Mid-Term Question
Read the following media story. Do you agree or disagree with the decision of EBay to open on a public
holiday? Apply each of the seven possible moral standards to the full extent they are applicable [(1) core
values; (2) relativism; (3) egoism; (4) utilitarianism; (5) Kantianism; (6) moral rights; or (7) justice] to
support or critique your position. What would Milton Friedman say based on his criteria and
constraints?
The Court fined electronic appliance store EBay $20,000, the maximum fine according to the law, for
employing seven workers on the Christmas holiday. The EBay general manager was given a personal fine
of $10,000. It was the second time the store has been fined for the same offense. According to the Work
and Rest Hours Law, no employee may work on the day of rest that his or her religion dictates, unless he
or she works in a specially designated list of occupations or workplaces. EBay apparently felt it was
economically worth the risk, given the probability of being caught versus the fine the company might
have to pay. [The judge] rejected the company’s argument that the workers had been given an
alternative day off, stating that the idea of the law was that the family should be able to spend the day
of rest together. Many other firms have also opened on the holiday contrary to the law as well.
Core Values
 Trustworthiness (honesty, integrity, transparency, promise-keeping, loyalty)
EBay's mission is to provide a global trading platform where practically anyone can trade practically
anything
As eBay is a trading platform to buy and sell 24/7 and connects people from different countries and
time zones, they really need to work without interruptions (even for public holidays) to gain and
retain trust of customers and increase customer loyalty.
In terms of integrity and promise-keeping they need to provide services to everyone, which means
no matter where they live and when they want to sell or buy.
 Responsibility (accountable for actions, accept fault, apologize, don’t blame others)
They are responsible for their decisions and have to pay corporate fines, as well as personal fines for
managers, but still persist on working 24/7.
 Caring
(avoid unnecessary harm, do good when little cost to oneself, sensitive to
others’ feelings)
The technology of on-line commerce should work continuously and be administered 24/7, as it is
connected with PayPal technology and cannot be stopped even for a minute. So to avoid possible
money transfer errors and minimize system security risks, they need to provide services without
interruption.
Moreover, they want to provide an opportunity to easily sell and buy, which to some extent means
quickly sell and buy. If some system error prevents the deal, it could become very stressful for the
customers. So providing the opportunity to use the platform any time, they would go a great good
to thousands of customers with not as much coast ( $20000 fine).
 Citizenship (obey laws, assist community, protect environment)
They try to obey the law negotiating with employees and providing them optional free day, but still
it is against the law.
Total for Core Values: Tree Yes against one No. More likely to be “Yes”.
Relativism
• majority of reference point (e.g., firm, industry, customers, society) believes activity should be
considered morally acceptable
The competitors are working 24/7, the majority of e-commerce platforms are working during holidays.
People buy and sell during holidays and weekends even more intensively.
For Relativism: Yes
Egoism
• The company is to gain profit for its shareholders.
• Managers and employees are also interested in working productively and efficiently. As it is
always easier to maintain the process constantly, than to solve problems and provide research
on issues resulting of interruptions.
For Egoism: Yes
Utilitarianism
Hundreds of thousands clients benefit of working 24/7, while only several (7) employees need to
work during a holiday. As they are provided some other free day, probably it could also be for their
benefit as well.
 some of them could be single,
 some of them would prefer to spend holiday with their colleagues/ friends
 some of them could be of other religion, which means they do not suffer not celebrating
Christmas
 Some of them could be interested in getting additional compensation or promotion, etc.
For Utilitarianism: Yes
Kantianism
– Universalizability: If everyone works on holiday, it will no longer be a holiday (becomes
self-defeating) - no
– Reversibility: Would you prefer to spend a Christmas with your family or just serving
clients? – more likely to be no
– Respect: Making people work on Christmas is similar to forcing them and to exploiting
them. They cannot refuse as they are afraid to lose their jobs. – no
For Kantianism: No
Moral Rights
Both Legal rights of having holiday and moral human rights (privacy and work-life balance) are
against working during Christmas.
For Moral Rights - No
Justice or Fairness
Retributive Justice – EBay should pay penalty and manager should pay personal fine, as working on
holiday is against the law. But it is still affordable for the company.
Compensatory Justice – They are ready to compensate their employees for working during holiday,
providing another free day (probably they could do even more, for example increasing salary rate as
for overtime, or something like that) - affordable
EBay have to compensate significantly more to the clients if they stop/ interrupt services. (Probably
it would be difficult, at least less predictable.) - less affordable
Procedural Justice - fairness in the process
Employees to work were selected randomly (or voluntary). Everybody was aware of the process and
understood the reason of working on holiday. - acceptable
Societal Justice – seems to be not applicable here
Distributive Justice – people want to buy and sell, company gets profit for helping them doing that,
employees, working on holidays get fair compensation or even award and do it voluntary. - yes
For Justice or Fairness - yes
Milton Friedman:
A corporation’s only social responsibility is “to make as much money as possible while conforming to
the basic rules of the society”:
As people buy more intensively during holidays and weekends, eBay will get more profit for its
shareholders.

obeying the law;
Though it is against the law, they would try to do their best to compensate their employees
working on holidays, making the process transparent and fair and explaining the reasons. Still if
the Court fines them, they will accept and pay. So they are ready to take responsibility.

conforming to “ethical custom” (i.e., business norms where you do business)
This is common practice for e-commerce to work on holidays.

acting “without deception or fraud”
No deception or fraud, everything is transparent to the employees, and they disclosed to the
Government as well.
So Milton Friedman would say “Yes”.
In my opinion they should work as it corresponds to their mission and corporate values.
Assessing benefits and risks, I consider benefits are more than risks. Considering that penalty is
not as big and the profit they get during this day is significantly more, they need to work.
Moreover, I consider their reputation as customer-focused and ready to take responsibility
would help them to win the competition and retain their clients. If they manage to fairly
organize the resource planning process (voluntary, or/and fair compensated), probably, they
could further minimize risks. They could also work on adding those employees supporting the
process into the special list of exceptions (possible, as some types of IT professions are already
in the list).