Do you struggle to find ethical work? (derp.foo)

submitted 1 year ago by haxor@derp.foo to c/hackernews@derp.foo

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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.

There is a discussion on Hacker News, but feel free to comment here as well.

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[-] dojan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I think one has to strike a balance really. I've worked with

Developed various sales related tools for a Stellantis owned car manufacturer
A resource management system for the government of a particular population
Planning tools for a mining company
CRM related stuff for a "green tech" company
Various tools for government sectors

Like none of it is world changing, and some are a bit more questionable. Mining isn't exactly environmentally friendly, though the company I did work for is arguably one of the "greenest", and environmental sustainability is a big thing for them right now. As it should be for everyone.

I have some hard line stances though. I don't want to work with the military. I don't want to work with medical stuff, (out of fear that code I'd written somehow kills someone). I don't want to work with companies that overtly exploit people (online casinos, mobile apps/games and that kind of BS). I'd say JP Morgan qualifies for that last bit.

this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2023

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