How Do Developers Handle Moral Dilemmas? 268
DwightFagen asks: "I'm curious to know how developers in the Slashdot community handle situations in which they are given a project that rubs against their moral borders. I was recently hired as a Flash developer for a design and development company and am just beginning my second project. This particular assignment is to build the video portion of an online magazine. This magazine deals with various topics and is by no means a pornographic site (although some content may border on that), but it seems one of its key tenets is to be untethered by social moral values. Though I do not believe such things should in any way be censored or banned from the internet, I do not wish to actively support something I believe to be an exploitation of human beings. What would you in the Slashdot community do in such a situation? Have any of you dealt with something like this before?"
"For the sake of clarity, I'd like to mention that I'm all for the freedom of expression on the internet and that I do not in any way judge people based on the media they choose to consume.
If this were a clear cut case of pornography, my choice would be simple; but that is not the case. I do still hold myself to certain standards and believe in the value of integrity and I would also like to do work that my family and friends can be proud of (or at least work that I could show them). However, I would also like to keep my job and would not want to put my small company of very nice people in a difficult position (as the deadline is not so far off)."
If this were a clear cut case of pornography, my choice would be simple; but that is not the case. I do still hold myself to certain standards and believe in the value of integrity and I would also like to do work that my family and friends can be proud of (or at least work that I could show them). However, I would also like to keep my job and would not want to put my small company of very nice people in a difficult position (as the deadline is not so far off)."
Watch out for H-1Bs (Score:2, Interesting)
What? (Score:3, Interesting)
Apparently they are not breaking laws of any kind, so what really is the problem?
Is your morale really that much tighter than the rules imposed on you by one of the tightest legal systems in the world?
And exploitation? What?
All people involved in whatever you are doing, have made their own choise whether to participate or not. And they probably even get paid for it. Don't impose your values on everyone. If the rest is okay with what is happening, why can't you simply accept it?
Ask Slashdot: I am a spineless wimp (Score:0, Interesting)
Serioulsy - what the fuck is the problem here? You dance around a moral argument and try to weaken in hopes that people will convince you to stay? How about this: I work for a company that develops missile guidance systems. The one and true purpose of this guidence system is to kill people effectively. I am against killing people in all forms. So Slashdot, should I stay or should I quit?
thats easy. (Score:2, Interesting)
My two cents... (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, when I found myself in a moral dilemma seeing one account executive stealing supplies, software, and property from the company, an account supervisor rigging a winning spot in a contest for her niece that our company ran for a large restaurant chain, I made the choice to stand up and speak out. While they thanked me for speaking up, and "looked into the matter", it became clear that I wasted my breath.
That is until I was "downsized", and a couple of months later so was the thief. The account supervisor got her hands slapped and was taken off that account.
So it's really your choice. For me, I'd love to go back and tell myself to STFU and keep my head down.
That's my two cents.
-Goran
Re:Simple (Score:5, Interesting)
I was caught in that situation at a video game company. The company had a Team Day T-shirt design contest for the employees that my supervisor managed to win. Since my co-workers were upset that someone in management won the contest with a blatent rip off of the XBox logo and I was taking a business ethics class at the time, I notified HR that they mismanaged the contest. HR dropped the T-shirt design and asked marketing to come up with a design based on recent titles being released for that year. My supervisor was not a happy camper when the shirts were handed out and his team was overwhelmly defeated at the Team Day events (he blamed HR for stacking his team with all the women -- that's because the women didn't hate him as much as everyone else). The next day I got a verbal warning for not being devoted to the job (i.e., the business ethics class), a verbal warning for insubordination when I documented a disagreement with him concerning my project (which got the previous supervisor in trouble because I document everything), and a prep talk about doing the job his way or taking the highway. Since my mom died of breast cancer three months before and I was alreay making a career transition, I had no problem handing in my three-week notice to complete my project before leaving. My supervisor went on to sack the two lead testers that I trained since they documented everything as well. The company is now on the verge of bankruptcy and I'm a lot happier making more money working as a help desk specialist for only 40 hours a week. Who says ethics doesn't pay?
Re:My two cents... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Watch out for H-1Bs (Score:4, Interesting)
In the end, I convinced him that what he was asking me to do was dumb, and that outsourcing sucks in the long term. (I couldn't ply to morality, the man had none, but he'd listen to reason)
Professionalism vs Craftsmanship (Score:3, Interesting)
If your a professional you wont let your beliefs get in the way of your work.
I get into programming about 20 years ago, i love programming, i expect to always have a project on the go (and maybe one day i will finish one), but its taken me this long to understand that i dont want to be a professional programmer.
Professionalism means that you have to be prepared to compromise your own goals so the teams goals are achieved.
Im way too passionate about programming to be a professional, i hate it when im expected to "finish" a project and move on, to have to give up on all the ideas i have floating around in my head... i care about quality.
I now consider myself to be a craftsman, and i suspect a lot of open source programmers are this way inclined.
If open source was about professionalism, programmers wouldnt care about peer review, they wouldnt argue about coding style, or languages, they would just care about adding the next feature.
A craftsman/artist wants perfection, a professional just wants to finish...
Re:Watch out for H-1Bs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Go read some Nietzche and Sartre (Score:2, Interesting)
At what point in the OP's explanation of the situation did he suggest that he was religious? Having read a good deal of both of those philosophers, they both tend to suggest that you create your own set of values and morals to live by, and that you should give them some serious thought. The OP is not asking us about the validity of his morals, but some guidance in a particular situation. Also, both of those philosophers would note that as there is rarely a right and a wrong way, and while still making the decision for yourself, gathering other's views may be insightful.
That said, I could fairly easily see the view that sexist materials may be morally objectionable to an atheist, who has given some serious thought to their set of values. If you feel that someone is being exploited, then you may have a moral issue with that. Now, I'm not saying that I agree with any of this, just that I think that you may be oversimplifying the OP's values, boiling them down to, 'God says it's bad, so I guess it's bad.'
Also, both Nietzsche and Sartre put a lot of emphasis on moral responsibility. So, isn't the OP doing the responsible thing here in asking for other's opinions of the situation?