Would you work for a corporation that you oppose ideologically, if the pay is good?

Submitted ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨jungekatz@lib.lgbt⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

I was wondering , if you will be ready to work fof an organisation that you oppose ideologically , for instance you are against big oil but you get a job interview in exxonmobil with good pay , would you consider it ?

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GCanuck@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I consider most “for profit” corporations as corrupt and amoral.

So, yes. Those are the only ones who pay close to a living wage.

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- ABCDE@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Many NGOs and not for profits pay well.
  
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  - Hallainzil@startrek.website ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    That must be location-dependant. I worked for a non-profit for nearly 5 years, a good sized one. The pay was significantly below the for-profit sector, and the organisation was pretty toxic to boot. I have many friends who did similar, and my assessment is that mine was probably the best experience. Burnout is the norm. Toxic culture is the norm. Underpay is the norm. It’s not an experience I’d be excited to repeat.
    
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- TheButtonJustSpins@infosec.pub ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Agreed. I wouldn’t want to, say, work for a defense contractor, bit I’ve worked in traditional finance for years now, and I definitely disagree with it.
  
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Stegget@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve done this. I was working for scraps out of college as a community reporter when an ostensibly conservative online news organization offered me an 80% pay raise and the opportunity to do most of my work from home. I was young, recently married and wanted to start a family, and we needed the money. The bigger salary was nice, but over the course of two years I spiraled into a deep depression and began to loath myself and what I did. It was so bad I began looking for a way out after the first six months. Eventually I got out (took a pay cut to do so) but am now in a much better place personally and professionally. I would never do anything like that ever again.

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- jungekatz@lib.lgbt ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Glad to know things are better now !
  
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solrize@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There is 1) work you can do to improve this messed up world, 2) work that leaves it as messed up as it already is but doesn’t make it particularly worse, and 3) work that actively seeks to make it worse. I’ll do #1 for free or at discounted rates, #2 if the pay is good, and avoid #3 to the extent that I can. Though if the pay is ridiculously good, maybe that transfer of assets from the bad guys to me could be considered an improvement in the world in its own right ;).

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- TheOtterITGuy@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  This is my kind of logic, surely taking money from those with less morals is better than not since I decreases their influence (in theory)
  
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daq@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Definitely. I’m a whore.

As long as it isn’t something obviously evil like religion.

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- fubbernuckin@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What about donating obviously evil like selling personal data as a business model?
  
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  - BNE@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Or drilling oil
    
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  - daq@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Name a successful tech business that doesn’t sell user data. Some companies, like Google, just make it their only business model.
    
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iByteABit@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
This is quite a relevant question for me. In Greece there isn’t a lot of innovation and the government doesn’t really give a shit to fix the root problems, all young people that can change the scene leave for better countries.

That leaves us with very few companies that do something respectable and are worth working for, and a ton of gambling companies that feed off of the uneducated people. Those gambling companies are making huge profits and doing very well in general, so working for them is usually a nice experience from what I’ve heard of.

It’s often tempting, but I can’t justify participating in this disgusting industry to get more money, benefits and time. It would never sit well with me, but it always feels unfair how many jobs there are for that industry compared to anything else.

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- leonardo_arachoo@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Can you leave Greece as well?
  
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  - iByteABit@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not really, and I don’t actually want to.
    
    Thankfully I’m working for one of the companies that are an exception and are actually pretty innovative, it’s not bad despite the pay being a bit worse and the hours longer.
    
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transientpunk@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No matter how good the pay, the resulting cognitive dissonance would overwhelm me eventually and either lead to a mental breakdown, or me quitting. It wouldn’t be worth it.

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squirrel@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No. Never.

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djsoren19@yiffit.net ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Not only is the answer no, but I’m currently taking a pretty big pay cut to work for a non-profit that I believe in. When you work for scum you start to lose your soul, and it’s hard to have any pride in your work knowing your only contribution is enriching your boss. Now my work goes towards a good cause, and I’m far more motivated to do well at my job.

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slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I currently do. I worked for a European SME who was purchased by a fortune 500 company which are currently in the news for anti union actions in the US.

I am lucky enough that to fire someone in my country is a royal pain in the ass so I am always fine with calling out their horseshit in the internal company surveys.

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dandroid@dandroid.app ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I currently do! I work for one of the huge mega tech corporations.

They pay me very well, I have great benefits, and a I get a ton of paid time off. They don’t work me too many hours. They were very flexible with me when my wife was in and out of the hospital. They give decent annual raises and bonuses, and great stock bonuses.

Unless something changes, I don’t see myself leaving, even though I know I could get money by bouncing around, because my job is very easy and the pay is very good for how easy my job is.

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- DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Lol - sounds just like me.
  
  I also work for a mega tech, and I genuinely have concerns over some of the bad press we get.
  
  But I find it hard to resist the benefits for me and my family. I’m now in the last 15 years or so of my career. I need to finish big, for my family.
  
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gmtom@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Depends on how bad the company is and ig I’m in dire need of a job/ pay rise.

I’ve turned down jobs at Nestle and De Beers due to them being widely unethical and because I had a decent job at the time.

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BloodyFable@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I currently do and I need to get out ASAP. I should’ve stayed in school, the pay is great but the self loathing isn’t worth it

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surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Unless you’re supportive of the concept that you’re a non-capitalist drone working to make a capitalist rich… You already do

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- CoderKat@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I think it’s more a question of where the line is. You virtually always have to compromise in at least some small ways.
  
  Would you work for a company where the CEO is an outspoken bigot? What about a company that constructs weapons for the military that you know will be used to kill thousands? Or one of those scam call centers, where your entire job would be scamming the elderly? Or taking to even more extremes, what about a criminal gang where you may have to directly kill people? For that matter, what about indirectly killing people, like if your employer is a massive polluter?
  
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  - surewhynotlem@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    It’s the same with boycotts. If you’re in poverty and the only close store is a Walmart, good luck boycotting them. You do the best you can within the means you have.
    
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BeeCoffee@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
When someone depends from your income like a child, sometimes you can’t say no even if it contradicts your principles, if you decide to put yourself through a rough time based entirely on ethics and moral, then do it by yourself.

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shartworx@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I do. I’m riding out the clock. I’ve already put the time in and am grandfathered into better retirement/severance benefits than I could get anywhere else. I hate it, but I have a family to feed.

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- khannie@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I have been exactly there and was so, so glad when I eventually left.
  
  Could you switch and take a small hit on those big ticket items?
  
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  - shartworx@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Not really. I have unavoidable financial obligations coming soon that I will need this payrate for. I actually love the work I do, too, but I have a distaste for the employer, so it’s a weird feeling. I get to play with Linux and containerization and Python, which I love, and I’m generally self-managed, so the only thing wrong with the job is that, at the end of the day, my work feels wasted where I’m doing it. On the other hand, I use the skills I gain at work outside of work on OSS stuff, so it’s an OK tradeoff.
    
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ox0r@jlai.lu ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
To a certain degree, there ain’t really that many companies that are ideologically aligned with me lol

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palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No, but i am lucky to have the choice not too.

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hactar42@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I work as a consultant so I’m always dealing with different customers. We had one client who operates payday loans. I refused to do any work for them and thankfully my company didn’t argue when I said I couldn’t morally work with them.

That said, I have a child with autism and I’m spending tens of thousands of dollars a year on getting him the help he needs. My companies insurance sucks and I saw a job posting at Raytheon I was a perfect fit for. I’m still conflicted on if I should apply just to get better insurance and help my family.

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- phillaholic@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Imo do it. RTX does fine work. They don’t exist to scam people. The primary problem with them is how governments use their tech. Even so, without them we would in fact be worse off. In this case your family comes first.
  
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  - hactar42@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    In this case your family comes first
    
    This is a great point. I’ve already decided to get out of Texas because of my family. For the longest time I refused to move because I felt like that was giving up. Especially since my district was pretty well split 50/50. However, the things that have happened over the last year have made me loss all hope. And there is no way in hell am I raising my daughter in a state that would put a bounty on her reproductive rights. What type of parent would I be if I didn’t do what was best for them?
    
    Sincerely, thanks. I think I just needed to hear someone else say what you said.
    
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- BNE@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Yeah, God, that’s a difficult position to be put in.
  
  Sorry man - you shouldn’t have to make choices like that… if you do have to take it, I’d try to ease my concious by redirecting their money. Like, I did that when I had to work for a for-profit contract company staffing Australias social services. KPIs for welfare phone lines staffed by undertrained whoevers. They’d penalise us for taking the time to help vulnerable people. Disgusting company - left the second I could afford to. I put something aside for local mutual aids and environmental groups.
  
  God man - I’m sorry, that just sucks.
  
  Good luck. Hope you can avoid Raytheon.
  
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  - hactar42@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’m sorry you had to work for a place like that, but glad to hear you got out of it. I seriously cannot believe people who own/run companies can sleep at night.
    
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CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I have worked for the last 6.5 years at a faith based credit union despite being an atheist. All of our meetings start with a prayer. They have been good up until recently where we’ve done more and more investment real estate lending and that doesn’t sit well with me with our housing crisis in the US. Have a 3rd interview with a regional bank to move to more C&I and CRE loans instead of single family homes. I know they are still involved in it but I’m not going to be the one writing loans on investment properties. They also do a lot of affordable housing lending and community reinvestment in distressed areas.

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Zarxrax@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Everyone has their own code of ethics, but I think almost every company has some things that might be controversial or that people don’t like. Even some of my favorite companies have done things that I am really opposed to.

I would not work in a job where I had to directly do things that I was morally opposed to. But we live in a society where huge companies touch our lives in a lot of different ways. If you are too strict about it, you might find that there aren’t many jobs available for you.

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6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Absolutely. And I did so to afford my family’s medical needs, food, shelter, etc. The pay was almost 3x what I made previously, which wasn’t a lot. Benefits, flexibility, all that shit. And then they laid off my entire team hahahahahaha

and I’d do it again

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Stinkywinks@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Nope. There’s never enough money, and I’m not going to sell out for a fancier box and wheels.

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Trainguyrom@reddthat.com ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Oh 100% I’ll take a job with any company for the right pay and benefits. It helps that I’m an IT guy so any nastiness the company is involved in isn’t directly my job.

I currently work for a national company that does contract work for food processing plants, so plenty of nasty stuff involved, but my hands stay clean as I primarily manage their ERP software and build reports and workflows to hopefully help keep what happens at the plants as above the board and by the book as possible

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FredericChopin_@feddit.uk ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No.

Im a software developer and I never applied for any companies that were involved in gambling, predatory practices or fintech companies.

I work for a small < 10 employees company and it’s great.

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IamtheMorgz@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Only very briefly if I really needed the money. I used to work a corporate job and for a while I was a contractor doing data analysis. Those jobs left me feeling like I wasn’t doing anything of value and that was enough to shift me into the public sector, which I enjoy immensely. I’d rather not go back but I could see myself needing more money than is generally on offer in public service.

If I opposed the organization ideologically I’d probably sell plasma before I took a job there. But I don’t have a family relying on me so that makes it easier.

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DefiantBidet@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
i think Nestle is one of the most evil corporations currently on the planet - not quite large euro bank evil but close. Being out of work for more than 6 months - still applied to multiple positions bc one can afford to stand on a soapbox only when one money to afford the soapbox.

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PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I feel it out. To some degree EVERY job has SOMETHING that opposes my ideology. So I play it by ear.

Like there was one company I worked for that used invasive telemetry on a product. But still I served as best I could.

Then a couple months ago I was approached by a couple that was dealing with a website issue. After an hour of talking about the issue the owner said, “oh, btw, this is a p*rn site site.”

My conscious bothered me. I had to walk away, despite the fact that I really needed the money.

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- sounddrill@lemmy.antemeridiem.xyz ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Porn sites are the next big thing, forget AI, ML
  
  I’m only half joking, hear me out
  
  As technology innovates, we need to adapt to it. Netflix’s network infrastructure probably looks like a kid’s science experiment next to the hub
  
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lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know about ideology, but I definitely don’t believe in the industry I work in. I work for a WISP; wireless ISP. We provide internet and L2 connections to remote places: homes and oilfield sites. It’s the 2nd such job I’ve had in 20 years.

The first was back in the late 2000s. The equipment was either cheap, or way too expensive, and needed to be replaced every five years to keep up with customer expectations. I remember my old boss once texting me around 2005ish all proud that he was sustaining 5mbps through the gateway. Today thats a single Netflix stream. The 2 and 5 ghz bands were overcrowded and noisy. The government licenses and equipment manufacturers were not at all in tune with the reality of last mile delivery Ubiquiti and Mikrotik were the only affordable options. Everything else was too expensive.

The cellular companies should have destroyed WISPs entirely by 2015. They had the tech, the financial resources, the frequencies, the government cronnies, and an existing customer base that grows every year. Cell cards are easily added to laptops and tablets. They have access to frequency licenses that us small wisps will never be able to afford. They have relationships with manufacturers who won’t even look at us. But they keep targeting cities and population centers. I don’t understand why they fall short on rural distribution. Especially since governments keep giving them money to do exactly that (instead of giving it to the companies who are actually trying to do it).

Then along comes Starlink. Say what you want about Musky, but Starlink for the most part works, and they are slowly eating our lunch. They have a reach and flexibilty we will never be able to match due to geography and money. Even if we had unlimited money, no-one is going to run fiber through the Rocky Mountains let alone build towers all the way from Calgary to Kelowna.

Between cell and Starlink I honestly expect to lose the entirety of our residential customer base by 2030. Maybe we’ll keep a few old timers who don’t want to change and a few small businesses who want to be able to call in for support. Our saving grace will be the bigger businesses who want or need higher upload speeds, L2 circuits, and support. Even those will thin out because it will cost us more to service them than they are willing to pay.

The governments are clawing back frequencies to auction off to bigger players and forcing CBRS and licensed channels down our throats. Manufacturers are more and more moving to the cripple-ware pay-to-play model, and they want subscriptions for management software.

That said, my pay cheque has never been late, I’m learning a lot of cool stuff about networking, and the boss is willing to invest in growth. The company itself has it’s fingers in other pies and the owner is fairly business savvy. It’s the wisp side of things that I don’t have a lot of hope for.

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HootinNHollerin@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
No

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UncleBadTouch@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
depends if the offer lets me do some good in the company. if im just a worker who has no say in anything, then no

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