Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#41

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #29

saagarjha wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How sure are you about that?

As sure as it's still a developer's market and FB controversy doesn't erase technological accomplishments of individuals. Those accomplishments are easily untied from the politics of the situation. You may lose a small amount of jobs that would come your way, but you'd still likely have dozens of offers to choose from from companies that don't view you as 'tainted'. Software engineering doesn't have the same ethical…

> FB controversy doesn't erase technological accomplishments of individuals

It doesn't, but it doesn't look great if those accomplishments end up having a negative impact on society. Do you really want to have "I wrote an novel algorithm to track people" on your resume?

> Software engineering doesn't have the same ethical consequences and motivations as other fields (medicine, law, etc.). It doesn't make much sense to punish the engineers when you invent ethical standards after-the-fact.

I'll have to disagree with you there. Software engineers should have to deal with the ethical consequences of the work they've done. And these ethical standards are hardly "after-the-fact": the idea of a right to privacy has been around for a long time.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#42

Post by BeetleB » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

taurath wrote: post #5

I wonder how many new hires pass up Facebook because of ethical concerns. Whats scary is if even internally people are moving departments because of ethics, that basically filters so that the least ethical people are on the teams with the most ethical concerns. If there's a real net effect on their hiring, they'll have to increase salaries to lure people in, which will take in even more unethical people (of course, n…

I find a fairly large disconnect between everyone saying people may be uncomfortable working at Facebook and their Glassdoor ratings (probably the highest of any tech company).

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#43

Post by tenpies » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

ryanSrich wrote: post #34

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working for FB itself during this controversy won't tarnish your resume anyway.

I think you greatly underestimate certain people's ability to overreact...

"Facebook? The ones that help get TRUMP ELECTED?"

I think that would be enough to get you blacklisted in certain California crowds.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#44

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

ThemalSpan wrote: post #28

taurath wrote: post #5

I wonder how many new hires pass up Facebook because of ethical concerns. Whats scary is if even internally people are moving departments because of ethics, that basically filters so that the least ethical people are on the teams with the most ethical concerns. If there's a real net effect on their hiring, they'll have to increase salaries to lure people in, which will take in even more unethical people (of course, n…

I find this issue much more pressing in the defense industry. I (thankfully) have the freedom to choose where I work. I will never willingly work on weapon systems. There are those that do though. Engineers who design things to kill other people. What the actual fuck.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#45

Post by walshemj » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

ThemalSpan wrote: post #28

taurath wrote: post #5

I wonder how many new hires pass up Facebook because of ethical concerns. Whats scary is if even internally people are moving departments because of ethics, that basically filters so that the least ethical people are on the teams with the most ethical concerns. If there's a real net effect on their hiring, they'll have to increase salaries to lure people in, which will take in even more unethical people (of course, n…

I find this issue much more pressing in the defense industry. I (thankfully) have the freedom to choose where I work. I will never willingly work on weapon systems. There are those that do though. Engineers who design things to kill other people. What the actual fuck.

Um you are aware of why SV exists - massive defense spending.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#46

Post by quest88 » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

Can we stop feeding these accounts? The submitter is a new account whose submissions are mainly facebook articles. It's not contributing anything useful to HN. Why is this account posting so many FB related articles? Do they have some other motive that HN is falling for?

At this point I feel like HN has turned into a FB news dump since it makes the people who "quit facebook and never looked back" feel good. Where are the quality submissions?

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#47

Post by JumpCrisscross » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:35 PM UTC

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #17

ryanSrich wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Silicon Valley is turning on Facebook. Employees are realizing this and do not want a tarnished resume. If you actually believe this is for ethical reasons then you're not equipped for the world.

Working for FB itself during this controversy won't tarnish your resume anyway.

> Working for FB itself during this controversy won't tarnish your resume anyway

Depends on what you’re doing. I wouldn’t want a former Facebook employee near anything remotely customer data related, or anything with political or PR sensitivity.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#48

Post by ataturk » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:37 PM UTC

The whole of the tech industry is an ethical concern.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#49

Post by saagarjha » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:38 PM UTC

tenpies wrote: post #43

ryanSrich wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you greatly underestimate certain people's ability to overreact...

"Facebook? The ones that help get TRUMP ELECTED?" I think that would be enough to get you blacklisted in certain California crowds.

Please don't be flippant. You know the what we mean here: the perception that those who work at Facebook are lacking in ethics or moral fiber. This isn't about politics.

Re: Facebook Employees Are Quitting or Switching Departments Over Ethical Concerns

#50

Post by ataturk » Tue, Apr 10, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #29

saagarjha wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How sure are you about that?

As sure as it's still a developer's market and FB controversy doesn't erase technological accomplishments of individuals. Those accomplishments are easily untied from the politics of the situation. You may lose a small amount of jobs that would come your way, but you'd still likely have dozens of offers to choose from from companies that don't view you as 'tainted'. Software engineering doesn't have the same ethical…

I disagree. SE most certainly does have ethical consequences. Ethics and character are everything and too many technology people believe it doesn't even matter at all!

It's the same consequences as when the FBI or CIA employees go rogue and undermine our nation. It may not hurt their careers, but somewhere down the line some angry peasants might just shoot them in the face.