“I’m the purchasing manager for an engineering company, and I’ve been told to lay off one employee. All my staffers are hard-working, and I don’t feel morally right about laying off one of them. My boss says every department needs to participate in the cut. What should I do?”

1. It’s not about you, it’s about doing your job as a manager. Show some courage; pick someone. (What general criteria should be applied to determine who gets laid off? What is your ethical reasoning for this approach?)
2. Suggest to upper management that there are many good alternatives to layoffs, such as voluntary leave without pay, reduced hours across the board, and lending workers to local companies that are temporarily short-handed. (What is your preferred approach and how would you present your case to management? What is your ethical argument?)
3. Tell management that it is arbitrary to cut one person from every work unit because some units may have all winners while other units may have a number of marginal people. (State your business case and ethical argument for this line of thinking.)
4. Go to the wall to defend your group and tell management you’ll quit rather than “sacrifice” a perfectly good employee. (What is your ethical reasoning here?)
5. Invent other interpretations or options. Discuss.