I mean working somewhere like Qualcomm or Microsoft when you care about FOSS, democracy, and the public commons, or a weapons manufacturer for a military that invades other countries and kills innocent people in their homes.
I work in gambling and have done for over 3 years. I do it for the paycheck.
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.
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.
Burnout my friend.
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
Not at all. You run burnout territory. Get out quick.
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.
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
I like food and my basic needs covered.
But generally speaking, let’s see what we’ve got: Military is obviously out. Working for governments? Mostly out except for education related posts and some other niche stuff here and there. Banking out. Energy companies: mostly out except niche ones into renewables. Big tech like Amazon Microsoft Apple Google etc is out of the question. Car companies out. Anything owned by billionaires, out. Any sector that contributes to global pollution like meat industry, fishing industry, logging, Monsanto, 3M, DuPont etc etc out! Any company that employs people under minimum wage, out. Surely I’m forgetting a lot of stuff, but even with this small list, what the fuck is left?
As a government worker, I will say there’s a lot more than just teaching that’s morally filling work. A ton of government jobs are directly tied to keeping the public safe. Food inspectors, doctors, researchers, firefighters, even grant writers. It’s not all cops and politicians.
Fair point all these are helping the community, positive overall.
You can still work for advertising, something where I would never work.
I have worked for defense companies and would do so again.
Not to criticize or anything, you do you. But defense companies would be a definite no from a moral perspective, and advertising is the driving force of consumerism which is destroying the planet so yeah kinda no to that too.
My point being, it’s already hard enough to land any job, adding morality to the mix makes it nigh impossible to survive for most people. If someone has a choice, good for them. But I’m not gonna blame the average salary man trying to get by. Only the rich have choices.
Well, you gotta grow your career somehow, and ideology alone doesn’t mean crap if you have no power to manifest it.
Most people actually do it according to this procedure:
Be young
Start to think only at a later age.
In my experience, it’s much more often:
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be young
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be very passionate about the ability to afford food and shelter
It’s honestly weird how most of this thread acts like everyone can pick and choose their employment all the time. Most of us can’t, at least not always.
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Justify earlier decision somehow.
Its quite simple, I know what I will eventually get a better job ideally at a business with an IWW affiliated union
I get another job obviously.
Found a new job and took a 16% pay cut to escape an unethical situation. Last day in old job was today.
Congratulations! I hope your new job is rewarding and long lasting!
Thank you. Was in a love my work hate my job situation. I minimized my discretionary spending and saved for a year to be able to afford the pay cut. Keep minimizing until annual raise next year. Will be ok unless something truly calamitous happens.
