I was taking annual mandated training at work the other day. Like, you know, watch the video, try not to snooze when you fall asleep, and then answer a very basic question or two at then end. One of the videos was about ethics. I work for a government contractor and ethics is a big deal.
But it was boring and I started noodling on my phone. I looked up my employer’s Wikipedia page. And wouldn’t you know it, they mentioned that my employer was responsible for running a disinformation campaign in the Philippines during the pandemic, at the request of the American government, trying to convince people that the vaccine was bad for them because it was from China. There are very likely to be people who refused the vaccine and died because of the lies of my employer, and I was learning this literally while an ethics video played on my computer screen.
This came to light only because my employer had, according to a government report, “sloppy tradecraft” and failed to sufficiently cover their tracks.
I’m not saying there’s never a totality of circumstances where one must take this job. But to just wave it off like you’re doing is just an excuse to never consider ethics.
I literally had an argument on here the other day with someone who refuses to believe there is bad science because capitalism is the one causing them to do unethical things. Your response sums up the actual truth of the matter very succinctly. Just because you have an excuse for something doesn’t make it unethical.
I didn’t mean to sound like I was waving it off, the bigger point I was trying to make was that just finding another job can be very difficult. I’m currently stuck in a job that I hate and I’ve been trying for over a year to find something else. One job was a substantial pay cut and I got through several rounds of interviews before being let go and the other was a substantial pay increase and, again, I went through many rounds of interviews and really thought I was about to get an offer when they called and told me they went with someone else. Now I just feel defeated and trying to learn to accept that this is where I am for the time being. Even when you consider the ethics of a situation, sometimes there isn’t really any good options.