Ask HN: Would you reject a job offer on moral grounds? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you reject a job offer on moral grounds?

18 pointsphonebucket11 comments

There are plenty of companies viewed as contentious within the HN community which nonetheless seem to be very desirable to work for. I wonder how strongly people consider morality as a factor in their career choices.

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I doubt it. Thinking about it, it may simply be that I don't apply at companies that I don't approve of.

I'm not sure why I would even reach out to a company regarding a position if I disapproved of them initially?

The question seems to be predicated on the notion that companies would be reaching out to me and offering me a position without going through any sort of interview process, which I assume doesn't happen for the vast majority of people.

I don't apply at companies I don't share moral & ethical grounds with in the first place. Amazon sends me recruitment offers all of the time and I turn them down immediately, even straight up telling the recruiters I don't agree with their morals or ethics. None of it stops them from repeatedly sending me offers though.

The first question when a recruiter reaches out to me is what’s the company, so I can look them up and see if their products/services align with my morals. I have declined many opportunities at cancerous companies that do analytics, advertising, etc.

When I first started out (in 1994 - strokes greying beard) I decided I wouldn't work for any defence companies. About 10 years back I added online betting/gambling companies to the exclusion list. These exceptions are listed in my LinkedIn profile to deter recruiters (for the second category especially). Admittedly I haven't been in the position of needing work and having an offer from an excluded source, so my ethics haven't been really tested yet.

I left my first job out of school partially for moral reasons. The job looked fine on paper, but after a year in I started to question the ethics of their practices, so it made it really easy to leave for a better opportunity.

As far as rejecting a job offer, that experience taught me that I would never even apply for a job that I didn't agree with morally from the posting. There are "too many fish in the sea".

I disagree with Google but I would happily work there.

Similar to other commenters, I have chosen not to apply to positions and companies where I have a moral/ethical objections.

Sure. I'm a paid marketer but would reject a job from a gambling company. I've also rejected jobs before because I thought the company owner was unethical (Unfair to interns, cheating on his wife, etc.).

If it was so objectionable to the general public that it’d keep me from finding another job in the future and it didn’t pay enough to retire I’d turn it down.

Other than that, money’s money.

Will never work for companies like oracle / microsoft. Post matters for companies like Google.

I would not work at alcohol, tobacco, gun industies.

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