No Stupid Questions

I'm lucky enough to be able to have a lot of choice where I work - in a software engineer and there are any number of places where I could work and be paid well. Given that I feel some responsibility to work somewhere ethical - not everyone else has the opportunity to decide.

That all depends on the specifics of "good pay". I guarantee there is some amount of money that I'll accept to do practicaly any job. That may be far more than "good" though.

Depends. Is more a smooth transition for me. Would work for Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Microsoft if the pay was alright. Wouldn't like to work for defense industry. Or big pharma.

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.

At my age? Yeah I would.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

Absolutely not. I have had recruiters contact me about "defense" (read: murder and imperialism) companies and flat out refused to even consider the jobs.

I hold the position that if I knowingly helped design a system that delivered a bomb which, for example, blew up someone's wedding party, I would have to pay the murdered people's families reparations out of what money I do have, and kill myself to atone for abetting that atrocity. Defense contractors are disgusting, I don't know how they can delude themselves into doing their evil jobs and keep living with thr shame.

Would? Yes, I do.

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)

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

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

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.

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 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...

Nope! Already turned that real down decades ago.

No. Don't need them.

My personal line is anything defense related I guess

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 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"

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.

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

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.

Absolutely.

By 'ideologically' opposed you mean you don't like the products/services they provide? Lol

Get the bag, idk what you do but youre likely just a small cog anyways and getting paid less literally means your company is extracting more value from you.

Unless your job is literally producing some sort of hate propaganda (i.e. working for the daily wire) then yea dont do that.

It depends, but... mostly yes. I don't agree with most big companies ideologically speaking... I'd have a hard time finding work if I limited myself in that way.

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 .

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.

Yeah, probably.

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