tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post3961875483352094153..comments2024-03-27T11:42:47.601-04:00Comments on Another Monkey: The ethics of workD.B. Echohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01797128570217627410noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post-79508560186348433692010-06-30T13:39:15.320-04:002010-06-30T13:39:15.320-04:00hedera: Heavens, no, I'm not considering work...hedera: Heavens, no, I'm not considering working in the Marcellus Shale industry...if I did that, Don might treat me to an upside-down kayak ride over the Knox Whirlpool. But I do know other people who have left my current place to get jobs working with gas drilling companies.<br /><br />The thing about TV faceplates wasn't really serious, just mind-blowing - all those TVs! And I consider my current employer to be making about the most inoffensive product possible.D.B. Echohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01797128570217627410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post-42601398286581602342010-06-30T03:25:19.792-04:002010-06-30T03:25:19.792-04:00Harold: We all draw our lines in the sand. Some ar...Harold: We all draw our lines in the sand. Some are higher up on the beach than others. Good post.Donald John Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01055924754050719891noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6988729.post-5103086756064187982010-06-30T00:54:46.635-04:002010-06-30T00:54:46.635-04:00I have a viewpoint on this. Twenty-five years ago...I have a viewpoint on this. Twenty-five years ago, I met a man at a singles party. He was (is) a statistician; he worked and works for Sandia National Laboratories; at the time he was working on Star Wars (remember that?). He began by asking me if I minded that he made bombs, because the Berkeley liberal he'd just been talking to had been haranguing him about it. I said that as my father had worked for Mare Island Naval Shipyard for 31 years, my sister was doing defense contracting for SRI International, and my cousin was the retired head of personnel at Alameda Naval Air Station, I didn't feel I could legitimately object to somebody who made bombs. <br /><br />We've been married for twenty-four years next month. He's retiring at the end of this year and handing off the work he's been doing lately - engineering reliability analysis on the nuclear weapons stockpile.<br /><br />This obviously isn't an exact parallel to any of your situations except maybe the weapons shop. Does it bother me that he works on nukes? Actually, no; but as I've said, there's been a lot of military around my family. And somebody has to work on national defense issues. And it isn't a firm that does it for profit; it's a national lab. The corporate culture is actually quite academic.<br /><br />I think I'm trying to say that everybody has to make these decisions themselves. If you think a job will keep you up at night with the moral implications, don't take the job. I hope in your case the price of moral rectitude isn't unemployment; you're obviously wondering whether to try for work on the Marcellus Shale. I don't think you'd be comfortable with that. I hope there are alternatives. Your point about the monoculture is very well taken.<br /><br />I also think your concern about your years making TV faceplates and DVDs is overdone. You aren't responsible for other people's choices, only your own. After all, I spent 19 years in the banking industry - but since I spent it managing mainframes and Unix servers, I don't feel that I'm personally responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis, even though my former employer was in it up to its corporate neck.hederahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01696592301686568456noreply@blogger.com