Peter is the former President of the New Zealand Open Source Society. He is currently working on Business Workflow Automation, and is the core maintainer for Gravity Workflow a GPL workflow engine.
My most serious ethical failure was not to report blatant racism by a senior manager and owner. Being very junior at the time and not wanting to make waves I took the more cowardly option of lack of enthusiasm and limited cooperation.
Since this time I decided that my professional integrity isn't worth doing unethical things. I think this is easily said, but when your job depends on following orders it can be very hard to put ethics ahead of personal interests.
However, since then I did take an ethical stand, and in once case it cost me a position. But a job isn't worth poisoning yourself with guilt. You can get another job, but you can't forget doing things you know are wrong. I don't even mean illegal wrong. In one case I was being asked to modify a system I wrote so that the analysis it produced was more positive than reality. I don't really know it was illegal as such because it was a projection rather than a quote, but the simple fact it was twisting the numbers to try and present a proposal in a more positive light wasn't ethical. I didn't cooperate in this instance.
The line between morality and ethics is difficult. I've been an automation specialist for a while, and this means at some level that I try to make businesses more efficient, by which you can read pay less staff. Is this unethical? I don't believe it is because modern technology is all about doing things more efficiently. It is what machines are for.
when your job depends on following orders it can be very hard to put ethics ahead of personal interests.
To be more specific . . .
when keeping your job depends on following orders it can be very hard to put ethics ahead of personal interests a paycheck.
The top/first comment in this thread is a perfect example of this. A person who has no fear of being able to obtain the next paycheck never has doubts about standing up when it's called for.
// , “It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness... but the monkey is serious because he itches."(No/No)
My most serious ethical failure was not to report blatant racism by a senior manager and owner. Being very junior at the time and not wanting to make waves I took the more cowardly option of lack of enthusiasm and limited cooperation.
Since this time I decided that my professional integrity isn't worth doing unethical things. I think this is easily said, but when your job depends on following orders it can be very hard to put ethics ahead of personal interests.
However, since then I did take an ethical stand, and in once case it cost me a position. But a job isn't worth poisoning yourself with guilt. You can get another job, but you can't forget doing things you know are wrong. I don't even mean illegal wrong. In one case I was being asked to modify a system I wrote so that the analysis it produced was more positive than reality. I don't really know it was illegal as such because it was a projection rather than a quote, but the simple fact it was twisting the numbers to try and present a proposal in a more positive light wasn't ethical. I didn't cooperate in this instance.
The line between morality and ethics is difficult. I've been an automation specialist for a while, and this means at some level that I try to make businesses more efficient, by which you can read pay less staff. Is this unethical? I don't believe it is because modern technology is all about doing things more efficiently. It is what machines are for.
To be more specific . . .
The top/first comment in this thread is a perfect example of this. A person who has no fear of being able to obtain the next paycheck never has doubts about standing up when it's called for.
I can only hope to be in that position some day.
This is one of the reasons I aspire to some semblance of financial independence.
I save and invest some of my income, often more than half. It may one day give me even more security to maintain an even higher standard of integrity.