With a bit of trepidation, I visited the new “Ethics Monitor” FastCompany magazine has just launched. According to Heath Row, writing in the magazine’s FC Now blog, the monitor is “a series of periodic surveys in which we gauge readers’ positions on a number of topics and everyday scenarios.”

The first questions deal with individual behavior. The questions include…

• Do you instruct your assistant to tell callers that you’re “in a meeting” when you really just don’t want to be bothered?
• Have you given good performance reviews to a worker who maybe didn’t deserve it?
• When discussing job opportunities with potential new employers, have you ever fudged the size of your current or most recent salary?
• Do you sometimes “embellish” your professional experience when circumstances call for it?
• Have you told an employee “no” and blamed company policy or your boss when it really was your own decision?
• Have you ever lied to meet high expectations from your boss?
• Have you ever been caught in a lie? If so, what happened?

What with the Ketchum scandal and a greater public interest in the worst of public relations, I don’t suspect it’ll be long before PR is the focus of an Ethics Monitor query.