Your Conscience or your Job

In every job, you are sure to encounter occasional situations which require you to make a difficult ethical judgement call. Fortunately for most workers in regular jobs, such moments are rare, and do not do to the heart of their careers. However, if you constantly have to choose between going against your conscience and keeping your job, and doing what is right and losing your livelihood, you must decide which is more important to you: your conscience or your salary.

There is nothing easy about it; it can be heartbreaking to give up a job that is highly desirable - apart from the fact that it requires you to betray your principles.

Ethical concerns often fall under these categories:

• It's an industry issue (if you believe that certain products are harmful, should you ever work for a company that makes or markets them?)
• It's one particular company (the culture there is such that everyone from top to bottom cheats and lies to get by)
• It's just a few individuals (your supervisor is a dishonest, dishonorable person in an otherwise decent business).

If it's the industry
If your convictions about an industry are strong, you would probably never consider a position in it except in extreme necessity, when you will stay only long enough to stabilize your finances before moving to something that weighs less heavily on you. But if your existing company ties up with the industry to promote its products, it gets trickier for you. The final decision about whether to stay or leave, to accept the project as a temporary evil or refuse it and damage your career, is yours to make, because no one else feels and thinks with your heart and mind.

If it's your company
Should you have a job you love, but the practices of your particular company offend you, it could be worth your while to move to another company within the same field, but with a culture more in tune with your character. You needn't get nasty about your workplace when interviewing for a new job, because that sounds self-righteous. Simply say that you are seeking a work place culture that truly resonates with your values of honesty and hardwork, and offers challenges that will help you grow in positive ways.

If it's your boss
Should be the problem be down to one boss who is wily enough not to justify whistle-blowing, yet isn't honest enough in his dealings with clients for your comfort, weigh the situation.How often does this person give you dodgy orders? Have you developed a strategy for getting around instructions like: "Just lie to that customer"? Does he look like he's moving on, or is he digging in till retirement?

Culture or ethics?
Not everything that makes oyou feel uncomfortable is bad. If you are meek, hate being firm, and are uneasy about taking a hardline with others on the job, it's probably good to stick with it and develop that side of your personality.However, if it's a matter of lying, cheating, doing something illegal, or doing something which you consider improper, rethink the job. Continually going against your principles will eventually damage you.

The decision is ultimately yours, because losing a means of making a living is a deeply personal matter which depends on myriad factors, and is never to be taken lightly.

Wisdom from Human Adele Ong