My post on whether you can be happy working for a bad corporation got some great comments, including these:
Michael Clarke writes:
One incident that’s stuck in my mind was an interview I had 24 years ago for a financial consultancy. The interviewer talked about money, about wealth, about owning yachts.
Then he began to talk about the losers, the [sorry, but I’m quoting] c**** who didn’t recognise money and its importance, that in five years you could walk away, that you could have other people doing the work for you. That the world had two kind of people – people like him and the “stupid c****” who didn’t understand. He went on and on. It was like talking to low-end devil.
Finally, he let me get a word in. “Sorry,” I said. “I’m afraid I’m one of the c****.” And I walked out. One of the more terrifying experiences of my life.
Like many in the Washington, DC area, I worked for a company whose largest clients were government contractors. Namely, a company that is the largest weapons manufacturer in the world. I hated the idea that my salary came from our contracts with them, even though I knew that we, as a company, were not at all related to the weapons industry.
Several years later, I was looking for a job, and got about a million calls from headhunters to work for this very same government contractor. I said no in the nicest way I could. They kept calling. Finally, I called them (in the middle of the night, so I didn’t have to talk to a person) that I was in no way interested in working for a company that is the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, was part of supporting the war in Iraq, and asked them not to call again.
And Scott M writes:
I was offered a very high paying job (4x salary increase) to work for an oil company in Alaska. When I told the person making the offer that I could not work for the oil industry (she was a headhunter) she acted like I was such an idiot…as if no one these days does that.
I still need to sleep tonight and anyone who appreciates the life this planet sustains needs to work for their conscience.
Happiness at work starts with not taking that job that looks good on the surface but which goes against what you stand for and I applaud anyone who has the guts to say NO in these situations.
Michael was very lucky in finding out how bad his prospective boss was during the interview. In my case, the boss didnt’ interview me as she was on leave. I liked the people who interviewed me but they have since left!
Hey – Yes, I was very lucky! Though I doubt he would have hired me. By that stage in the interview, he just wanted an admission that he was right, a convert to his view of the world.
Still, we don’t interview people without their line manager. And we always involve their future colleagues in the process to try and give both sides an idea of what they’re in for…