THE. ETHICIST TAP : [ Q ]

DO I have to help my friend get a job I know she'd be bad at ? : Early in my career, a good friend recommended me to her company. She was not the hiring manager, but her recommendation helped me get a job.

I held this job happily and successfully, for more than a decade, laying the foundation for my current position at a prestigious firm.

My friend was eventually let go. What co-workers said and what I knew of her work, I believed her performance had fallen short and that efforts to improve it had failed.

She blamed the people she worked with for finding fault in her. As her friend, I expressed sympathy and never told her what I had heard. She later found another job and remained there for many years.

She has now been let go again and has asked me for job leads. I am in a position to help and might even be able to get her work with my current employer.

The problem is that I am not confident she would meet our standards. If she were hired, I might have to  '' cover '' for her or help prevent the quality of the work from slipping. I also do not want to evaluate or manage a close friend, and I would be uncomfortable recommending her elsewhere in the field.

At the same time, I owe much of my career to her willingness to help me when she was more established than I was.

She is a dear friend, and I feel I should return that generosity now. Yet helping her could compromise the reputation I have worked hard to build. I also worry that our friendship could create concerns about bias.

On paper she is qualified, but hiring or recommending someone mainly because she is a friend would feel unethical unless I genuinely believed she could do the job.

We are both in our mid-50s and may still need another decade of employment. Should I help her and hope for the best?

If I don't, I may have to explain why, or lie about the availability of work, which would leave me feeling guilty and disloyal.

[ Name Withheld ].

!WOW! thanks Professor Kwame Anthony Appiah, N.Y. U.