Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.09.25
What are the "Canceled vacation" and "Sweep it under the rug" dilemmas?
Canceled vacation: managers push staff at the last minute to cancel planned trips or sacrifice personal time and money for a short-term deadline. Sweep it under the rug: problems that could harm the project or company are ignored in the vain hope they will go away.
- Canceled vacation is the one dilemma not covered by the ACM code of ethics. The code deals with fairness and non-discrimination in general, not with the mistreatment of staff.
- Sweep it under the rug, Berenbach and Broy's example: a tester reports a real bug, but managers judge that it is unlikely to affect the product, and that by the time it does they will have moved on to another project. So nothing is done. Their comment is that many managers are unaware of the ACM codes or don't consider themselves bound by them.