Question: The budget cutbacks that everyone was anticipating finally happened, and now Tomas had the hard decision of how to minimize the impact of fewer dollars on his team. It was clear that the budget wasn't going to be large enough to cover the 8 contractors he had on his team. Joanne had asked Tomas for his recommended course of action by the end of next week, and so far he had already spent a couple of sleepless nights considering alternatives. He knew that he had to reduce or streamline tasks so he could cut the number of people, but there were no easy solutions or clear criteria on how to do this.

Everyone on the team was a good worker. Some of them had a more critical role to play in the upcoming deployment of the maintenance tracking system, while others had good "institutional knowledge" that had been invaluable to Tomas in his new role. Tomas worried in particular about the newest member of the team who still had a fairly narrow scope of responsibility, and was therefore a likely candidate for downsizing. Unfortunately, this team member was currently going through a rough patch in her personal life and would probably be hardest hit emotionally by a layoff. Maybe he should give her a heads up. Tomas knew it would be another sleepless night.

As Tomas grapples with this ethical dilemma, which of these principles could best help him?

a. Consider tried and true approaches from his previous job.

b. Consider how he would feel if he were laid off.

c. WWJD: Consider what Joanne would do.

d. Consider which approach does the most good and the least harm