Long-standing codes of ethics and practice by engineering societies such as NSPE, ASCE, and ACEC are honorable and provide value. However, at times, they seem ambiguous and superficial rather than practical. As a believer in brevity, I’ve always said the simplest ethics guide to follow is the Golden Rule—do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Ethics don’t only apply to business practices and personal behavior. As suggested by Princeton’s David Billington, "Engineering ethics are also about how well engineers spend their clients’ and/or owners’ money. Their structural designs must provide the safest and greatest value for their clients’ investment dollar."

Undebatably, it is unprofessional to hide faulty designs or details from superiors or clients, or to take money under false pretenses such as not performing a service contracted for or not telling employers or clients if they made a mistake and overpaid us.

Engineering ethics for everyday practices especially take center stage when economies struggle. With the increasing use of off shoring and outsourcing, new criteria for proper ways to conduct business are evolving and requiring scrutiny. How employees get treated and how employees treat their employers are of equal importance.

John Blume, the father of earthquake engineering who founded his consulting firm in 1945, said, "When I left Brunnier [the engineering firm he was with], I did not entice any Brunnier employees to come with me. And I was doubly careful not to get involved with any Brunnier clients. I wish that code of ethics prevailed throughout the profession. Unfortunately, a few of my former employees did not use the same code." Some might call stealing employees and clients a "gray area"; many others would agree with Blume.

Another frequent unethical practice to be guarded against during slow economic times involves commissions. Nearly every consulting engineering firm has "war stories" about procurement infractions, as the following two examples show. Both occurred during the mid-1980s recession and involved my company, Richard Weingardt Consultants. In the first, my firm was brought onto an architect’s team because of our extensive record for designing parking structures. Using our credentials, the architect successfully secured the commission for a major municipal parking facility.

However, shortly after the architect signed a contract for this project (that our credentials helped obtain), he replaced our firm with another engineer whose fee was lower. Clearly, the Golden Rule was nowhere in sight.

The second example involved a design-build competition for a large convention center. We attended interviews and made presentations on behalf of this group to the selection committee that judged and ranked our design-build team against four others.

The good news: Our design-build team was declared the winner of the competition. The bad news: Three days later, the lead architect on the team informed us we were being replaced by a structural engineer from one of the four other finalists. A lot of secretive, heavyweight negotiating went on behind closed doors, a situation that hardly exemplified Golden-Rule principles.

Even though less-than-professional practices occur more often than the engineering community would like, they intensify during financially bad times. With forecasters indicating the whole world faces disastrous economic days ahead, how ethical will we engineers remain?

Norman Augustine, former CEO of aerospace-giant Lockheed Martin, said, "We were once in competition for a major contract. The day before we were to submit our proposal, we received a copy of our competitor’s price sheet, presumably from a disgruntled employee. We promptly informed the government and this competitor what had happened. We did not change our bid price even though it was higher and we lost the contract. Consequently, some of our employees lost their jobs due to lack of work. I wish I could say ethical behavior always pays off. I believe it does in the long term, but not always in the short term."

Kenneth Wright, head of Wright Water Engineers and recipient of several national business ethics recognitions including a recent prestigious American Ethics in Business Award, said, "Following the Golden Rule in dealing with employees, clients, and public interest is not only ethical, but good business in the long run."

It’s your call to make. As my father always told me, "Your reputation is the most sacred thing you have. Never lose it." It’s up to you to follow the Golden Rule—or not. In the end, you’ll have to live with your decision.

Richard G. Weingardt, P.E., is CEO and chairman of Richard Weingardt Consultants, Inc., a Denver-based structural engineering firm. He can be reached via e-mail at rweingardt@gostructural.com.