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If you had an offer from Slack, would you seriously turn it down because they have Saudi money via Softbank if it was otherwise your top choice?
by dawhizkid 8y ago
If you had an offer from Slack, would you seriously turn it down because they have Saudi money via Softbank if it was otherwise your top choice?
- iampims 8y agoYes. These things matter.
- leesec 8y agoI am all for standing up for your beliefs with your actions, I just hope we all realize this is a privileged position.
- base698 8y agoIt's a modern disease to confuse integrity with privilege.
- yifanl 8y agoIf you are in a position to do so, then what does it matter? Given the ability to pick between two things that are identical bar some moral aspect, it seems logically consistent to pick the option that aligns more with your morals.
- tfehring 8y agoSure, but the reason for that privilege is also the reason it matters so much. If you're considering whether to take a menial job in a warehouse or call center or something for a SoftBank-funded company, you're probably in a less privileged position in terms of your ability to turn down the best available job offer. But the ceiling on the value that you can create for those investors is much lower, which IMO significantly reduces the moral imperative to look elsewhere. Conversely, if you're an engineer for a SoftBank-funded startup, it's fairly likely that your contributions will create many millions of dollars' worth of wealth for Saudi investors.
- realbarack 8y agoWhich is why these choices should be fairly simple, if you're confident of your own ethical stance. Most tech people's moral sacrifices are made for convenience/a few thousand dollars, not to put food on the table. If you work for a high-status SV company and you have a lot of moral qualms, you should leave your job and find one you feel better about.
- tomjen3 8y agoSo if we do nothing we are bad people and if we do the right thing we are still not good people, because "privilege"? That kinda trap sure doesn't make me more likely to give a shit about ethics.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoHonestly, doing the right thing is pretty low on the list privileged people should be worrying about. But yes, we should be careful passing judgement on people.
- softawre 8y agoCare to elaborate?
- erikpukinskis 8y agoI mean, doing the right thing, and then worrying that you’re doing the right thing because you have privilege... not a thing I think people need to worry about. If they’re judging others for not pitching in, that’s a concern.
- sam0x17 8y agoYes
- tfehring 8y agoI’m in the late stages of the interview process for a heavily SoftBank-funded company that would otherwise be my top choice, and I’m strongly considering turning them down because of that. So if you want a definitive answer, ask me again in a week.
- wowzap 8y agoNo, of course not. I'd do what's best for me, my family, and my finances. As a conservative individual, there are BOATLOADS of mainstream organizations that make "moral choices" I don't agree with and I don't hesitate for a second to work for them or give them my all.
- snarf21 8y agoI'm not passing judgment but I think it depends on the market. If there was a recession and tech jobs were harder to find and at a lower rate, then people would take jobs with more questionable funding/mission. Part of the reason we are seeing more people mic drop is because they can walk away to something just as good.
- loceng 8y agoThis is why all effort needs to move toward automizing as much as we can, while passing on as much value as possible back to society - so then people don't have to work in order to have more than basic needs along with a high quality of life. This would give people time to educate themselves, to build relationship with others (community), among other things - and to support the people and mechanisms who provide and improve this function and quality of life.
- justaguyhere 8y agoHow many of us even know (or take the time to find out) the investors of the companies we are interested in working for? And if we take a high moral stance, there wouldn't be many companies left - Amazon for its bad treatment of workforce, Google for privacy concerns, Facebook for its .. where do we even start, Oracle for its nastiness and so on.
- compcoffee 8y ago>If you had an offer from Slack, would you seriously turn it down because they have Saudi money via Softbank if it was otherwise your top choice? Of course not. The Valley runs on greed.
- erikpukinskis 8y agoYes. I've quit jobs over far less. The thing that influences your values more than anything else is who you spend time in close proximity with. If you spend all your time around people who look the other way when their compatriots do terrible things, you'll slowly bend that direction over time too.
- gnu8 8y agoThe essence of Slack is to solve the problem “IRC is broken because my company doesn’t own it.” Slack’s only value prop is to its shareholders and no one should bother to use it.