If you really needed a job, would you accept an offer from a business that went against your principles?

No, I wouldn’t. Even when I was searching desperately, I would not even look at help-wanted listings from banks, insurance companies, or real estate agencies.

Your prospect does sound different to me. I would have the same problem as you, stomaching the idea of such extravagance, but I don’t think deception is inherently part of the system—is it?

Yes, I would if it was a matter of the barest necessities.

In your position though, does your company take away from those with little money? If not then enjoy your job and accept the reality there are people willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on luxury items. It’s true. Those people who spend the money might not be bad people either, they might not be abusing other people with little money to spend on just basics.

i would if the price was right

I would if I needed a job and there was no one else hiring, at least you are making money to pay your bills that need to be paid. Would it be worth being homeless over principals, I don’t think it does in my mind.

I would though take the job and still continue to look for something better.

No, I wouldn’t.

That said, I fail to see how your opposition to $700 throw pillows is really morally objectionable compared to, say, a vegetarian working in a meat-packing plant or a pacifist working in a gun factory. Thinking your product is foolish and your customers are idiots isn’t the same as actually moral opposition. While I also despise the disparity of wealth in this nation, I don’t put rich people in the same league.

I’ve lived a hair’s breadth away from being termed homeless and I did take a job I would have never considered (car sales). It turned out to be a job with the best potential for me ever and quickly moved me out of financial insecurity. Did I think about factory slaves, the materialism of fancy painted metal guzzling gas pods? Yeah, I did.

I don’t think that I could or would accept the position. While looking for a new job, I’ve bypassed applying for sales positions for companies whose products or services I didn’t believe in.

A few of my friends left the hotel industry to work for a casino chain. When they tempted me to make the change as well, I told them that I respect their decision, but couldn’t do it. While I occasionally enjoy going to a casino, it broke my heart to witness people cashing their paycheck in exchange for casino chips.

I’m 47 and am pretty sure I’d move back in with Mom if my financial status got to that point.

If I needed food I would mug old people. I would take the job and look for one that isn’t soul-crushing and GTFO as soon as you can.

Well @jerv, it’s like this: I put a lot of volunteer time into social programs which involves soliciting donations from the wealthy to help people who are in need. Encouraging the rich folks to spend their $1000 on a desk lamp instead of giving it to a cause I believe in really does make me uncomfortable. It is akin to a being a vegetarian in an abattoir.

@Pied_Pfeffer not all people have the option to move back with mom if you are going to be homeless.

I would work in a strip bar before I would let that happen to me or my children, and believe me it goes beyond what I believe in.

@Blueroses You can continue to do your volunteer work and give back to your community and help others but you need money in order to survive in this world these days. Take the job and what is leftover from your pay give to the less fortunate. Win/Win

No.

If I needed the job bad enough, yes I would take it and continue looking for a job more suitable to my interests. No one is making those people buy $700 throw pillows, they are just stupid and rich enough to throw their money away on crap.

A good point. You can’t act without resources. It still feels like soul-selling.
I agree that you have to do whatever it takes and I admit to having some elasticity to my morality that is dependent on how hungry I am, but if you don’t stand by your principles… are they really your principles?

The way I see it, is if this is the only job available and you need it, then you either work, or you’re a selfish freeloader, because by not working, you’re blatantly using and/or burdening those that are currently supporting you, whether it be family members, or tax dollars which come from the working class.

If I had mouths to feed and there was nothing else, I would take it. My own beliefs wouldn’t be a priority, my kids bellies would. As I only have myself to look after for now, I wouldn’t work in an area that went against my moral code.

I appreciate your input @lawkes but that is not my particular situation. I have worked and saved for many years and I wouldn’t take benefits away from people who truly need them just so I can pay my internet bill.

In that case, if you have enough saved up to sustain yourself, then wait until you find a job that is more in sync with your principles.

@creative1 Agreed; not all people have the choice to move in with a friend or family member. Maybe I am incorrect, but the question seems to be about where we would draw the line when it comes to personal morals while on a job search.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t have a choice in which jobs they choose based upon moral grounds. What you are referring to is a financial need to support your family. If it came down to that, yes, I would be willing to sacrifice some of my feelings on whether the business was moral or not, but not all of them.

I’ve been lucky enough in my life to only ever work for jobs where I did work I believed in. I’ve never actually been offered a job doing work I would feel like a sell-out doing. This is not from lack of trying. I’m just not corporate material and I think all the interviewers could sense that. I struck out a lot for those kinds of jobs.

Most of the work I have done was pushing for various causes. Part of my little effort in saving the world. I wasn’t very effective in what I did.

You are the one who has to live with yourself. What are you about? Making money? Or working to help others? Or what? And what about the kind of work atmosphere you want to be in? Will you feel comfortable working in this place? Or will you be gritting your teeth every day, trying not to snap at your customers? Will you be dreading waking up each morning because you have to go to that place again?

I don’t know what your full feelings are on this, but those are the kinds of questions I would ask myself. If it were me, I’d never take that job, unless I’d decided money was more important thatn anything else. I hope I would never feel that way. But I suppose we all have our prices.

Exactly @wundayatta. I have a savant gift for rhyme and words and working in advertising and sales would have seemed ideal… but I drove home primally screaming every night so that I wouldn’t take it out on other people.

The job market is scant and there are few positions for people sitting alone in their principles. Savings runs dry and I’m not the next new hot novelist…. so sell out for a while?

Be pragmatic. Sell out for a while. If you have the opportunity, and if you are to the point where you are scraping by.

You’ve been in the advertising business? Or that’s where the job is?

I have in the past, but really it’s very difficult for me to work a job where I’m not learning or enjoying myself at least somewhat.

Retail, I don’t think I could ever do.

I have “sold out” in previous jobs and I would compensate by trying to scream it out before I had to face people I love. I hate being a pessimist and I hated doing something for pay that makes me part of the system that I dislike.

Then again, there is the paycheck.

No. I’m big on my personal integrity.
I’d figure it out, work in Walmart before I prostituted my principles.

Money has never been the motivating factor in my work choices.
It is secondary to a good fit and the best environment that makes me thrive as a whole.

If those pillows are stuffed with goose down I’d proabbly emancipate them, turn ‘em into nesting material for the little birdies. hahaha

Working at walmart is selling out, too.

Working at Walmart would be a sacrifice of my principles.

When my son was 16, he quit a job at CVS because he objected to selling people cigarettes all day.

Yes, in general, though there are exceptions.

Feeding myself and my family > fightin’ da powah

Lacking any real choices, I would take the job and do my best at it until better offers.

If I was a young person looking for a job to support myself, I might risk it and stick it out until something better came along.
However, given that there are people and cats who depend on me to make a living and the fact that employment is hard to come by, I would take any kind of job to support my family.