Got Working Ethics?

Today, I had several orientation sessions at work. One of the sessions was about about the working ethics inside the company. One of the points which take my attention is the general guidelines to consider when you deal and interact with the company clients.

The speaker mentioned a real and interesting story happened inside the company. The company hired a very talented UI designer and there was a negotiation with one of the company clients regarding some deal. Unfortunately, the company didn't close the deal for some reason. The designer explicitly contacted the client and took the deal for himself as a private work. As a reaction from the company, the designer was fired!

It seems a very aggressive reaction. From the first impression, the person has the rights to make the work if the company is not interested in it. However, the speaker think that the employee with this action affected the company image in the market in a way or another. He believes that the employee cause a damage for the company relationships, integrity and profit which may affect the company progress in the future.

After thinking, I believe this is somehow correct. Try to put yourself in the company shoe. You will see that the company need to increase its market share not only for this employee but for hundreds of employees. When you have taken this deal for yourself - and specially this deal which was supposed to be taken by the company - the company has lost a lot of potential to take another deal from this client. I think when you work for corporate or company you became part of it. The company expects some kind of integrity in the employees interactions and dealing with the clients.