As Susan’s dad articulates, when you speak up against a boss, you risk coming off as difficult to work with, which could hurt your career, reputation, and relationship with your boss. Especially when you haven’t yet established a relationship with your boss, speaking up can skew first impressions, which tend to have long-lasting effects and can be difficult to overcome. This could be riskier in more hierarchical workplace cultures, like Korea. However, by accepting an ethically dubious task, you risk greater career and reputation damage, and also risk dragging down your company’s reputation as Melinda points out. For students, misrepresenting their school could have academic repercussions as well.
To speak up effectively, I think Susan should recognize first how difficult it is to speak up and acknowledge the risks of speaking up; she could damage her relationship with Mr. Moon and Emma. She should also try to reduce the social threat she presents when she speaks up by representing her concern as an issue that affects both her and Mr. Moon (“we”), using a respectful tone, and highlighting shared goals in not lying about her identity, such as representing the company transparently and maintaining its honest reputation. She should also prepare beforehand what she will say, and if she’s anxious about how Mr. Moon might react since she doesn’t know him well, prepare several other lines for scenarios that could pop up (Mr. Moon gets angry, Mr. Moon agrees with her, Mr. Moon asks for time to think about her request, etc.).
