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?

Its quite simple, I know what I will eventually get a better job ideally at a business with an IWW affiliated union

Most people actually do it according to this procedure:

Be young

Start to think only at a later age.

I get another job obviously.

The job allows me to spend a lot of time volunteering and doing good deeds on the side. I don’t think I could use the cheat code for just any company. My main problem is that I’m very anti-capitalist (don’t have a solution, just think we have proven thoroughly that this isn’t it). Getting a different job won’t fix my problem.

I studied physics in university. I didn’t put any real thought into what I was going to do with it afterwards, I was just choosing something that seemed interesting and helped me make sense of the world. What I discovered afterwards is that the main use of physics in the economy is to find new and exciting ways of blowing people up. I had been drawn to science by the idea that I was going to work towards the benefit of all humanity. I’m ashamed to admit it, but there was a moment around when I graduated when a friend of mine joined the Navy, and I really considered it. Fortunately, I came to my senses and said no.

Instead, I wound up working the meat counter at a grocery store. This was before I went vegan but I still had negative feelings about it. From there, I wound up picking in an Amazon warehouse for a couple years, and I’ve kinda bounced around other warehouses, occasionally getting involved in some technical roles in them.

Amazon’s a big evil corporation, but at least it’s honest work and a peaceful life. I could never live with myself if I did something in service of the war machine. To me, stopping what you’re doing to go move boxes at Amazon is kinda the baseline to me, like it’s not perfectly ethical but if doing that is significantly better for the world than what you’re doing, then like… the option exists for you. If you’re doing something evil like working for the military industrial complex, then that’s on you, sure it might be much less pleasant and less lucrative but burglary is lucrative too and that doesn’t make it justified. It’s far better to live a small, humble life making sure that you leave the world better than you found it than to have a big impact but it’s negative.

I guess some people might be able to tune out the screams or twist their brain into knots justifying it, but idk. If you’re walking down the street and you see someone screaming in pain, your instinct is to help them. You want to help them. You want to help them. That urge to help them is your own will. If you take that suffering and hide it away where you won’t see it, all you’re doing is decieving yourself into subverting your own, natural inclination towards empathy and compassion. That’s not really the sort of thing healthy people do, is it? My dabbling in Buddhism is showing here, but that’s what I’d call, “taking refuge in ignorance.” That’s no way to live your life, hiding from the ghosts of your victims.

My time working at a meat counter called my attention to my feelings about meat, and I didn’t act on them until much later but it planted a seed in my mind that might not have been there otherwise, it brought my conflicted feelings to the forefront. Every time I ate meat, I had a little feeling of guilt in my heart that I pushed aside, but once I finally listened to it, a weight was lifted and I’m much happier for it. I might not have ever really noticed and examined that if I hadn’t had that job.

There’s a lot of edge cases no matter where you draw the line, and I say, do what you will, but never turn away from the truth. If you feel conflicted, face that conflict, if you feel uneasy, interrogate that feeling, figure out what your mind is telling you and how best to follow your feelings, judgement, and conscience. And if you wanna stomach something you feel is wrong so you can get that bag, you know, that’s your decision, just know that you’ll have to live with it the rest of your life.

I would never

Found a new job and took a 16% pay cut to escape an unethical situation. Last day in old job was today.

Historically…I didn’t. But I don’t want to downplay the situation some people are in where they have bills to pay and need health insurance and such. I’ve been lucky to be able to just bail on something I don’t like. It is a privilege.

I guess if I had to stay though, I’d do the bare minimum and scrape by. Making a game out of not being fired but producing very little.

I took an almost 50% pay cut leaving a job once. I received training, skills and equipment and I use those to support things I am aligned with. Now I work a job that doesn’t pay as well and isn’t quite so reprehensible, then on the side I assist in-need charities and groups.

I assume FOSS dudes taking Microsoft money can at least steer the ship to try to funnel more effort to those programs or at least use the insider knowledge to improve the code base overall.

Money helps a surprising amount.

I worked with someone that switched careers because his work did not align with his ethics.

He was an electrical engineer that worked with high-frequency circuits. Niche field back around 2000. He worked for a “defense” company working on missile systems.

He could not accept it morally and changed professions. I met him doing IT desk-side support at a large company.

I know he took a pay cut.

It’s actually pretty easy to compartmentalize your job if you’re not directly confronted with what the company actually does.

If you’re an elevator maintenance technician working for a defense contractor, your job is the elevators, and you and your peers probably only deal with elevators, and the job probably pays pretty well. There’s a layer of abstraction between you and the “bad” things that your company may do.

Also, getting to make an employment decision based on “is this company evil” isn’t a luxury most people have until they’ve built some experience. Most entry level professionals are just happy to get a job.

As an adult the very first thing we try to feed ourselves are our morals and principles. And once we find out that they don’t fill your stomach? Well. You’d be surprised what you’ll do to not starve.

I work at a company the supplies some stuff to those companies and idk. Our stuff doesn’t really matter too much like we’re not giving them explosives or something but we’re aiding their process.

In the long run, I plan to hop out of this company in to something else but for now, I work in IT and even if they have me or don’t, I don’t really affect that side of the business. So it helps if I’m distanced away for it but doesn’t bring me comfort.

Might be better for your mental health and conscious if you pick something else though