When faced with a situation where you would potentially be speaking up to your boss, the consequences are multilayered. Although speaking up is something that is supposedly valued in theory, speaking up across levels of authority could threaten the working relationship, especially if the boss is someone who is not used to being challenged or has the sort of personality that does not react well to being challenged. This could threaten your job security – they might write in your performance reviews that you often stand up to authority. It could also be perceived well if the boss is reasonable – it could show that you are driven and care thoughtfully about the topics on hand to think ahead about certain considerations that the boss may be glossing over or not perceiving. Accepting an ethically dubious task could reflect badly on you if you are ever found out – and it is difficult then to say “my boss made me do it” and have it be validly credible, even if its true. Because you could have spoken up and chosen not to go through with something morally questionable, and the fact that you still did the task would reflect more on your direct character. This could lead to consequences in the future where the interns’ ethics and ethos are compromised.
In utilizing the 3 step plan, it seems like the intern has already thought about how psychologically difficult it may be, and consulting with other people such as her father and soliciting their advice and support can help affirm that she is making the right decision to speak up and know that people support her decision and think she is in the right. To lessen the social threat, she can potentially walk through her interaction with her manager with others and practice preparing for worst case situations and responses that she may have to address. She should try to make her intentions as clear as possible that she is not trying to challenge her boss’s authority or be antagonistic or question his authority – being honest and open and transparent in communication should help ameliorate possible power-driven consequences of the interaction. Her plan could be to first reach out via email or offline communication to let her boss know she wants to have a conversation and then actually have the conversation with him in person.
