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.
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.
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.
Technically they sell ads that rely on user data they collected. I was just trying to say they are uniquely evil in that their entire business model revolves around user data while claiming they are a search company or OS company or email company whatever project they will start and kill next.
Most POS companies like LexisNexis are very open about their business model being people’s personal info.
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.
To a certain degree, there ain’t really that many companies that are ideologically aligned with me lol
I currently do! I work for one of the huge mega tech corporations.
They pay me very well, I have great benefits, and a I get a ton of paid time off. They don’t work me too many hours. They were very flexible with me when my wife was in and out of the hospital. They give decent annual raises and bonuses, and great stock bonuses.
Unless something changes, I don’t see myself leaving, even though I know I could get money by bouncing around, because my job is very easy and the pay is very good for how easy my job is.
Lol - sounds just like me.
I also work for a mega tech, and I genuinely have concerns over some of the bad press we get.
But I find it hard to resist the benefits for me and my family. I’m now in the last 15 years or so of my career. I need to finish big, for my family.
When someone depends from your income like a child, sometimes you can’t say no even if it contradicts your principles, if you decide to put yourself through a rough time based entirely on ethics and moral, then do it by yourself.
Nope. There’s never enough money, and I’m not going to sell out for a fancier box and wheels.
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.
In this case your family comes first
This is a great point. I’ve already decided to get out of Texas because of my family. For the longest time I refused to move because I felt like that was giving up. Especially since my district was pretty well split 50/50. However, the things that have happened over the last year have made me loss all hope. And there is no way in hell am I raising my daughter in a state that would put a bounty on her reproductive rights. What type of parent would I be if I didn’t do what was best for them?
Sincerely, thanks. I think I just needed to hear someone else say what you said.
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.
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
Oh 100% I’ll take a job with any company for the right pay and benefits. It helps that I’m an IT guy so any nastiness the company is involved in isn’t directly my job.
I currently work for a national company that does contract work for food processing plants, so plenty of nasty stuff involved, but my hands stay clean as I primarily manage their ERP software and build reports and workflows to hopefully help keep what happens at the plants as above the board and by the book as possible
Only very briefly if I really needed the money. I used to work a corporate job and for a while I was a contractor doing data analysis. Those jobs left me feeling like I wasn’t doing anything of value and that was enough to shift me into the public sector, which I enjoy immensely. I’d rather not go back but I could see myself needing more money than is generally on offer in public service.
If I opposed the organization ideologically I’d probably sell plasma before I took a job there. But I don’t have a family relying on me so that makes it easier.
No. Worked for a facility that did lethality testing on various animals for potential drugs. I recognize the need for such things, but it wore on me until I had to quit.
No, but i am lucky to have the choice not too.
Nope. Any job I had where they required me to do something I thought was unethical like selling credit cards or upsetting I just refused to do it until they let me go. I would rather enjoy being unemployed than stoop to that bullshit.
It’s a trade-off, so it depends on both how good the pay is and how opposed the company is.
I’m currently working for a crypto company, and have worked for other similar ones in the past, and these all tend to be libertarian types which I don’t agree with, but they pay well.
On the other hand, a previous employer tried to get Saudi Aramco as a client, and I made it clear that I would not support this. Fortunately those talks didn’t come anywhere.
So yes, there’s certainly a line.
