Helping kids, pleasing parents, teaching things, forming relationships, keeping the community happy and entertained, buying books, learning things, practicing Spanish, laughing, having fun. The most important thing though is probably building relationships with kids.
I guess this is more what I like about my job than what motivates me. Maybe I feel like a lot of people depend on me--my coworkers, and more importantly the community...so maybe some false sense of indispensability? I work for the government, so in that sense I think you need to draw on your own internal motivation. There's little reward system in place...other than a somewhat screwed job security (should be my 3rd year of receiving a provisional layoff notice. I'm not really an "external praise" kind of person. So while most people seem to think I'm very good at my job, I think they are perhaps delusional.
― Virginia Plain, Friday, 20 April 2012 17:59 (1 year ago) Permalink
money
the fact that I have a fair amount of freedom and am not micromanaged
i hate p much everything else about my job
― wolf kabob (ENBB), Friday, 20 April 2012 18:04 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Wednesday, 2 May 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Thursday, 3 May 2012 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink
$$$
― Jeff, Thursday, 3 May 2012 00:30 (1 year ago) Permalink
I've been offered an interview at a rival company. The package is a good third more than my current wage, the position more senior and more interesting, but... on an ethical level I pretty much despise the firm. Would you work for a company whose ethics you don't agree with, even if the actual work you do doesn't directly contribute to this?
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:53 (10 months ago) Permalink
No.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:54 (10 months ago) Permalink
But I'm lucky.
I would.
― pandemic, Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:57 (10 months ago) Permalink
I would too. Unless it is like the nazi party or something. Although I heard their benefits are great.
― Jeff, Thursday, 26 July 2012 13:58 (10 months ago) Permalink
Oh my fucking god, no.
I spent nearly three years of my life working for a company I thought was ethically and morally reprehensible. It poisoned me slowly and insidiously. It seeped into me, it destroyed my self belief and my self confidence in every way. It made me constantly angry and that anger turned in on me. It doesn't matter if you are the person actually holding the instrument that does the damage. Just being around that kind of atmosphere, around people who either believe or are willing to accommodate those goals, it made me miserable. It took a major scandal to make me quit, and though that was the *best* decision I ever made in my life, I'm still untangling the damage I did myself staying there that long.
So my advice is, do not do it. The money is not worth it. I took that job because I was unemployed, broke and desperate. You don't even have that excuse. Don't do it.
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:01 (10 months ago) Permalink
xposts Actually it's just under twice as much pay as before... and I need money. I'm not exactly enamoured with my current line of work anyway, but I like the company I work for which is why I've stayed here without much chance of a step up. The logical step would be a career change, but this will take time and effort.
Part of me feels as though quibbling over ethical details is ludicrous and that I should be looking out for myself as I've always been poor and have never had the opportunity to earn close to this much. It also fits into my skillset and would be an opportunity to improve on it a great deal (it would be more interesting as well). However the other side of me asks whether I should be pursuing a career with a company I do not like in a job my heart does not care for (at this stage, but who knows cos it might end up being more interesting with these guys?).
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:03 (10 months ago) Permalink
Depends on the details I guess, but ethical concerns are not quibbles.
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:07 (10 months ago) Permalink
Bumping up your salary and position like that? I say go for it. If the ethical issues become too much, leave after a couple years and you'll have more experience and be able to ask for a higher salary in yr. next job.
― how's life, Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:07 (10 months ago) Permalink
It depends on the industry, too, I suppose. But seriously. There are things where it is worth making a stand and saying "I do not want to contribute to this." I guess the Categorical Imperative doesn't stand up in this case because if you don't take the job, someone else will. But if you can't think what it will do to the world, think what it will do to you. Some things don't come out in the wash.
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:09 (10 months ago) Permalink
It's media, so it's not exactly the Nazi party or human rights abuse. Plenty of people I work with would disagree with my current organisation's approach (conscious I'm probably giving a fair bit away right now), and apart from some light joshing/banter in the office, it's not like they're completely unhappy there... I guess it can't hurt to attend an interview and see what it's like.
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:20 (10 months ago) Permalink
It would depend for me, too. I'm actively trying to find a new job, which includes applying for positions at law firms that represent employers in their labor and employment law practice. I don't think representing employers is unethical (or at least it doesn't have to be), but it's certainly not where my heart and my ideology and my politics lie.
I guess I'd probably draw the line at companies/orgs that I think are directly harming people - for-profit prisons, weapons manufactures, the Republican party, coal companies, stuff like that. Like, I would take an in-house counsel position at McDonald's, but I wouldn't work for a firm that represented insurance companies that are trying to avoid paying claims.
WCC makes some really good points, particularly the bit about what it might do to you. I work for a notoriously corrupt local government and it grinds me down, and that's part of why I am looking for a new job. Again, I think it depends on the details and what it is that is unethical about the company. Do they do things that go against your politics? Are they actively hurting people with their products or practices? Are they actually a bunch of crooks?
― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:20 (10 months ago) Permalink
Media, huh? Hmmm... I think I would probably be unable to handle working for a certain network named after a pointy-eared forest mammal, or any company with a right-wing agenda under the "companies that are directly harming people" rule.
― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:22 (10 months ago) Permalink
What, do you quit the Grauniad to go and work for the Daily Fail? I wouldn't but I guess it's not quite the same as my previous employer's badness.
x-posts to CA
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:23 (10 months ago) Permalink
But yeah this:
I think I would probably be unable to handle working for a certain network named after a pointy-eared forest mammal, or any company with a right-wing agenda under the "companies that are directly harming people" rule
kinda covers it for me.
But you can work within a corrupt industry in a non-corrupt role. It's complicated.
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:25 (10 months ago) Permalink
Sorry, I was talking to DL, but CA was inbetween and I wanted to respond to her separately, if that wasn't clear.
I got you!
― ms. cookie (carl agatha), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:28 (10 months ago) Permalink
Do they do things that go against your politics? Yes
Are they actively hurting people with their products or practices? In some ways.
Are they actually a bunch of crooks?TBC.
Right, enough hints.
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:29 (10 months ago) Permalink
The role is totally non-corrupt though. Couldn't be further from the bullshit.
― Scary Move 4 (dog latin), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:30 (10 months ago) Permalink
Named after a large blue thing that hovers above all our heads?
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:31 (10 months ago) Permalink
The more effectively I do everything the less I have to converse with others, the more music I can listen to, the sooner I can leave, the more money I may eventually earn.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:31 (10 months ago) Permalink
Btw there are so few companies whose ethics I believe in
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:33 (10 months ago) Permalink
There's kind of a difference between "disagree with their ethics" and "what this company does actively works against everything I find important." Where on that scale you find comfortable is always going to vary, and be a question of degree, but there is a point over which it can and will make you miserable.
― I want to smother him in electronic butter. (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:36 (10 months ago) Permalink
yeah i can see how that'd be true.
i think to an extent any compromise like that causes a little misery, but most people i know probably feel they are making such a compromise to some extent.
― Know how Roo feel (LocalGarda), Thursday, 26 July 2012 14:44 (10 months ago) Permalink