When Gen-X and Baby Boomers entered the workforce they took a job. They didn’t care too much if they worked for a tobacco company that could cause cancer in their customers, sell chemical products that turned out to be toxic or pay slave labor wages to people working in countries outside of the U.S. They wanted a job and career, without contemplating the inherent moral and ethical implications.
It’s not that they were bad people, the mindset was different back then. You worked at the company for twenty plus years, received a retirement package, given a hearty handshake by the boss, gold watch and you moved down to Florida.
Now it’s completely different. The younger Millennial and Gen-Z generations care deeply about social and political issues. They want to work at organizations that share and promote their values. This cohort champions racial equality, transgender rights and saving the environment.
This mindset plays out in the type of companies the younger generations gravitate towards. They seek out places that offer a shared worldview. Meaning, purpose and fulfillment in a job is of utmost importance to them.
For example, the company formerly known as Facebook, now Meta, can’t recruit sufficient numbers of software engineering professionals. The metaverse isn’t strong enough to meet the company’s 2021 recruiting goals, according to internal documents. Facebook (before the name change) had to resort to recruiting 10,000 engineers in Europe in an attempt to meet their needs.
A recent survey shows that people are putting “their values, ethics and morals” ahead of salary and status roles. They are “taking a stand” by selecting a job based on their conscience. During the last week of October, in a poll conducted on Blind, a platform for professionals that anonymously share their thoughts and comments about the workplace, about 2,284 verified professionals responded to the question: “Are there companies you would never work for?”
Here are some of the highlights:
- “Yes, there are companies I would not work for for moral reasons.”
- “I have companies I would prefer not to work for for moral reasons, but if the pay was good enough or my situation (like visa) calls for it, I’d still work there.”
- “No, as long as wlb [work-life balance] and $ [compensation] are good. If I don’t do the job, someone else will.”
- Nearly 60% of the 2,284 polled said there were companies they would not work for because of moral reasons.
- Around 21% said they were willing to put aside their moral differences for compensation or if personal situations, such as a work visa or employment status, required it.
- A similar 21% responded that there were no companies out of bounds when they considered an ideal place of employment, adding if they did not do the job, someone else would.
- “For every company, you can come up with reasons unless you work for a charity, missionary or non profit,” said sea:bay, a verified Facebook professional on Blind. “Even for non profits, there might be reasons. Please don’t kid yourself.”
Blind’s top 15 industries that professionals say they would never work for because of ethical or moral reasons, are as follows:
- Advertising and public relations
- Alcohol
- Cannabis
- Defense and military contractors
- Financial services and banking
- Firearms and ammunition
- Gambling
- Gig economy
- Health insurance
- Multi-level marketing businesses
- Oil and gas
- Pharmaceuticals
- Pornography
- Social media
- Tobacco and e-cigarettes
The result of the poll reflects that white-collar professionals make, in large part, their “employment decisions based on their values and sense of ethics,” and since skilled tech and other types of top talent are afforded plentiful options, these folks have the luxury and privilege to avoid working for “companies perceived as disreputable, immoral or otherwise controversial.”
Source: Forbes
