Should I be looking for a different job?
Yes it is - you can continue to do good in the ways you can manage.
Is it okay to continue to work for a (non-defense) federal government agency under an administration hostile to my own moral and ethical beliefs?
Submitted 2 weeks ago by lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org to [deleted]
Comments
xmunk@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Until they get purged for not towing the party line.
halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Better to do the work they can to help until they’re forced out.
Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I work for the USPS. We took an oath to the constitution and it’s very easy to understand why. The Postal Service is a necessary component of democracy as long as it remains true to what its supposed to be, which is a pipeline of information between any two points in the world. We can debate the legitimacy of that need after the internet, but there are vital services the USPS provides that the internet can’t.
I don’t like the direction things are going, but i still want to be a part of that. All i can do is make sure the mail I get is getting where it’s supposed to be.
If you believe in what you do and that’s important to you, then stick it out. If it’s not, then that’s fine, but you may want to get out for your mental health.
Mongostein@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Thank you for your service
Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Haha, i never served and this is just a job. It just happens to be one that i feel has some contribution to democracy and i try to hold on to that.
lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Thank you. That’s a very considered response.
Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I’m serious about the mental health thing, though. I’ve had to develope a certain mind set to keep things from driving me nuts: incompetent supervisors and lazy coworkers. The unions really protect us, but the system most definitely gets abused and management is hamstrung to do anything about it i guess.
To me, work is a circus. People do stupid sit? I laugh and keep doing what I’m supposed to be doing.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 2 weeks ago
Drag doesn’t know how they do things in America, but in drag’s country, the post is full of spam. No decent person uses it, it’s all just corporations and politicians trying to advertise. It’s a vector for capitalism to inject more BS into our lives. On that ground drag opposes the existence of the post office. It would be okay if they had controls against abuse of the system, but they don’t.
nomous@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
drag opposes the existence of the post office.
If speaking in the 3rd person didn’t show the caliber of mind you’re working with “opposing the existence of the post office” definitely would.
Huckledebuck@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yeah, there’s a lot a that here, too. But the way or post works is that no tax money goes to support it. It’s fully supported by the customers that use it.
Even when the post office turns a profit, congress will take that money and/or downsize the labor force.
dhork@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You work for the government, not for whatever yoyo happens to be President at any given time. You wouldn’t necessarily leave a private sector job if the CEO changed.
OTOH, this administration has been making a point of wanting to make government so small they can drown it in the bathtub. Unless you work in one of the very few Project 2025 priorities, they will probably eliminate your job eventually. So keep a keen eye out for alternatives.
Lysergid@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I’d leave my job if Musk would become CEO at my job.
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Bro I may sabotage it until I get dismissed and use that insider information to short his stock. See how elmo likes being on the losing end of stock manipulation.
KeepFlying@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Working for the agency isn’t the problem on its own. If your job requires you to do something that is against your morals, resist up to and including loudly leaving that job. But until then it’s more important than ever to stick it out and push to make things better any way you can.
Fleur_@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
So assuming you’re an American. I hate to break it to you but your government has done way worse stuff than elect an orange guy. I seriously doubt everything done holds up to the slightest scrutiny to your moral and ethical code. The only difference is now you are aware of it. If it was me I would ask myself if I felt guilty for the work I had done already. If I did I would stop if not I wouldn’t.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The slightest effort at extrapolation makes this whole idea monumentally short-sighted.
jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The resistance infiltrating the enemy base in disguise can get a lot of work done. Especially if it’s long term and you don’t even need to sneak around.
Even just a low level functionary who’s not a nazi or a terrible person makes my time dealing with a government agency better. There’s not an automatic moral imperative to bounce.
lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
A few months ago a german activist wrote a book about how low and middle positions in government agencies can work against the governments intentions in case of a extreme right wing takeover by the AFD. Though I don’t know, if it was translated to english or would be 1 to 1 applicable to the USA.
Madblood@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The answers to both of your questions are probably yes it’s okay, and yes you should probably be looking for another job.
Are you morally/ethically okay with your agency’s mission? With your role in it? If you are, then the new administration’s policies may not be reason enough to leave. You pretty much have to work somewhere. If the answer is no, you probably would have already been looking for another job.
Should you be looking for another job? Probably, depending on what your agency is and it’s mission. If TFG and Project2025 have their way, many federal government agencies will be defunded and/or privatized, and pretty much toothless when it comes to enforcement. We already saw what happened to the EPA under the first Trump administration. If yours is in danger of that you should be preparing a backup plan. I wouldn’t want to give up a government job, but I would want to be ready if I got RIF’d, or if I got fed up with the bullshit.DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
Do you feel that your “customers” are the administration or the general public? Whom do you feel that you are serving in your job? Do you feel that the directions given to you by your administration are legal and safe and reasonable? Do you feel that the directions given to you by your administration cause a disadvantage to yourself or your “customers”?
You could try to clutch at straws to justify staying in your job. You might be able to reasonably determine that your feelings for your administration don’t affect the performance of your job. Maybe staying in your job is the best way to benefit your “customers” and obstruct the administration.
Only you can decide how you feel and what is an appropriate match for your own moral and ethical position.
PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
We need people like you to resist when you feel like it’s the right thing to do. You took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. As cringe as it may sound, we need you and others like you to do that now more than ever…because there is an obvious threat.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Yes.
Schindler couldn’t do it alone.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Of course, as long as the work you do doesn’t become hostile to your own beliefs. I mean, people that process social security still provide benefits to millions of people no matter who is in charge, at least until Republicans destroy it.
jbrains@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yup. Watch The Good Place, then ask again.
theywilleatthestars@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
See if you can gum up the works, and if you feel yourself changing, get out.
gerbler@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If you quit another will take your place. Possibly a conservative. You’d do more good holding that seat than giving it up.
bokster@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately, thatt’s a question only you can answer. But goes without saying for any job.
Asl yourself:
- Will you be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing what job you’re doing and who you’re doing it for?
- Are your morals stronger then job security you’re getting?
- Can you stay on the job and inact change from within?
- Can you refuse certain tasks you don’t feel conformable with?
- Can you steer / influence the work that you and/or the agency does?
Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
The first Trump presidency is known for the longest government shutdown in US history.
Job stability is not a given for federal employment anymore.
ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
So long as you have some savings, a government shutdown is more a vacation than anything. Back pay has always been given to employees.
whotookkarl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
What is the difference between a rebel and a revolutionary?
lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
A plan?
whotookkarl@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Maybe, but I think it may also be possible they mean the same thing but from different perspectives or maybe whether you are willing to cross some line like dying or killing for a cause. There was a disagreement around 100 years ago when WW2 ended between philosophers Sartre and Camus about how to be free and whether violence and murder can be justified for political goals. Camus supported the French in WW2 but did not support political violence outside of war, in The Rebel he rejects revolutionary violence as it undermines/betrays yourself and is utopian and absolutist. Sartre thought violence could be justified for the right cause like communism to build and maintain a system for justice and freedom until it was obvious the tankies had taken over during the revolution reaction in Hungary. Sartre became an apologist for Soviet revolutionary violence until '56 and Camus was an advocate for nonviolent rebellion. I don’t know what the answer is or if there is one.
stinerman@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
No one can answer that question but you.
lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Of course. But one can hope for insight and help in answering it, no?
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I know this is cliche as hell, but only you are going to be familiar enough with your position to be able to know if you can effect change, prevent harm, or if your labor won’t be able to do much but perpetuate things you stand against. Id wager it wouldn’t happen all at once, but eventually you may see a red line you don’t want to cross. Use the time you have now to keep an eye out for a job listing that looks like a Cinderella slipper, and if you start seeing that red line coming up, then start to seriously consider whatever offers you cant find that seem workable to you.
SelfProgrammed@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
At the very least, make them fire you. Don’t quit.
Lysergid@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
If administration does not change agency’s policy in the the way it contradicts your moral I’d say it’s ok
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Dude, if you quit, a Maga is taking your place. The last thing we need is more extremist infiltration of the government.
Stay, we need you. Your country needs you.
If there is any shady things happenning, we need you to be a whisleblower.
Realitaetsverlust@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
If you’re working for the government, you had no morals and integrity before.
GBU_28@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
Huh? This is an edgy thing to say.
We need taxes filed and mail delivered. Environment monitored and earth science conducted. Etc. There’s countless jobs that are apolitical and vital to everything worth anything in a modern society.
doublenut@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
No quit
NutinButNet@hilariouschaos.com 2 weeks ago
Maybe you should leave the country if it upsets you that much
toomanypancakes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just leave! Hit da bricks! Who cares what you need to leave behind, emigrating is super easy anyway. Just decide to go, every country in the world would love to have another American within their borders.
lousyd@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
That’s not out of the question yet.
jeffw@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’d say it’s more important than ever. Leaving just allows the “yes” men to get more power and gives more control to the regime you dislike/disagree with.
Resist
melissa_limoncella@lemm.ee 2 weeks ago
This. Try to stay until you are forcibly replaced or your agency has its mission drastically changed.