Ask Lemmy

After college I worked a project management job for a while before going to grad school. I didn't find it morally questionable, but I definitely found myself feeling like I was just working to make some rich guy richer. It didn't help that the rich guy(s) (the owner and his son in law who was out CEO) worked in the same building. So I went back to school. Got my master's. Ended up doing some contract work for the same company afterwards. Never felt more stuck in my life. Hated it. Did more grad school and when the contract work dried up I got asked to come work for another company but I still hated the bs corporate vibe, so instead I went from billing $80/hr to making $15/hr as a 911 dispatcher. Graduated and stayed in that field. I'm an emergency management professional now and while it's not a lucrative field (thankfully I don't want kids) I get a lot of satisfaction out of the work and I feel like my job matters.

Long story short, you choose what to prioritize in life. For some people making sure you/your family is well cared for will matter more than what you're doing or who you're doing it for. For others, you'll take a pay cut to feel like the work itself matters or that you're making a positive impact. Everyone has to balance what's important to them.

OP, If morally aligning with your job matters to you, you'll ultimately land somewhere you can stomach at least, because you won't stop trying until you get there. Don't blame yourself for having to do other work along the way to keep yourself fed and able to enjoy the ride there.

because morals are nice.

but being able to eat, and not be rained on and assaulted in your sleep is nicerer.

Alt text: A screen grab of an early Simpsons episode where a sign which is understood to have read "don't forget: you're here forever" has selected letters and partial letters covered with photos of Maggie so that it now reads "Do it for her"

Not at all. You run burnout territory. Get out quick.

I like having a roof over my head and not starving to death. It really is that simple a transaction.

My day job is purely transactional. I used to enjoy working for this company but they've changed. Unfortunately my work permit is tied to them.

By doing the absolute minimum or worse without getting fired. If you can get by as a -10x dev for Microsoft you're doing absolutely fantastic. I.e. sabotage.

You can also try to push for change, apply for other jobs.

The other alternative is to disassociate and sacrifice your morals or somehow justify to yourself.

Not going to tell you what to do, keeping a well paying job when your family depends on you is totally understandable.

Burnout my friend.

I worked at a company that made software for multi-level marketing companies (legalized pyramid schemes). Some of our clients sold snake oil remedies and were always getting in trouble for claiming they could cure cancer. I liked my coworkers and the job itself, but I hated the nature of what we were supporting.

I don’t think you can separate one from the other.

The company was always getting screwed over by dishonest clients, but we never sued because it would be bad for our reputation. The financial pressure grew until we started acting like a much dumber business: taking bad deals, outsourcing to cheap overseas teams, forcing everyone to work crazy hours, doubling up on the “we all have to make sacrifices” kool-aid, the list goes on. I didn’t stick around for long.

I’d do it again if I had to, to keep food on the table, but that experience taught me there’s no “right way” to operate in a bad industry. Eventually you either assimilate or go out of business.

I work in gambling and have done for over 3 years. I do it for the paycheck.

Edit: My last job was in adtech doing web attribution online and I initially thought at least the gambling customers are willingly signing up instead of just being spied on without their consent in many cases... Then I read some of the comments on my company's subreddit and it made me wonder if certan customers were able to consent in a meaningful sense.

I don't.

Money can't buy morals or ethics. If I hate the company, guarantee you I won't be there in six months, let alone five years.

Maybe other people can. I can't. Inevitably, I get into some kind of spat with a boss or a manager over morals, ethics, or how we're being treated. Or how I'm being treated. And they make up a reason to fire me, or I get so mad that I quit.

I did it for almost 10 years. Most of the work we did was fine, but some was utterly opposed to my personal values. I started making donations to my favorite charities (mostly Planned Parenthood and ACLU) every time I had a new work project that I felt was working against their goals.

When my husband and I were financially stable enough, I noped out of that job and found something that paid less but was affirming instead of soul-crushing.

A friend of a friend worked at a petrochemical plant of some sort. They took the job reluctantly, because they had been struggling to find work for the kind of engineer that they were without it being somewhere deeply unethical. They reportedly ended up covertly feeding intel to climate action protesters and direct action groups.

Apparently it helped somewhat, but it was still pretty stressful

Feeding ones' family

I don't think a weapons manufacturer is comparable to qualcomm or microsoft personally. I believe in foss and democracy but im not anti proprietary tech I just don't think people or governments should use them. There are certainly corps I would less want to work for. I mean I still work on windows machines even though I now run primarily on linux and im not even sure if any phones don't use qualcomm chips.

There's no ethical production under capitalism

More seriously, when I was working in the oilsands, the answer was: grudgingly, and only until I could get into a more palatable line of work

Well, you gotta grow your career somehow, and ideology alone doesn't mean crap if you have no power to manifest it.

By doing the minimum required to not get fired.

Ability to afford food and rent is a pretty big incentive.

I have nothing. I need a paycheck. Finding a job in America is Hell.

I envy the folks here who can lay their morals out on the table without having to sacrifice a roof or food on the table. Must be nice.

Found a new job and took a 16% pay cut to escape an unethical situation. Last day in old job was today.

You don't

You don't. Stand up for your ethics and morals and leave.

One of the best paying jobs I ever had, directly asked me to perform work that would have have damaged a customers home. When I layed out exactly how and why this was wrong and why I wouldn't do it, they insisted I do as I was told or be fired.

I walked off the site and never looked back.

I ran into that old boss a while later and he told me he later realized I was right, but insisted I still should have done as I was told because he was above me and had given me direct instructions...

Sometimes you just can't work with people and have to move on.