Personal vs professional ETHICS

Personal and Professional ethics go hand in hand. Ethics can be defined as a belief system that an individual holds on to while carrying out day to day activities. It cannot be a set of defined norms or regulations; in fact it is a way of life. One consciously doesn’t builds their beliefs nor do their thinking take shape overnight, they are established through experiences of childhood in the aforementioned environments.

The definition of right and wrong does not change for a person based on the environment. If honesty is a principal that one holds onto at home, he will also pursue it at work. 'Trust but verify' builds reliance on others and it is rare that one can find other psychic constituents in the workplace or in life for that matter.  There are certain people who you would blindly trust, but this cannot be categorized under personal or professional. You will take their advice in both personal and professional stances.  

                I agree that there are certain situations wherein we have to prioritize between personal and professional life, but our conscience summons us to balance the two without being partial to one. Our moral beliefs guide us unconsciously to do the right thing. An ethically strong person will never tend to use undue means to rise the corporate ladder.

                All of us have gone through situations where we have had to choose between right and wrong. I can relate to one such incident, I came across a bug in my code in the last phase of the development lifecycle.  It was highly probable that it could go unnoticed and could be quietly fixed it in the next release. But it would have spoiled our relations with the client if at all it was caught. Even though it was my profession, I made a personal choice to stick to my beliefs.

It is human instinct to categorize things between right and wrong, but these definitions differ from person to person but not from one environment to other.

The most inspiring Poem of all times

If—
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream--and not make dreams your master; If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run-- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

Robert Frost

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.