What motivates you in your job?

money

the fact that I have a fair amount of freedom and am not micromanaged

i hate p much everything else about my job

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$$$

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?

No.

But I'm lucky.

I would.

I would too. Unless it is like the nazi party or something. Although I heard their benefits are great.

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.

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?).

Depends on the details I guess, but ethical concerns are not quibbles.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

The role is totally non-corrupt though. Couldn't be further from the bullshit.

Named after a large blue thing that hovers above all our heads?

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.

Btw there are so few companies whose ethics I believe in

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.

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.

i leave it completely behind me when i walk out of the office

"doing meaningful work" used to be the thing but after the last few months it's obvious those of us who GAF are idiots

I'm hoping this week brings some clear instructions for how to gtfo and start my detail doing literally-anything-but

About three-quarters of my motivation right now is the calendar: I'm inside of two years until retirement (although will probably stay on till the end of the school year).

xp, and thank fucking god I'm not one of my UK counterparts this weekend

Surpised there were no votes for "Being respected and treated nicely"

well that's not why anybody takes a job, I'd hope

these days.... nothing

Working for the weekend, tbh. And other days off. And the end of a given work day.

Broadly, just the recognition that not having regular income sucks. I don't care at all about what I do.

It's easy
Regular paycheck
Good benefits
Good hours
Short commute

responsibility to my commitment to do good work, fear of failure, lack of options to make similar salary

goes dark real fast, prefer not to think about it actually, nm

I guess I'm somewhat motivated by the fact that I work a job that skews towards benefitting the public good. Like I can sleep at night knowing that I didn't spend eight hours of the day contributing to evil. It's something.

(Unless you count ILX as evil, in which case I do contribute heavily to evil.)