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Comment by xmprt

1 year ago

A piece of advice I've taken to heart is whenever I'm sending something in writing, to think about how I would feel if I needed to repeat the same things in court or if I found those messages in the news. Not that I've ever said anything near that egregious but it still helps.

Whenever I'm discussing something in person I think about how I would feel if it turned out my employer was breaking the law and me not putting it in writing stopped the injured parties from obtaining just compensation.

When putting down something in writing, you should also remember cardinal Richelieu's quote: "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

More importantly these days, have the same thought every time you write a comment on Slack or Teams.

This is excellent advice. Another thing I will add is if something is not ethical, misleading, or dishonest, just do not do it. The world will be a better place if people behave ethically. Also, I strongly suspect that long term success in business requires ethical conduct.