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Yes the employer is dumb for not realizing the job can be automated. Yes you are smart for writing code that automates the job. But I feel, as an employee of th

Yes the employer is dumb for not realizing the job can be automated. Yes you are smart for writing code that automates the job. But I feel, as an employee of the company, it is un-ethical for you to knowingly see an extreme inefficiency and hide it for your own personal gain. Also, it seems like a huge way to waste your life. Find another job where they can actually use your skill set to do something meaningful.

kyleblarson 8y ago
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/spanish-public-servant-skipped-work-for-a-decade/news-story/e7623219ac39c696812b368269b5ef59 https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/spanish-public-...
- jlarocco 8y ago
  Not justifying what he did, but that's not possible without a major management failure.
frgtpsswrdlame 8y ago
It may or may not be a waste, but why do you believe it to be unethical? The employer employee job is a contractual one. When it is the company that sees me as an inefficiency I will be eliminated for the companies gain. Similarly when I the employee see an inefficiency in the company, I can eliminate (automate) it for my gain. This is the symmetry in the contractual relationship. To say that this relationship should be asymmetric is to grant even more power in the employer-employee relationship to the employer.
stronglikedan 8y ago
It's only unethical if you're being paid hourly, where you're being paid to work a certain amount of time, and you're just sitting around goofing off while your scripts run. If you're getting paid salary, then you're getting paid to get the job done, regardless of how you do it. However, if part of your salaried job description is to find ways to do things more efficiently, and you don't share your efficiency implementation, then I can see how that would be unethical, but that is usually at the executive level, not the coder level.
s73v3r_ 8y ago
Why is it unethical for me to do something for personal gain, but that sort of thing is what many companies are created to do?
zaptheimpaler 8y ago
So its perfectly ethical for a company to hire you for $50K to produce say $100K revenue, and continue paying you $50K even though you produce $1M in revenue after automating (or even fire you and keep the code)? Why is it ethical for companies to get away with paying you FAR less than the value you produce for them?

kyleblarson 8y ago

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/spanish-public-servant-skipped-work-for-a-decade/news-story/e7623219ac39c696812b368269b5ef59 https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/spanish-public-...

jlarocco 8y ago
Not justifying what he did, but that's not possible without a major management failure.

frgtpsswrdlame 8y ago

It may or may not be a waste, but why do you believe it to be unethical? The employer employee job is a contractual one. When it is the company that sees me as an inefficiency I will be eliminated for the companies gain. Similarly when I the employee see an inefficiency in the company, I can eliminate (automate) it for my gain. This is the symmetry in the contractual relationship. To say that this relationship should be asymmetric is to grant even more power in the employer-employee relationship to the employer.

stronglikedan 8y ago

It's only unethical if you're being paid hourly, where you're being paid to work a certain amount of time, and you're just sitting around goofing off while your scripts run. If you're getting paid salary, then you're getting paid to get the job done, regardless of how you do it. However, if part of your salaried job description is to find ways to do things more efficiently, and you don't share your efficiency implementation, then I can see how that would be unethical, but that is usually at the executive level, not the coder level.

s73v3r_ 8y ago

Why is it unethical for me to do something for personal gain, but that sort of thing is what many companies are created to do?

zaptheimpaler 8y ago

So its perfectly ethical for a company to hire you for $50K to produce say $100K revenue, and continue paying you $50K even though you produce $1M in revenue after automating (or even fire you and keep the code)? Why is it ethical for companies to get away with paying you FAR less than the value you produce for them?