Beyond duties to the public and clients, codes govern how professionals treat one another and the profession's collective reputation. Key obligations:
- Give credit for work done by others and recognize the proprietary interests of others, do not take credit for a colleague's design or analysis.
- Do not injure, maliciously or falsely, the reputation, prospects, or business of another practitioner. Honest, factual professional criticism is permitted; malicious or unfounded attacks are not.
- Compete fairly. Do not attempt to supplant another professional who has been engaged, and base competition on qualifications and merit, not on undercutting fees in a way that compromises quality or paying/receiving improper inducements.
- Review another's work only with their knowledge (except where the engagement has ended or the law requires it), to avoid undermining a colleague behind their back.
- Build and maintain the profession's reputation through integrity, dignity, and accurate representation of one's qualifications, never claiming credentials or expertise one does not hold.
🧠 Memory hook: Credit colleagues, criticize fairly, compete on merit, don't supplant.
These rules protect the profession's standing with the public, which loops back to the social contract: a profession riven by dishonesty and sniping forfeits public trust and, with it, the privilege of self-regulation.
Exam tip: Distinguish legitimate professional disagreement (factual, fair, often required) from defamation/disparagement (malicious, false). The code permits the first and forbids the second; "never criticize another engineer" is too absolute and therefore wrong.