Week 11: Codes of Conduct

Week 11 – Codes of Conduct

The department that I work in has a series of policies and procedures that lay down the basic guidelines that all employees should follow in order to perform their daily tasks and keep order in the workplace.  These policies consist of Attendance and Punctuality, Disciplinary Action, Dispute Resolution, Drug and Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace, Personal Appearance, Preventing Hostility and Violence in the Workplace, and Supporting Victims of Domestic Violence.

These policies cover every single type of issue that could happen in the workplace and provide ways for us to prevent obstruction of these policies. Since scientific researchers mostly inhabit this department, these policies encourage employees to maintain themselves in the most formal and hygienic manner. Being formal and keeping your mind on the task at hand at all times is really important because of the many ways that research can go awry. Maintaining hygiene within yourself and within the workplace is very important in keeping the work area bacteria free and maintaining a formal appearance. The consequences for breaking any of these policies lie within the “Disciplinary Action” part of the list of these policies and procedures. 

I think that these rules and regulations hold a high but necessary standard for the employees of the QHS department but they are necessary for an institution like the UMASS Medical School. After briefly looking at these policies, I found no flaws in these policies when it comes to maintaining order in the workplace. I admire how there are different groups of people within the department that assess to different issues in the workplace such as the Risk Assessment Team, who review any action in the workplace that can pose as a risk to a person’s well being and come up with possible plans to prevent such action from happening. So not only do these policies expect employees to look and behave their best, but also they make the overall environment of the QHS department feel safe to work in.