Our code of ethics outlines morality, the most basic innate traits that we should all possess as people. It highlights the use of morals that are ingrained in us since birth. These would be to treat people the way you want to be treated, do not discriminate, be respectful of others, and overall to do what is right and just. The main message of our code of ethics is fairness. I believe these are important because we often let our judgements influence our actions and thoughts. These judgements and implicit biases affect our ability to be fair and treat others with respect. This code of ethics begs of people to think twice, to think about the way they are about to handle an upcoming situation. Is the remark they are saying out of ignorance? Can their choice of not choosing someone be because of some implicit bias they have against their religion? Ethnicity? Sexual Orientation? Could it be perceived as discriminatory? Also it outlines that there are ways to disagree or share a difference of opinion with someone without being rude or belittling. There is such a thing as a respectful disagreement without offending others. It also says to give credit where credit is due. This is important because many people think that they can take others work and pass it off as their own, this is not only cheating, but also lying.
I would venture to say that our code is very good, but it of course is not perfect, but there isn't any crippling debilitating problems with it. The only major problem that sticks out to me would be that it is a little general and broad. This isn't a huge issue, the ethics code is generally a guideline that it is to be followed, but it by no means is set in stone. As situations arise, the code can be amended to either add more to it, or to elaborate on the existing guidelines. Writing this is kind of like writing code, at first we get the basic idea down on what we want done and get the concept working. After we do this, we can go back and make our code more complex, or in our case, give our guidelines more context and define them more.
I think that a Code of Ethics is a useful reminder of a way to conduct ourselves professionally and as a person. This of course is dependent on the creator of the document. I found writing this helpful because it helped me to solidify my views of what I believe to be important to me when it comes how I conduct myself and handle inter-person communication and relationships. Even though these maybe written down, a code of Ethics is something that can't really be enforced. It's something that some people will follow and others may not, and you can't really force anyone to follow it. But I guess it is a handy reference to have.