Have you ever fought back against a task on the basics of ethics?

Has there ever been a time where you had to push back against something you were tasked to do because of ethical concerns?

Comments

[Ben Halpern]

I’ve never dealt with an overly difficult ethical situation but I’ve definitely stopped working with folks based on the feeling that if I continued, I’d face ethical arguments all the time. Some people just don’t care.

[Mikael Henriksson]

Can’t say I have but... working in a seemingly heartless online casino, hiding the gambling problem behind gamification; it just didn’t work out for me.

I understand the business. It is brutal, everyone and his/her grandmother is trying to rip you off and find exploits. You slowly build a company culture with hearts of stone. It was the most fun I have had for some time but eventually the ethics caught up with me and I had to leave the company.

It is still a really awesome company. Super forward thinking, amazing people but I just couldn’t motivate myself after a while.

[Michael Tharrington]

I feel you on that.

After a while certain industries just kind of get to you. I could totally see designing online casino games as something that would wear on my guilt despite working with nice folks at a cool company. Cool that you pulled yourself outta there though; it's tough to leave a place when things are (mostly) going good!

Great example and appreciate you sharing that - it's definitely not easy talking about these sorts of things!

[Hatem Houssein]

Same thing happened to me with Army-related work, luckily it was just an internship.

[Thomas C. Haflich]

Side question - those who have had formal training in CS/SE, did you ever have training in safety or ethics? I got my degree in a completely separate engineering discipline and we had dedicated courses for it. There are sometimes professional licensing boards and committees that handle ethics issues, depending on what you do. I don't think I've ever seen something like that for developers. I'd be curious to see if there is something out there and what it looks like.

[Ashlee (she/her)]

Did not have any required course for it in my CSSE department. :( I decided on my own to take one in the Humanities and Social Sciences department, but it wasn't tech-focused. It was a general engineering ethics course. What I would personally love to see is an ethics class that has a whole section on designing/creating with accessibility in mind.

[Vuild]

Always. Change it or quit if it goes against your morals.

If you don't, you will become that person. Others will see it quietly & one day it comes back.

Never accept it. Destroy it first, even if it means sacrifice.

Save enough to be able to push back constantly.

A lot of people in tech in the last decades didn't do that & the bill is coming due.