Rebecca Skaggs
Aspiring Public Relations Practitioner
Personal Code of Ethics
I believe it is extremely important to know your personal beliefs and have a set of morals for yourself. Everyone has different values and beliefs but establishing a personal code has helped me navigate both my professional and personal life. My personal code of ethics is a combination of things I have learned from my parents and teachers, as well as my public relations professors at Newhouse over the years, and my friends.
The four major pillars of my personal code of ethics are:
Treat People with Kindness
Whenever I meet someone new, I’m as nice as possible to make them feel comfortable. I never want to be the person that is mean to someone or hurts their feelings, which could result in them not wanting to work with me anymore. This may seem like a universal thing, but I’ve been involved in relationships where treating me with kindness wasn’t the norm. Therefore, I always try to be friendly, because I believe if we were all a little bit nicer to each other, the world would be a better place.
Honesty/Transparency
Like most people, I don’t like being lied to. I believe that dishonesty is especially wrong in a professional setting, where lies can affect more than just a few people, but rather a whole organization or one of its publics. Lying also doesn’t help solve the problem, it only delays the inevitable, therefore I will adhere to the standard of telling the truth and being accurate with the information I provide to clients or peers.
Accountability
Over the years , I have learned that you have to own up to your mistakes. I’m a perfectionist so I dislike failure. I used to see mistakes as a bad thing, no matter how many times my dad told me that “you have to make mistakes to succeed.” At Newhouse, I’ve grown to accept that everyone makes mistakes and it is better to be accountable for them, rather than hide from them. When it comes to public relations, being able to own up to a mistake and remedy the
issue could save you your job.
Fairness
We often make assumptions about people we don’t know. I’m not perfect, so I have definitely judged someone before I got to know them and ended up being wrong. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tried to do this less and it has helped me significantly. Heading into my professional life, evaluating everyone fairly is extremely important to me because I hope that the client, my coworkers, or peers will do the same for me. Also, in all group settings, including others that seem to be left out, is a goal of mine.