Ethical Roles of a Civil Engineer

All jobs out there demand some deal of ethical conduct. As professionals, we must adhere to these ethical standards to create a safe working environment for ourselves and for other fellow employees. Being a civil engineer, my task and ethical responsibilities will not only lie towards my employer and my coworkers, but also to the general public, who might be affected by my ethical negligence. Since civil engineering deals with the society and its people, ethical responsibilities should be taken very seriously by civil engineers. 

I would like work for UNOPS, as a senior Project engineer. In this job I would mostly be involved in designing and reviewing buildings, roads and upgrading the infrastructures. In this position my ethical consideration would lie on various parties.

Being a part of an international organization, I will have to adhere to the policies and responsibilities that the organization upholds. My allegiance should lie on the organization, no, matter where I work. I will also have to abide by the rules of the country that I will be working at.

My ethical responsibilities towards my employees would be to communicate with them regarding any plans and progress on the project that we would be working on. I will also have to treat them with respect and work efficiently. Getting along with them is very important since we would be working as a team and to produce the most effective result, cooperation among the team members is very important. I will have to support the people who will actually be working on constructing my designs and also treat them with respect. I will have to make sure that the designs are easy to understand, so there would not be any misunderstanding for any of my colleagues on viewing them.Since I will be designing public structures, my ethical responsibilities will also lie towards the general public. My designs will have to be safe, hence leaving no room for any errors.

                 Disclose all Information                  

There have been many instances that a company or an engineer uses falsified calculations or unreliable materials or do not disclose relevant information, just for some monetary benefits. Being a civil engineer I must make sure that neither me nor my organization is doing so and putting the lives of the public at risk.I should not forge any numbers or calculation, just because I might have a hard time getting them correct.According to the Board of Directors of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, on May 7, 1999 on the code of ethics, a civil engineer should, “Disclose all relevant information concerning public safety, health, welfare, and sustainable global development, in an effort to carry out irreversible civil engineering work that is of long term and large scale in nature."

https://www.jsce.or.jp/outline/soukai/85/rinnri-e.htm

                                      No Room For Error

Negligence by a civil engineers in any way can result in the destruction of properties (public or private) that can harm large amount of people. One such negligence can be seen in the Millennium Tower in San Francisco, a 58 storey building that has sunk 17 inches and tilted 14 inches since 2008. This not only resulted in the loss of money, but also poses threat to the residents of the building as well as to the buildings close by. This clearly shows that the code of ethics should be strictly followed by every engineer, at all times.