You work for a reinsurance company, always eager to win business. You have been qualified as an actuary for a few years and have certain authority within the office.

Your company has thrown a cocktail party for a number of clients to coincide with an England-Germany football match. Because of the successful outcome of the game, the alcohol continues to flow into the small hours. You are flitting from group to group being sociable, and catch the tail-end of a conversation between your boss, an actuary, and the CEO of a small insurance company, EasyLife, for whom you are the account executive. The tone is one of light-hearted banter, but you hear your boss say " ...... and that consulting actuary, Percy Snodgrass, I would never have him on my team; he's a waste of space - worse than putting James back in goal for England ......" . The talk reverts to football (not your favourite sport) and you move on.

Within a week, there is a letter on your desk from Percy Snodgrass. He has been fired from his secondment to EasyLife. He holds you responsible for words said to the CEO. He is now about to contact the Professional Regulation Executive Committee.

What do you do?

In general, this is no more that the application of common sense. Remember, it is difficult to be prescriptive before all the facts of a case are known.

• the first step is to take three long inhalations and relax. Situations can be rapidly blown out of proportion by the bullish reaction of a rapid-fire phone call or email;
• now, refer to the Professional Conduct Standards (PCS);
• next, think carefully. Did you say anything inappropriate? Or capable of mis-interpretation? If not, you assume your name has been attached to someone else's comments;
• where you can, sort it out on a low key informal basis; this is often possible where accusations have arisen from an apparent mistake;
• now arm yourself with as much evidence as you can as to what really happened:
  • who was involved?
  • who else might be affected by any action you take?
  • you might approach colleages present at the cocktail party to find out if words were exchanged about Percy Snodgrass that might have been wrongly attributed to you.
• You must now approach your boss:
  • as a colleague who seems to be a key player in the incident, to find out what he said;
  • as a senior actuary, who can advise you;
  • as your boss, who may be able to clarify the situation with Easylife and contact Mr Snodgrass, bringing the case to an end.
• if you are still no further forward in uncovering the reason for the allegations, you might contact Percy Snodgrass and arrange to meet (any detailed discussion over the telephone might be counter-productive).
  • From this, you should learn of the reason for the accusation - how come whatever was said was deemed to have come from your mouth?
  • any misunderstanding should be clarified and the case may end.
• if there is still no resolution and Mr Snodgrass is intent on taking it to the Profession, it would seem appropriate for you to contact the Professional Guidance Committee (see paragraph 1.5 of the PCS). They will advise you if there is anything else to be done before the Profession hears formally from Mr Snodgrass.
• remember, paragraph 2.2 of the PCS states that you must avoid bringing the profession into disrepute or denigrating a fellow actuary to an outsider (see section 8 of the PCS). You should be particularly careful while the facts are still relatively unknown.
• Finally, you were on company duty at the time, so can expect your employer to support you, if needs be.

Where there is a genuine mistake, a simple honest open approach to resolution will often lead to closure with sincere apologies and the matter forgotten forever.

Case study 2