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Do you struggle to find ethical work?

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Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#1

Post by Extended0088 »

Throughout my career I have tried my best to avoid work in industries that I consider as doing harm, e.g. oil & gas, defence and financial services companies like JP Morgan that have a large prescence locally.

In the last few years I have worked for a cloud consultancy with similar values, however, I have still found myself working on projects for clothing companies that I would consider as fast-fashion with questionable supply chains.

I am starting to wonder if I need to take my skillset in another direction to find more meaningful work. I took an interest in C# and microservices in the past and while that has worked out well for me, it seems to have locked me into a very enterprise world with values that rarely align to my own.

Has anyone faced a similar dilemna? Basically, I am struggling to find my Ikigai as I do not feel like the world needs the work that I am doing.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#2

Post by goethes_kind »

I was thinking about this recently. What is your definition of meaningful work? I am myself also not a fan of consumerism. But is not most of our economy essentially spinning the hamster wheel of consumerism, in one way or another? Think about it. What is the goal of every industry? To keep us alive, fed, clothed, sheltered, safe and healthy. And what is the ultimate goal of reaching this Nirvana of human existence? To be able finally relax and be entertained. It all seems a bit pointless from this vantage point. This line of thinking will end up in you questioning the meaning of life.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#6

Post by vjerancrnjak »

Everything is outside of your control. Including the product of your work.

I worked for a company that has a very eco-friendly product yet eventually it was used by industries one might not find ethical.

Simplest example is engineering of factory farms and industrial slaughterhouses. Are these engineers evil? Is the automation work that was focused on machine production to blame? Why didn’t the engineers predict that their work will be transformed into an industrial slaughterhouse? Just look at what happened with gas chambers.

The chain of influence is everywhere. You have to accept that eventually your work results are outside of your control even if you have an illusion of choice (self-employment, owning your own company, picking projects or clients).

Once you truly accept that, from that place dilemma no longer exists.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#7

Post by dusted »

Reminder: This is my personal opinion, not an attempt to convince you of anything else. While my opinion might be unpopular, I don't believe it to be without any contributing value to the discussion, so please keep that in mind if you decide to read it (and before downvoting me for providing my opinion).

I don't really, if I'm not doing it, someone else will do it, so it will be done anyway.

My belief is in bettering the world through regulation rather than individual choice.

I drive a diesel, but I'd vote for legislation banning _ALL_ diesel cars in a heatbeat.

I travel by plane, but I'd be vote for implementing laws to reduce or eliminate air travel related pollution.

I'd vote to ban some of the things I've worked on, definitely, and I'd have been glad to vote to put myself out of that previous job.

I'm not an idealist on this point.

I'll not personally sacrifice anything when the effect of my personal, specific, individual sacrifice that has direct impact for me personally, has no globally measurable impact.

I'm very much for doing good things, but while I'll be glad to do them, I want everyone else to be forced to do them too, so that they work effectively, and not just be my personal little cross to bear.

I won't be the one making do without X when X is legally available, ban X if it's bad, we'll all do make do without and find alternatives.

Re: Do you struggle to find ethical work?

#9

Post by Extended0088 »

goethes_kind wrote: post #2

I was thinking about this recently. What is your definition of meaningful work? I am myself also not a fan of consumerism. But is not most of our economy essentially spinning the hamster wheel of consumerism, in one way or another? Think about it. What is the goal of every industry? To keep us alive, fed, clothed, sheltered, safe and healthy. And what is the ultimate goal of reaching this Nirvana of human existence?…

Yes, I often think of a lot of the enterprise work that I have been doing as just greasing the wheels of capitalism. More and more people must be becoming aware that the economy is unsustainable.

I would argue that those are not the goals of every industry. For example, the majority of the clothing industry pushes fast-fashion rather than trying to sell high-quality goods that will last and that are manufactured fairly. I could continue to give examples for other industries but in short, their main goal is to extract profit.

At this point I would settle for work that is not actively causing harm to people or the environment.

I've tried to find b-corps or co-operatives to work for, however, there haven't been many options out there.

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