I hold myself to a high moral standard. Call me old-fashioned, but I’ve always believed that being a professional meant doing your work, doing it well, and that great work done with a good attitude would earn you career advancement over time. Credibility, trust and respect should be at the cornerstone of all professional relationships; nothing more, nothing less.

I’ve been at my company now for a long time, and have seen a lot of staff come and go over the years. However, the leadership was effective and remained relatively stable, and the company had a good reputation. But this all started to change in the last few years as the previous generation of board members gave way to younger ones.

As that happened, the new board tried to implement some changes, which would have been a disservice to the staff. Rightfully so, the long-standing CEO resisted those changes in order to protect the employees. Unfortunately, the board used this as motivation to replace him with a puppet CEO who would do as he was told.

The new CEO then instigated a witch-hunt to root out his predecessor’s most loyal supporters, and to pressure the remaining staff to disavow and discredit our old CEO. The staff who weren’t purged were offered bonuses and forced to sign new contracts for their compliance, and anyone who refused to sign the updated policy was let go.

I have a family to support and reluctantly signed the contract for our continued financial stability. But that decision eats away at me as it went against everything I believed in. The former CEO is a good man who was doing the right thing by his people, even though many of us allowed our silence to be bought. How can I live with myself?