Who's had the most ethically dubious job?
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fen_boy
Exits gracefully.
beeboo said:
Is there a good explanation for this or are you just nasty people?
Marine Biologist?
I used to do telemarketing cold calls for Coca-Cola.
Next week I'm going for an interview with a company who make biometrics modelling/simulation software (like the human genome project gubbins), which in itself is a worthwhile thing, but some of their customers are a bit dodgy - monsanto for example.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
So how good/bad were they as places to work (for Chinese people that is), in your opinion?pinkmonkey said:I'm a shoe designer, so I spend weeks on end sitting in factories that are usually in China. Yes, even factories that make Nike (amongst other brands).
I reckon I've probably worked in a place that made the shoes that you are wearing now.
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
That's pretty low. Did you do it in full awareness of what you were doing?Idaho said:Along with another urbanite, I once wrote reactionary propaganda for the Bahrain government. I was even quoted on the front page of the Observer as a name and shame of the publication I worked for
Do I win?
Structaural
in Chatsubo
I worked for a company that made various displays for BNFL, I refused to work on it and they said they'd sack me if I didn't, so I got sacked.
Also worked for a packaging company that did a lot of Nestle's cereal, hated it all the way through and lasted about 4 months.
Also worked for a packaging company that did a lot of Nestle's cereal, hated it all the way through and lasted about 4 months.
pogofish
Testicle Hairstyle
beeboo said:Is there a good explanation for this or are you just nasty people?
National scientific monitoring & where possible we gather samples for distribution to a number of biologists/projects in other parts of the country.
The creatures are usually dead from natural causes first but sometimes, where it is too badly injured or when rescues fail, we have to go-in after the government vet has done the needfull.
The boat incident was where we supplied a dead, washed-up dolphin to a project looking at what was feeding on the deepest seabeds but the crew got the wrong-idea & thought it had been killed specially for the work. My footage of that has been used in umpteen science progs!
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
I worked for Rupert Murdoch when I was a photographer. He paid very well IIRC. 
Brainaddict
slight system overdrive
I worked for Burger King back when I was young and foolish.
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
Though it was prose and not in rhymeKeyboardJockey said:I worked for Rupert Murdoch when I was a photographer. He paid very well IIRC.
I wrote a piece once for the Times.
KeyboardJockey
Clowns to the Left of me
Donna Ferentes said:
continued...
Back when I was young and dumb
I did freelancing for The Sun.
Red Faction
Allez Les Rouges
one day i will be
making decisions over
life and death for cash
making decisions over
life and death for cash
My last job was working for various banks and credit card companies, helping them work out how to encourage people to get further into debt they can't afford, etc.
We did have some morals...we turned down the 'opportunity' to work for a company that provides those loans with 40%+ interest rates to really desperate people with poor credit history.
I was actually shocked by how mercenary the major banks generally are...some of them in particular are complete wankers (*cough* Barclays *cough*), they don't see people, just £ signs.
We did have some morals...we turned down the 'opportunity' to work for a company that provides those loans with 40%+ interest rates to really desperate people with poor credit history.
I was actually shocked by how mercenary the major banks generally are...some of them in particular are complete wankers (*cough* Barclays *cough*), they don't see people, just £ signs.
Idaho
continuity character
Brainaddict said:
95% of what we did was rehash British news for a fairly small and insignificant audience. The other 5% of the time we wrote rebuttals of critical pieces of Gulf states in the UK press. I was aware of what I was doing. It was playing devils advocado to some extent. Although I generally took the angle of attacking inconsistencies in the critical articles. But for the Observer, and occassionally Private Eye, taking an interest, the publication would have been produced by more people than actually read it.
It was a dodgy place, and still exists. I remember seeing the secretary photocopying page fulls of cheques made out to various conservative MPs - which I know the MPs certainly didn't declare.
It was my first job out of uni, and first in London.
chegrimandi
associated with adultery
I sold insurance on store card payments, to people that couldn't afford it, for GE Capital for about 12 months over the phone.
fortunesfool
Tragic Hippy
I'm currently working on reception for a company that designs cranes for oil companies and defence.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
I used to work as a mercenary for Shell in Nigeria.
Now I work in commercial television.
Not sure which is worse.
Now I work in commercial television.
Not sure which is worse.
Wintermute
easy tiger
You know the people who come up to you in service stations and try to sell you credit cards? My first job was organising those sales teams. You're welcome
I've also worked, indirectly, for McDonalds. For a company that does their UK logistics. A McDonalds store will ring and order 8 billion sesame baps and a couple of dozen barrels of that sickly gunk they make the milkshakes out of. I worked tirelessly to subvert the system from within, once telling a store that their order was on its way to them when, in fact, it wasn't. I would also pretend that my name was Andrew so that they couldn't trace the catalogue of misplaced orders, lost items and low-level catastrophes that I would like to attribute to my subversion but was more likely a result of my being generally unable to follow simple instructions.
I've also worked, indirectly, for McDonalds. For a company that does their UK logistics. A McDonalds store will ring and order 8 billion sesame baps and a couple of dozen barrels of that sickly gunk they make the milkshakes out of. I worked tirelessly to subvert the system from within, once telling a store that their order was on its way to them when, in fact, it wasn't. I would also pretend that my name was Andrew so that they couldn't trace the catalogue of misplaced orders, lost items and low-level catastrophes that I would like to attribute to my subversion but was more likely a result of my being generally unable to follow simple instructions.
newbie
undisambiguated
ethicality is a bit weird, imo, and as susceptible to fashion as anything else.
Many, many years ago I had a temp job sorting the skins of baby seals for the Hudson Bay company. There was an ancient Thamesside warehouse full of bundles of 20 or so that had to be piled according to their apparent quality, as they had been for 300 years or so. At the time I thought nothing of it, and nor did anyone else who knew what I was doing- it didn't really register on any scale of ethics I was aware of. Within a few years Greenpeace started their seal campaign and firmly placed the issue into the public mind in such a way that no-one could doubt that culling baby seals was wrong, as was being part of the trade in their skins. I remember feeling shame that I had participated in something so (as the OP puts it) ethically dubious.
I don't particularly regret doing it but I wouldn't have done it in any of the years since
Over time a counter-view had developed about the rights of indigenous peoples to tradional ways of life, the effect of expanding seal populations on fish stocks and so on. The ethics of seal culling is no longer as clearcut as it was.
Over 30 years or so the issue has gone from being one where ethics were (at least to me, a politically aware student) of no consequence through compelling black/white to significant uncertainty: where merely raising the issue could hijack this thread and cause a bunfight. That's not my intention and personally I'm not going to argue about seal culls, fur and so on.
What I'm trying to say is that this stuff is relative, and it's blinkered to believe that there are many jobs which unquestionably hold some moral highground.
Many, many years ago I had a temp job sorting the skins of baby seals for the Hudson Bay company. There was an ancient Thamesside warehouse full of bundles of 20 or so that had to be piled according to their apparent quality, as they had been for 300 years or so. At the time I thought nothing of it, and nor did anyone else who knew what I was doing- it didn't really register on any scale of ethics I was aware of. Within a few years Greenpeace started their seal campaign and firmly placed the issue into the public mind in such a way that no-one could doubt that culling baby seals was wrong, as was being part of the trade in their skins. I remember feeling shame that I had participated in something so (as the OP puts it) ethically dubious.
I don't particularly regret doing it but I wouldn't have done it in any of the years since
Over time a counter-view had developed about the rights of indigenous peoples to tradional ways of life, the effect of expanding seal populations on fish stocks and so on. The ethics of seal culling is no longer as clearcut as it was.
Over 30 years or so the issue has gone from being one where ethics were (at least to me, a politically aware student) of no consequence through compelling black/white to significant uncertainty: where merely raising the issue could hijack this thread and cause a bunfight. That's not my intention and personally I'm not going to argue about seal culls, fur and so on.
What I'm trying to say is that this stuff is relative, and it's blinkered to believe that there are many jobs which unquestionably hold some moral highground.
Red Faction
Allez Les Rouges
dont see whats wrong with
controlled seal culling seeing as
they have skin and meat
much like cows and we
take beef and leather daily
for granted really
as long as we're sure
the ecosystem remains
unchanged afterwards
controlled seal culling seeing as
they have skin and meat
much like cows and we
take beef and leather daily
for granted really
as long as we're sure
the ecosystem remains
unchanged afterwards
hiccup
King of the Vagabonds
When I worked in a call centre, I did a phone survey for the Conservative party. A few of us complained about having to work for them, but got told that it was that or no work at all, so I did it. I also wilfully fucked up their data as much as I could. You'd be amazed at some of the answers the members of the Huntingdon Conservative Party gave to that survey.
---
I met a lovely girl the other night:
Me: "What do you do"
Her: I work in marketing for McDonalds and Coca Cola"
Me: "..."
Her: "Yeah, I know"
---
I currently work for a small company that sells a product that is basically no different from all the other similar ones out there, but ours has a thick coating of marketing bullshit, so people pay 3 or 4 times as much for it. Which is a bit depressing.
---
I met a lovely girl the other night:
Me: "What do you do"
Her: I work in marketing for McDonalds and Coca Cola"
Me: "..."
Her: "Yeah, I know"
---
I currently work for a small company that sells a product that is basically no different from all the other similar ones out there, but ours has a thick coating of marketing bullshit, so people pay 3 or 4 times as much for it. Which is a bit depressing.
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