I was wondering , if you will be ready to work fof an organisation that you oppose ideologically , for instance you are against big oil but you get a job interview in exxonmobil with good pay , would you consider it ?
*Edit : Recently a friend of mine got a marketing job for a company that had shady business practices , selling their product to gullible parents. Since it was a marketing job , the pay was good but my friend left it within a week , saying it does not suit his ideology.
I consider most “for profit” corporations as corrupt and amoral.
So, yes. Those are the only ones who pay close to a living wage.
Agreed. I wouldn’t want to, say, work for a defense contractor, bit I’ve worked in traditional finance for years now, and I definitely disagree with it.
There is 1) work you can do to improve this messed up world, 2) work that leaves it as messed up as it already is but doesn’t make it particularly worse, and 3) work that actively seeks to make it worse.
I’ll do #1 for free or at discounted rates, #2 if the pay is good (this is what I generally expect to do these days), and avoid #3 to the extent that I can. Though if the pay is ridiculously good, maybe that transfer of assets from the bad guys to me could be considered an improvement in the world in its own right ;).
Unless you’re supportive of the concept that you’re a non-capitalist drone working to make a capitalist rich… You already do
I think it’s more a question of where the line is. You virtually always have to compromise in at least some small ways.
Would you work for a company where the CEO is an outspoken bigot? What about a company that constructs weapons for the military that you know will be used to kill thousands? Or one of those scam call centers, where your entire job would be scamming the elderly? Or taking to even more extremes, what about a criminal gang where you may have to directly kill people? For that matter, what about indirectly killing people, like if your employer is a massive polluter?
Some of these I’m not even certain of my answer for. In my current situation, I’m well off and don’t need to worry much about pay and finding work is easy. But what if I was in a desperate situation, where I was struggling to find work that paid enough to sanely live on? I know I’d definitely have a lower threshold then, but where exactly it lies is hard to say when I’m not in such a situation.
It’s the same with boycotts. If you’re in poverty and the only close store is a Walmart, good luck boycotting them. You do the best you can within the means you have.
This is quite a relevant question for me. In Greece there isn’t a lot of innovation and the government doesn’t really give a shit to fix the root problems, all young people that can change the scene leave for better countries.
That leaves us with very few companies that do something respectable and are worth working for, and a ton of gambling companies that feed off of the uneducated people. Those gambling companies are making huge profits and doing very well in general, so working for them is usually a nice experience from what I’ve heard of.
It’s often tempting, but I can’t justify participating in this disgusting industry to get more money, benefits and time. It would never sit well with me, but it always feels unfair how many jobs there are for that industry compared to anything else.
Can you leave Greece as well?
Not really, and I don’t actually want to.
Thankfully I’m working for one of the companies that are an exception and are actually pretty innovative, it’s not bad despite the pay being a bit worse and the hours longer.
Depends on how bad the company is and ig I’m in dire need of a job/ pay rise.
I’ve turned down jobs at Nestle and De Beers due to them being widely unethical and because I had a decent job at the time.
Definitely. I’m a whore.
As long as it isn’t something obviously evil like religion.
What about something obviously evil like selling personal data as a business model?
Or drilling oil
Name a successful tech business that doesn’t sell user data. Some companies, like Google, just make it their only business model.
Does Google sell user data? They profit from it for sure, but they keep it to themselves to do so as far as I know.
I currently do and I need to get out ASAP. I should’ve stayed in school, the pay is great but the self loathing isn’t worth it
Nope. There’s never enough money, and I’m not going to sell out for a fancier box and wheels.
No matter how good the pay, the resulting cognitive dissonance would overwhelm me eventually and either lead to a mental breakdown, or me quitting. It wouldn’t be worth it.
Not only is the answer no, but I’m currently taking a pretty big pay cut to work for a non-profit that I believe in. When you work for scum you start to lose your soul, and it’s hard to have any pride in your work knowing your only contribution is enriching your boss. Now my work goes towards a good cause, and I’m far more motivated to do well at my job.
I currently do. I worked for a European SME who was purchased by a fortune 500 company which are currently in the news for anti union actions in the US.
I am lucky enough that to fire someone in my country is a royal pain in the ass so I am always fine with calling out their horseshit in the internal company surveys.
Absolutely. And I did so to afford my family’s medical needs, food, shelter, etc. The pay was almost 3x what I made previously, which wasn’t a lot. Benefits, flexibility, all that shit. And then they laid off my entire team hahahahahaha
and I’d do it again
No, but i am lucky to have the choice not too.
I have worked for the last 6.5 years at a faith based credit union ($400MM in size) despite being an atheist. All of our meetings start with a prayer. They have been good up until recently where we’ve done more and more investment real estate lending and that doesn’t sit well with me with our housing crisis in the US. Have a 3rd interview with a regional bank ($14Bn in size) to move to more C&I and CRE loans instead of single family homes. I know they are still involved in it but I’m not going to be the one writing loans on investment properties. They also do a lot of affordable housing lending and community reinvestment in distressed areas.
I work as a consultant so I’m always dealing with different customers. We had one client who operates payday loans. I refused to do any work for them and thankfully my company didn’t argue when I said I couldn’t morally work with them.
That said, I have a child with autism and I’m spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on getting him the help he needs. My companies insurance sucks and I saw a job posting at Raytheon I was a perfect fit for. I’m still conflicted on if I should apply just to get better insurance and help my family.
Imo do it. RTX does fine work. They don’t exist to scam people. The primary problem with them is how governments use their tech. Even so, without them we would in fact be worse off. In this case your family comes first.
Yeah, God, that’s a difficult position to be put in.
Sorry man - you shouldn’t have to make choices like that… if you do have to take it, I’d try to ease my concious by redirecting their money. Like, I did that when I had to work for a for-profit contract company staffing Australias social services. KPIs for welfare phone lines staffed by undertrained whoevers. They’d penalise us for taking the time to help vulnerable people. Disgusting company - left the second I could afford to. I put something aside for local mutual aids and environmental groups.
God man - I’m sorry, that just sucks.
Good luck. Hope you can avoid Raytheon.
I’m sorry you had to work for a place like that, but glad to hear you got out of it. I seriously cannot believe people who own/run companies can sleep at night.
