• FAQs
  • Jobs
  • Shop
  • News
  • Contact
  • Register
  • My IEMA
logo
  • About
    • Our organisation

      • About us
      • What we do
      • Governance
      • Meet the team
      • IEMA at 25 Years
      • Future purpose of IEMA
      • Collaborations
      • Green Careers Hub
      • Current Vacancies
    • Our commitments

      • Climate emergency
      • Sustainability policy
      • IEMA's carbon footprint
      • Equality, diversity and inclusion
      • Diverse Sustainability Initiative
      • Green Skills at COP
    • News and shop

      • News
      • Publication shop
      • IEMA in the media
  • Profession
    • Policy, Practice & Public Affairs

      • Overview
      • Public affairs
      • Biodiversity and natural capital
      • Circular economy
      • Climate change mitigation & adaptation
      • Environmental management
      • Impact assessment
      • Social sustainability
      • Sustainable finance
    • Standards & Chartership

      • Sustainability skills map and membership standards
      • Sustainability competencies
      • Path to Chartership
      • State of the profession
      • Upgrade your membership
      • IEMA Code of Professional Conduct
      • Continued professional development at IEMA
    • Careers

      • IEMA jobs board
      • Green skills and careers
  • Join
    • Individual membership

      • Membership Grades
      • Membership Fees
      • Join a Specialist Register
      • Reinstate your membership
      • Upgrade your membership
      • Sustainability skills map and membership standards
      • IEMA Code of Professional Conduct
    • Corporate partnerships

      • Corporate partnerships overview
      • Corporate partnership benefits
      • EIA Quality Mark
      • Professional development schemes
    • Educational partnerships

      • Become a training partner
      • Become a university partner
  • Learn
    • Courses

      • Upcoming training courses
      • Course information
      • Training partner register
      • Approved university courses
      • Apprenticeships and membership
    • Videos and publications

      • Day in the life
      • How To
      • How to become a Practitioner
      • Policy and practice resources
      • Sustainable Matters podcast
      • Transform
      • Watch again - video library
      • Navigate Environment
    • Sustainability skills

      • All jobs greener
      • Sustainability skills map
      • Skills for the workplace
      • Sustainability competencies
      • Transition to net zero
      • Green Careers Hub
  • Engage
    • Blogs, events and webinars

      • Blogs
      • IEMA Connect
      • Upcoming events and webinars
      • Watch again - video library
      • Affinity partnerships - exclusive offers for IEMA members
    • Communities

      • UK Regional Networks
      • World Regional Networks
      • IEMA Futures Network
      • IEMA Fellows Network
      • Policy and Practice Networks
      • Specialist Registers
      • Specialist in Land Condition Register
      • Diverse Sustainability Initiative
      • Green Careers Hub
    • Transform

      • Home
      • News and features
      • Archive
  • FAQs
  • Jobs
  • Shop
  • News
  • Contact
  • Register
  • My IEMA

Managing professional dilemmas

I’ve got a professional dilemma; how do I resolve it?

Workplace problems – particularly those of an ethical nature – can be very tricky to tackle. They can cause worry, stress or even legal issues, which means they are always best addressed quickly and transparently. But how do you voice your concerns? Our quick, five-step guide should help you negotiate the issue, seek support and take action.

Step 1 – Familiarise yourself with IEMA’s Code of Professional Conduct and what it asks of you as a professional. This will help you recognise situations where you are compromising, or are being pressured to compromise, your professional conduct. To quote our Change Management for Sustainable Development Guide, this can include 'being asked to do things that feel beyond your competence, or beneath it; being asked to support action or policies that you do not believe in, or are against company policy, involve being less than truthful or are plain illegal'.

Step 2 – Talk to someone. A problem shared really is a problem halved. Ideally, speak to your line manager; if you can’t do that in the first instance, talk to colleagues or to other IEMA members. We are a community and a safe space, so it is likely that other members will have had similar experiences and can act as a sounding board, guide and challenging your thinking about your next steps. Perhaps voice your concerns (removing any names or specifics) on our closed LinkedIn group, or look out for local IEMA events and socials to meet peers who you can talk to. Alternatively, contact IEMA direct at [email protected] or telephone +44 (0)1522 540069.

Step 3 – Decide on the best action to take. This will depend upon the situation you face. There is not always a clear right or wrong answer to many situations. In a recent IEMA survey on professional conduct, members reported that often the issues they face come from misunderstanding or a lack of understanding and that by talking to the parties involved, educating them and negotiating with them, the situations can often be resolved. Of course, this takes courage and confidence, so use your IEMA membership to help you. If you have a professional membership grade (one designated by a suffix) then have confidence in your convictions; you wouldn’t have the recognition if your assessors didn’t think you deserved it. You can also use the Code of Professional Conduct; show it to people and use it to demonstrate why you are raising the issue, and why you are giving advice. Of course, you have no control over how people respond to your advice, but as long as you are giving advice to the best of your ability then your conscience is clear. At the extreme end of action some IEMA members have reported illegal activity to regulators or have left roles as a result of the pressure being put on them to compromise their professional conduct. The right course of action is not always easy, and you have to decide what your boundaries are, what the Code of Professional Conduct means to you and act accordingly. There are organisations that can help, such as Public Concern at Work who operate a whistleblowing helpline, so if you have a concern about wrongdoing or malpractice in your workplace, you can give them a call to get guidance.

Step 4 – Act. This is where you put your chosen course of action into practice. You should consider keeping a thorough record of what happened and when, and how you acted.

Step 5 – Reflect. Life is a continual cycle of learning. So once the dust has settled on the situation, take some time and reflect on it. What happened? Why did it happen? How did you respond? How did others respond to you? What worked and what didn’t? If you had the opportunity to repeat the situation, what would you do differently? You can use all of these learning points to help you in the future.

Useful sources of support and information:

Institute for Business Ethics

Public Concern at Work

Whistleblowing Guide for Employees

Environment incident hotlines:

England
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

While these are UK-based organisations, the principles outlined in the resources that can be found on their websites will typically carry across the globe.

logo

Fenland House,
15B Hostmoor Avenue,
March,
Cambridgeshire,
PE15 0AX.

  • Call us:

    +44 (0)1522 540069
  • Email us:

    [email protected]
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility
  • Make a Complaint

© Copyright The Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals 2025

(formerly the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment)

Company Limited by Guarantee. Registration Number: 03690916 Place of Registration: England and Wales Registered Office Address: Fenland House, 15 B Hostmoor Avenue, March, Cambridgeshire, PE15 0AX

  • logo
  • logo
  • logo
Inactivity Alert Just now
Your session will expire soon due to inactivity.
Session Expired Just now
You have been logged out. Click close to continue.