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The Uncle Ben Parker Contrapositive applies: with no power comes no responsibility. As long as "at will" employment exists, then no contract terms exist, and n

The Uncle Ben Parker Contrapositive applies: with no power comes no responsibility. As long as "at will" employment exists, then no contract terms exist, and no labor law can stick to the employer, so long as they are willing to lie whenever there is no contradictory evidence. If the employee gets fired for asserting their rights in the law, and the employer can say it was an "at will" termination, the employee has no effective recourse or remedy. If you criminalize the work that I do, you are just getting me fired for no HR-disclosable reason (again), and the company will have that work done in another jurisdiction. If you aren't putting c-level executives and/or board members in prison, and forcibly restructuring or dissolving corporations, you aren't doing anything to protect me, the worker. And if you are placing legal liability on me, personally, I definitely will not testify against my superiors. I know the feces roll downhill. I was about to be incredulous, but I actually do believe that you would rather have me fired and put in prison, and my dependents thrown in the gutter, than to have a software workers' union or stronger federal labor laws that might possibly protect me from an arbitrary dismissal if I tell my boss "What you are asking me to do is unethical." Thanks for that.

heavyset_go 7y ago
Thank you for putting it these terms. I do agree with your overall point. Perhaps I worded my view poorly. I am more in favor of software engineers having the same liability that engineers in other fields have. If a civil engineer signs off on plans for a bridge that gets people killed, liability will fall upon their employer and the engineer themselves. In that sense, there are incentives for both the employer and the engineer not to design structures that cause harm. > If you aren't putting c-level executives and/or board members in prison, and forcibly restructuring or dissolving corporations, you aren't doing anything to protect me, the worker. Agreed. > I was about to be incredulous, but I actually do believe that you would rather have me fired and put in prison, and my dependents thrown in the gutter, than to have a software workers' union or stronger federal labor laws that might possibly protect me from an arbitrary dismissal if I tell my boss "What you are asking me to do is unethical." Thanks for that. On the contrary, I am in favor of unionization and stronger labor laws in IT.

heavyset_go 7y ago

Thank you for putting it these terms. I do agree with your overall point. Perhaps I worded my view poorly. I am more in favor of software engineers having the same liability that engineers in other fields have. If a civil engineer signs off on plans for a bridge that gets people killed, liability will fall upon their employer and the engineer themselves. In that sense, there are incentives for both the employer and the engineer not to design structures that cause harm. > If you aren't putting c-level executives and/or board members in prison, and forcibly restructuring or dissolving corporations, you aren't doing anything to protect me, the worker. Agreed. > I was about to be incredulous, but I actually do believe that you would rather have me fired and put in prison, and my dependents thrown in the gutter, than to have a software workers' union or stronger federal labor laws that might possibly protect me from an arbitrary dismissal if I tell my boss "What you are asking me to do is unethical." Thanks for that. On the contrary, I am in favor of unionization and stronger labor laws in IT.