Ethics, Integrity, and When to Speak Up
If you see something, say something.
Why this gets its own card
Most professional practice courses cover contracts, liability, and licensure. Fewer address what to do when something in your workplace simply feels wrong. That gap matters — because early-career professionals encounter ethical problems more often than they expect, and they're often the least equipped to recognize or respond to them.
This card is about what to do when the issue isn't a gray area in a contract. It's about the clearer situations where something is wrong, and someone needs to say so.
What "if you see something" covers
A hostile work environment — one built on fear, humiliation, or the consistent belittling of staff — is not a personality quirk of a demanding boss. It's a problem, and it causes real damage to the people inside it. If you experience or witness sustained abusive behavior in a workplace, document it and tell someone: a supervisor above the person involved, HR if the firm has it, or your co-op director or faculty advisor.
Being asked to use your student software license for production work on client projects is a violation of that license agreement — and, depending on the software, a legal exposure for the firm. It also puts you in a difficult position personally. If this happens, say clearly that your license terms don't permit commercial use, and offer to flag it so the firm can obtain the appropriate license. Do not simply comply.
If you observe billing practices that appear fraudulent — time billed to projects you weren't working on, charges inflated or misrepresented to clients — you're in ethically complicated territory. Document what you observe. Raise it with someone you trust at the firm if possible. If the firm itself is the problem, external resources exist: your state licensing board and the ASLA Code of Ethics both provide frameworks and reporting mechanisms.
The nuance
This card is not a license to impose your values on an office that simply operates differently from how you'd prefer. Firms have different cultures, management styles, and ways of handling conflict, and most disagreements aren't ethical violations — they're differences of opinion or style. The situations above are different: they involve harm, legal exposure, or professional misconduct. Know the difference.
Don't push your morals onto others, but don't compromise your own either. The profession has a code of ethics for a reason — and your integrity is the one professional asset that, once damaged, is genuinely difficult to rebuild.
A personal note
Toxic workplaces exist. I've worked in them. The decision to leave — or to name the problem — is rarely simple, and the aftermath isn't always clean. But the alternative is suffering in silence while a bad environment does real damage to your professional development and your wellbeing. If something is wrong, find a way to say so — to your supervisor, to HR, to your co-op director, to the ASLA. You don't have to navigate it alone.