this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Everyone just saying jobs they dont like, or that they have ethical qualms about, but ignoring "regardless of pay" - and I don't believe you.

Just imagine the salary for the position is $500m per year. At a certain point, you would be able to quit the job with plenty of money for the rest of your life after working for a very short period of time, or else you would be able to use the money to make more good in the world than the harm done by your labor.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

If you have a skill set someone is offering $500k for, someone less shitty is going to be offering at least $400k. So you're not giving up $500k, you're giving up $100k or 20%. I've taken bigger pay cuts than that in exchange for increased job satisfaction.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Every other job will only hire you for a normal wage that you would make in the real world.

The point of the exercise is to grapple with an ethical quandry, not to sidestep it.

[–] bus_factor@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I'm not particularly interested in an exercise which is completely irrelevant to real-world scenarios. In the real world your choice would look more similar to my example, so that is the more relevant hypothetical.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

If we cared about the real world, we'd be actually doing something, rather than just talking.

[–] magnetosphere@fedia.io 64 points 1 week ago

ICE thug Slumlord’s handyman Anything that takes orders directly from the Trump administration

[–] lowspeedchase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 41 points 1 week ago (4 children)

"By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing...kill yourself" --Bill Hicks

[–] stinerman@midwest.social 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Oh, you know what Bill’s doing? He’s going for that anti-marketing dollar. That’s a good market. He’s very smart."

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No! Fuck you, you work in advertising you’re sucking the devils cock. Kill yourself!

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[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week ago (6 children)
[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What if they paid you enough to bankroll a political campaign for the opposition?

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

A) they wouldn't. B) I'd still end up in jail for attacking another agent.

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

A) That's not the question. The question said "regardless of pay." So we can imagine you get paid $500m. It doesn't have to be realistic. That's the point of a hypothetical.

B) If that's the case, you need to work on your impulse control. In our hypothetical scenario, you would be sacrificing the political change you could create with your salary for the short term satisfaction of hurting someone else. It's a bit of a trolley problem - but then, the point of trolly problems is to get us to grapple with our ethical assumptions.

[–] WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Unless you are very good at causing internal disruptions, sabotage and slow downs.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Same. Although mainly because I don't have the cool maintain my cover while undermining the organization from within.

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[–] MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Palantir

Meta

Amazon

Apple

[–] eskimofry@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

As a Software Engineer my list is only slightly longer and has these additional companies:

Oracle

Microsoft

Google

[–] AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

any military or military complex job. i refuse to assist or partake in the murdering of humans.

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[–] Denjin@feddit.uk 31 points 1 week ago

Jack booted tool of oppression

[–] JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.blahaj.zone 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Nursing.

Couldn't pay me to go through the hell those people witness

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Me ex-wife worked 100% in surgery. She used to laugh that she never had to talk to the fuckers. She was so clinical about it that she could tell me about a case and had no idea if it was a man or woman, black or white, nothing, just body parts.

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[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 27 points 1 week ago

Mercenary/ "private military contractor", ICE agent, prison gaurd

[–] AlphaOmega@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Drusas@fedia.io 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] Frostbeard@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Anything requiring me to travel to the US

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 week ago

travel to the US

They round up 12 people a month from New Zealand. NEW ZEALAND! Anyone hating on the nicest country on the planet really has mental issues they need to get solved.

[–] iii@mander.xyz 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Anything where you're around the public all day. Rather wash dishes than be a waitress.

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[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Sales. Especially telesales.

I spent years doing sales because they were the only opportunities that I had available, and I hated every minute of it. Now that I'm finally out, I would NEVER go back.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

My coworker left our job because a place offered him a pay raise that was like half his current salary.

He came back - the job was so terrible he couldn't stay there. Not just the actual work, but the people.

I try to avoid working anyplace evil, so banks, oil companies, etc. and there are environments I can't be productive in - government, healthcare, anyplace very structured and bureaucratic. I guess if the pay and position are secured, and I can handle my work however I want without losing them, then I would not do anything that would kill me or others either directly or through incompetence (underwater welder, race car driver, assassin, surgeon), would probably cave on banks and other evil orgs, since I might be able to try to change them from the inside.

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[–] Modest_Toxic@feddit.uk 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Retail. Done it for 4 years and got treated like absolute shit by customers, especially during the pandemic. I got told off a few times for speaking back to customers but I think now I'd probably struggle not to hit them. I'd be sacked very quickly

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[–] andrewta@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

Working under Trump.

[–] LemmyThinkAboutThat@lemmy.myserv.one 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Prison guard. You can’t leave work during your shift, you’re in prison.

Prostitution. My apologies if this subject is taboo. However, it is the oldest profession in the world and stood the test of time. I have a vivid imagination and I’m having trouble imagining what would happen if I’m just not attracted or aroused.

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[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago

Raytheon and co. Anything related to "defense", really.

You only go around the sun so many times, and you want to spend it on making brown kids into skeletons more efficiently? Fuck that shit.

[–] yessikg@fedia.io 13 points 1 week ago

Anything in the Oil Industry, Cops, Military, or Evil Multinational Corporations

[–] WatDabney@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Politics, in any form.

Corporate, in any form.

Police, in any form.

Military, in any form.

They all - I believe that institutionalized, hierarchical authority is rather obviously inherently destructive, and I couldn't willingly take part. In fact, one of the things that perplexes me the most about politics in particular is that there are people who do willingly take part. I can only conclude that their brains are broken in some fundamental way such that they don't see or don't care about the harm they inevitably do.

[–] BussyCat@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (5 children)

This unfortunately is the problem with the police. People who see the police as problematic are unwilling to join so the majority of people who join are the ones who just want to have power over others.

There are many variations on the quote but a cop who doesn’t report a bad cop is themselves a bad cop, so you could be the actual good cop who reports their coworkers until you get fired from the corrupt org but if enough people did that we might actually see some change.

Cops also have a surprising amount of freedom to choose to enforce laws so you could also just not enforce laws you consider corrupt.

I am saying this as a person who wouldn’t want to associate with a cop but would love to have some cops who aren’t bastards but unfortunately #ACAB

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[–] Jerb322@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

There are plenty of jobs I'd be terrible at regardless of what they pay.

If it's an actual job and not just something made up to be arbitrarily horrible I'd probably give anything a try if you pay 10x my current pay.

[–] ieatpwns@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Cop

Ice

Dhs

Military

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

This one doesn't feel inherently evil. There are some great HR reps where I work now, but I don't work for a company that's trying to milk us dry.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 week ago

Shift work.

Never again.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

I once interviewed at a bulk email (spam) company because i was desperate for a job. They realized how uncomfortable i was so didn’t offer it, but i like to think I would have declined, regardless how much i needed the job.

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago
[–] Deadeyegai@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Commercial fisherman

Deep-sea diver

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Anything that requires me to exert force with my hands repetitively for long periods, like teasing or twisting. I've done it while fixing things around the house, and I'm damn sure I'd get carpal tunnel very quickly. But typing and moving the mouse all day, every day is fine & dandy! 🙃

[–] WaffleWarrior@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
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[–] higgsboson@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

Materials handler at a chemical plant.

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