No Stupid Questions

Yes. I don't care about anyone else's ideology. I work, and in return, you pay me. Seems simple enough.

Earlier in my career I probably would have. These days I'm an executive... I have a lot more of a choice about where I work, and a big part of my job is representing the corporation and motivating a lot of folks to work hard together to get its mission accomplished.

I don't think I could do that for a company that I thought was harmful or immoral, and I know I wouldn't want to.

I guess it depends on how desperate I am. Currently if I was job shopping, absolutely not. I have an okay job that I can keep until I find one with a company that doesn't offend my sensibilities.

But if I'm desperate for a job? I have to help feed my family. They have to come first.

I know someone who works in big pharma. And just by saying those two words I know I’ve conjured a thousand images of overcharging for insulin and pushing opioids on people. But that really is just an internet distortion. I guarantee you this person I know sleeps very well at night having met people who are only alive because of their company’s product.

Would? Yes, I do.

Yes, but I wouldn't be very good. Just good enough to keep the job.

I think I can distill many of the replies to this question in a few checks that may apply generally (exceptions abound, and i could just be wrong)

1. Are you intimately familiar (subject matter expert level) with the nasty outcomes of what you would be doing on a daily basis at this company? If yes its better it was YOU and not somebody else.

2. How much separation is there between what you do and the nasty outcomes? If you pull the trigger on a drone.. I get thats unacceptable to some people.

3. Does not doing the activity make something else even more worse? (Frying pan vs. Fire dilemma)

4. Are you only doing this because there's no other real choice? (Poverty)

I had a very very very very very very very very very very very very very very good offer from an English weapon manufacturer but turned it down because of obvious reasons.

I'm actually about to face this question down and I am dreading it. I love the job I have now, but the pay isn't there and it isn't going to be, so I have to leave. I have been WFH for 7 years now and have been following the trends in the workplace and I am so terrified of how toxic the landscape has become. Especially in any part of the VFX industry which I am trained to be in, so I am having to look wide and hope I can spin my skills and Applied Math degree into something meaningful to a company that will pay me what I'm worth.

Maybe a little off-topic, but I guess I just needed to get it off my chest.

Nope! Already turned that real down decades ago.

Absolutely.

No. I have gotten 2 offers to work for the NSA and turned them down hard. If I could stomach it, I could have a job working as an actuarial scientist for an insurance company.

I currently do, and I subvert them every chance I get.

Depends. I won't work for Raytheon regardless of how much they pay. Meta though? Maybe...

I worked in accounting. I've done it. There's not a hell of a lot of choice at the beginning of your career in public.

I was part of a group of people who got laid off from a small startup a few months ago. Many of us formed a discord group and have been supporting each other through the job hunt.

One guy who's been at his job for about a week recently said this:

Many people have told me you shouldn't take a job doing something that you love... That's the main lesson I learned from getting laid off

You end up pouring all your energy into it. I wanna do something that I hate, and I'll use that hate and anger to fuel something else 😈

It feels kinda good to look evil right in the face and put on a fake smile and say "yes I will take money from you to do bullshit work"

I'm studying to be a doctor specifically to avoid working for hugely unethical corporations. Even if I end up in the private sector (public healthcare is mostly free here), it'll be easier to justify saving lives vs. working for a defense contractor.

I struggled with that for a bit at my current job. We make parts for oil refineries.

But we also make parts for power plants, amd chemical plants so... on one hand it's oil which isn't great, on the other hand I'm keeping the lights on.

Should watch The Devil's Advocate. Or The Firm.

I don't oppose the corporation, but I dislike some of the things we make. If they ask me to work on something I object to then I'll worry about it then.

Short answer, yes.

Long answer, it's easy to say you will die for a cause while in a cushy position. Sometimes you will have to do things you don't agree with to provide for your loved ones. My current job allows me to provide without compromising my morals, but it would be dishonest of me to say I wouldn't if it didn't. As such, I don't blame the people who have.

I did this when I was younger. At first the pay was so good I didn’t mind, but about 6 months in the cognitive dissonance crept up on me and it became increasingly difficult to be productive. Eventually I self-sabotaged my own exit, definitely not a career highlight and not something I’d care to repeat. Thankfully things got much better from there, I was able to find employers who I aligned much more closely with and things have been great. So yeah, don’t underestimate the mission, have to factor that in too.

In my current situation I definitely would . I've been struggling for a while to get any job that can pay be better than what I currently get paid .

Yeah, probably.

Everyone has their price. It's just a question of how much.

I sorta do? My employer has been making commitments to improving things, and I'm involved in one of those projects, but they're a very slow ship to turn and I can't say I 100% stand behind what they're generally doing.

I joined out of a mix of necessity, opportunism and the chance to develop new skills, and grew to like the specific job I'm doing. I didn't have many choices for private reasons, but needed the money when I signed up, so in a way the money was good enough to compromise on ethics.

I got a permanent position now, and again, I stuck for personal reasons, to improve my future prospects and because I like the job, but for all the security a permanent position offers, I'm still planning to start looking for different opportunities when circumstances allow, unless the internal culture makes some masive progress in the next two years.

In the medium run? Not sure. I'd like to think I'd compromise money over ideology, but I also know that I tend to be selfish and really good at mental gymnastics to justify decisions. I would probably not sign on with Exxon, so there's definitely the severity of opposition to account for, but there isn't any clear line that I'd swear my life on. On the other hand, if the money was enough to support political causes that I feel (or tell myself) would weigh up the toll on my conscience, I might fold.

In the long run, I hope to get to a point where I can answer that with a firm "No". Maybe once life stabilises, I'll grow firmer in my convictions. Maybe once the question of pay shifts from covering necessities to the amount of luxury I can afford, the exact number will lose meaning. Maybe I'll find a place that I both support fully and earn enough at that any more would feel obscene anyway.

So basically, it comes down to the factors of

1. How strongly do I oppose the company?
2. How much money, compared to what I need to live, and compared to what I need to support a pleasant lifestyle?
3. Where am I on the scale from nihilism to idealism at the given point in time?

I try to avoid to it but no job will be perfect. You could life style creep and that nice salary turns into handcuffs and you might have issues going back to making less at a more ethical company

Any chance the friend's job was Vector Marketing or "Cutco" knives?

Just finished rewatching Sorry to Bother You, and it deals with this dynamic wonderfully. Highly recommend anyone who works for a living watch it

All Googlers say yes.

I say no personally and have been turning down jobs where I despise the company.

It really depends on the job. I'd probably work for any tech company if the price was right, but I wouldn't work for a right-wing publication or think tank ever.

Yes 100%. I get why everyone would say no, but as someone currently living in poverty without enough money to eat every day, if I could make enough money to live comfortably and the job didn't kill my body I'd work for anyone as long as the job was legal. I'd probably just shit talk the company in my off time or something, it wouldn't matter because I'd be able to afford to have off time.

They cannot be corrupt and amoral in the same time. Please choose :)