New Friend - Morally Questionable Job

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the specific job. Working for Altria wouldn't bother me. Working for Breitbart/NRA/any other hardcore right wing org would. I have plenty of conservative friends, including those who work in politics, but some organizations are beyond the pale for me because it would indicate too great a gap in our fundamental values.

[Anonymous]

OP here ... thanks for all of the different perspectives. Exactly what I was hoping to get out of posting here, so I appreciate it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess I see why our election results looked like they did, and why those of us in bubbles like the DMV missed it...

Well said

+1,000. This conversation wouldn't even occur outside of the ACELA corridor, much less go the way it has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My partner and I just moved to a new house and we are eager to make new friends in the neighborhood. We met a nice couple, and it came out that one of them works at a company that most people would think is evil (think tobacco). I am having trouble seeing past that. Should that be a friendship deal breaker? Thanks.

Wow. You need some real tragedies in your life to lose sleep over. You sound judgemental AF and these neighbors are lucky to not count you as friends

[Anonymous]

I meet someone who was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and he seemed nice enough at first. I should have known that a person would have to be rotten to the core to do a job like that. Pure evil.

Judge people by what they do, not what they say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on the specific job. Working for Altria wouldn't bother me. Working for Breitbart/NRA/any other hardcore right wing org would. I have plenty of conservative friends, including those who work in politics, but some organizations are beyond the pale for me because it would indicate too great a gap in our fundamental values.

Same. (Well, except that I've dropped most of my conservative friends at this point.) It depends on the organization and also on the job: I don't have a problem with the guy who does IT support or even advertising for Chik-Fil-A, though I personally won't spend a dime there, but I'd not be friends with the CEO. I agree with the PP who said every NRA employee has blood on his or her hands. My own employer (at the high level, not my unit) has done things recently that I find morally wrong and I am figuring out my next move as a result.

In OP's case, yes a lobbyist for a cause I find unacceptable would be a deal breaker. Wave and smile at the neighbor, but that's it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It really depends on the specific job. Working for Altria wouldn't bother me. Working for Breitbart/NRA/any other hardcore right wing org would. I have plenty of conservative friends, including those who work in politics, but some organizations are beyond the pale for me because it would indicate too great a gap in our fundamental values.

Same. (Well, except that I've dropped most of my conservative friends at this point.) It depends on the organization and also on the job: I don't have a problem with the guy who does IT support or even advertising for Chik-Fil-A, though I personally won't spend a dime there, but I'd not be friends with the CEO. I agree with the PP who said every NRA employee has blood on his or her hands. My own employer (at the high level, not my unit) has done things recently that I find morally wrong and I am figuring out my next move as a result.

In OP's case, yes a lobbyist for a cause I find unacceptable would be a deal breaker. Wave and smile at the neighbor, but that's it.

If you ever had any to begin with (doubtful) I can virtually promise they don't miss you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I guess I see why our election results looked like they did, and why those of us in bubbles like the DMV missed it...

Well said

+1,000. This conversation wouldn't even occur outside of the ACELA corridor, much less go the way it has.

This conversation does occur everywhere there is a good selection of jobs where people can readily move if they don't like their employer ... which is pretty universally the liberal areas, and therefore this conversation goes this way all the time. I'll give you the Houston area as an outlier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I meet someone who was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and he seemed nice enough at first. I should have known that a person would have to be rotten to the core to do a job like that. Pure evil.

Judge people by what they do, not what they say.

You can't be serious. First, every client is entitled to representation. Second, many claims by tobacco plaintiffs these days are nonsense, or at least questionable enough you can't blame someone for taking the other side. Third, many lawyers at large firms my not have the ability to choose who they work for. I am sure you would say they should quit to maintain their moral purity, but that would often be career suicide and leave someone totally unable to pay back loans and support themselves.

It really easy to rail against evil big companies and the attorneys who work for them, but often (certainly not always) they are on the side of right or at least there is plenty of grey on all sides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If he worked in factory farming/agribusiness legal torture would be a deal breaker.

Yeah, if someone worked in a business that fed most of the world's population, they should definitely be shunned. Much better to let people starve.

Yes, but there are jobs at companies that hurt a lot of people . I used to have a job at a company that was predatory (think credit), it really bothered me after I started to see the bigger picture. I felt like a soldier on the wrong side of right. I have some guilt as do others.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My partner and I just moved to a new house and we are eager to make new friends in the neighborhood. We met a nice couple, and it came out that one of them works at a company that most people would think is evil (think tobacco). I am having trouble seeing past that. Should that be a friendship deal breaker? Thanks.

Wow. You need some real tragedies in your life to lose sleep over. You sound judgemental AF and these neighbors are lucky to not count you as friends

I disagree. If someone has a' 'dirty' job there is something wrong with their character, it's a big red flag - not friend material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meet someone who was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and he seemed nice enough at first. I should have known that a person would have to be rotten to the core to do a job like that. Pure evil.

Judge people by what they do, not what they say.

You can't be serious. First, every client is entitled to representation. Second, many claims by tobacco plaintiffs these days are nonsense, or at least questionable enough you can't blame someone for taking the other side. Third, many lawyers at large firms my not have the ability to choose who they work for. I am sure you would say they should quit to maintain their moral purity, but that would often be career suicide and leave someone totally unable to pay back loans and support themselves.

It really easy to rail against evil big companies and the attorneys who work for them, but often (certainly not always) they are on the side of right or at least there is plenty of grey on all sides.

There are plenty of jobs, no need to sell your soul to the devil. So don't make excuses for someone who acts as hired gun for an evil cause.

[Anonymous]

This reminds me of a lady who told me that her father was a scientist for the N azis. She said he was forced to do it but they paid him a salary. I'm surprised she would even tell people the story, but I guess she believed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meet someone who was a lawyer for Phillip Morris and he seemed nice enough at first. I should have known that a person would have to be rotten to the core to do a job like that. Pure evil.

Judge people by what they do, not what they say.

You can't be serious. First, every client is entitled to representation. Second, many claims by tobacco plaintiffs these days are nonsense, or at least questionable enough you can't blame someone for taking the other side. Third, many lawyers at large firms my not have the ability to choose who they work for. I am sure you would say they should quit to maintain their moral purity, but that would often be career suicide and leave someone totally unable to pay back loans and support themselves.

It really easy to rail against evil big companies and the attorneys who work for them, but often (certainly not always) they are on the side of right or at least there is plenty of grey on all sides.

There are plenty of jobs, no need to sell your soul to the devil. So don't make excuses for someone who acts as hired gun for an evil cause.

They aren't evil. And more fundamentally, there aren't necessarily other (at least remotely comparable) jobs. Say you start at Bigfirm X and are then assigned a tobacco case (or any other case you, final arbiter of good and evil, determines is evil). If you "take a stand" and do the quote "morally right" thing, you almost certainly won't find another firm job. With little experience, you will struggle finding a half decent job period. Your ability to pay back loans and build a life will be severely impaired. All so you didn't have to work for an "evil" client who may very well have actually been on the side of right on the case to which you were assigned. (This may be hard for you to comprehend, but the little guy isn't always right and he corporation isn't always bad.)

So, please don't break your neck falling off your high horse.