When I think about Susan’s situation, I see two kinds of risk: what happens if you speak up, and what happens if you don’t. In the case, Susan’s manager asks her to call competitors using only her student identity, hiding that she’s working for Zantech.
If she speaks up, she risks being seen as “difficult,” losing the internship, or getting a reputation as someone who doesn’t just go along with what she’s told. That’s scary, especially when rent, visas, and future job offers are on the line. There’s also a power gap: she’s an intern; Mr. Moon runs the office.
But if she goes along, she’s risking something bigger: her own integrity, the trust companies place in students, and even her school’s reputation. If people found out she’d misrepresented herself, it could hurt her career long after this one summer.
The “How to Speak Up When It Matters” steps give a practical path through this. First, she has to name what’s hard: it feels risky and awkward to push back, but it’s worth it to stay aligned with her values. Second, she can lower the social threat by assuming good intent and framing her concern around the company, not herself. For example, she could email Mr. Moon and Emma together and say she’s excited about the project but worried it could look bad for Zantech if competitors later learn she’s actually an intern there.
Finally, she can make a plan: write out what she wants to say, propose alternatives (like using customers, analysts, or internal experts for intel), and decide in advance what she’ll do if they insist she proceed anyway. That way, whether she stays or walks away, she’s choosing her values on purpose, not by default.
