What should you do if you find out about the serious misconduct of a colleague — such as secretive bribe-taking when concluding a contract or the sale of information to a competitor — report him to the top management, or keep a low head?

Keeping a low head may seem like the easiest way out when faced with the ethical dilemma of a choice between loyalty to a colleague and loyalty to an employer, but it is not the most professional solution.

It should be remembered that the person who has misbehaved is violating the rules of team etiquette, that they are generally the one who should be scorned and not the “informer.” Svetlana Ivanovna, HR manager at Johnson and Johnson, advises that it is often best to try and resolve such problems with the violator first or to at least warn them that you are going to inform top management if the misconduct does not stop.

In Soviet times not everyone was interested in the results of their workplace, but these days the fortune of a company and its employees are naturally interrelated, so anything that brings financial loss to a company, or harms its image is to the detriment of all staff.

Successful people feel responsibility toward their company, if you don’t then it is worth re-considering whether or not you should be working there at all.