Dictionary describes the expression as “not right or reasonable,” and Webster’s defines the term as “not guided or controlled by conscience: unscrupulous.”

So WHY is it unconscionable? Because these same lending institutions have just begged for and accepted $700 billion in bailout money, and that is billion with a capital B. While we may or may not have had to do it the fact remains that it is a done deal for better or worse, and the American taxpayer is getting the shaft.

WE, you and I, have loaned the banks our hard earned money to straighten out their self created mess through our tax dollars, and now they are asking us to further fit the bill by raising interest rates on the credit cards of people that have always payed their bills on time. Is this not double dipping in its ugliest form?

Let’s name names; Bank of America, American Express, Citigroup, and the list goes on and on and on. When is the assault on the American public going to stop? Come on Washington. You promised us “change”. We cheered for “change”. Now let’s get it done!