Chats were not lost in translation On Ethics
Q
An acquaintance who
works for a mutual fund regularly visits Japan to meet with companies in which the fund invests. Brokerage firms that do business with the fund set up the meetings and provide translators.
Executives of the companies he visits assume he does not speak Japanese and hold private conversations in his presence that could affect investment decisions. My acquaintance needs a translator’s help with some technical terms but easily handles conversational Japanese. Must he divulge this to those executives? Daniel Gottlieb, Los Gatos, Calif. AYour
acquaintance should
be candid about his language skills. If he keeps silent in a company’s reception room while those around him speak Japanese, he does no wrong. Those who assume he is a monoglot are victims of their own prejudice. However, by accepting the services of a translator, and one that his clients provide, in an actual business meeting, he is in effect saying that he needs one, a passive form of deception, perhaps, but deception it is.
This is not to demand total disclosure. Business relationships can be competitive ( the interests of all parties rarely coincide) and are often characterized by different levels of understanding. Business secrets can be legitimate. But by partly fostering and then deliberately exploiting a reasonable misunderstanding, your friend crosses the line. It’s what our grandparents called being a mensch and our colleagues call behaving honourably.
Likewise, if he comes upon a colleague who believes herself alone as she takes off her business suit to slip into something more comfortable — a movie moment more often than an actual mutual- fund moment — he would do well to clear his throat rather than let her think she is unobserved.
There is another distinction to be drawn.
In the reception room, there is no expectation of privacy, so no one should be chattering away about business secrets in any language. There is no duty to warn strangers that they’re acting imprudently. Among colleagues, though, there are different expectations, including that of candour. Readers can direct their questions and comments to ethicist@nytimes.com. This column originates in The New York Times Magazine.