Working for a despot
You may sometimes think your boss is a bit of a dictator, well earlier this year I discovered I was, literally, working for one.

I am a very tiny cog in a rather large multinational corporation.
Earlier this year, when things were getting a bit lively in that there Middle East, it was revealed in the media that the fifth largest shareholder in the company was a certain Colonel Gadaffi.

Nice. For a company which talks about being 'decent', 'honest' and all that bullcrap this struck me as a tad dubious.

Luckily, later that week was our annual briefings, where the head of the company decides to fly over and tell the proles how well we've done, but this year you need to do better.

Q&A comes up... no one is asking any questions... fuck it, I'm not going to get a chance like this again

"We seem to recieve an endless stream of emails detailing every little thing that occurs in the organisation, so I was wandering why you did not feel it appropriate to inform staff that for the past couple of years our hard work had been helping to fund Colonel Gadaffi."

There was an audible murmer around the room. i couldn't decide if it was people going "WTF!??!" because they didn't know, or if people were going "WTF!!???" because they couldn't believe I'd asked the question.

To her credit, Big Bosser feller gave her best politicans answer, and basically said they have no control over who buys the shares, but failed to answer why they didn't inform staff about something that was all over the (quality papers) and that Twitter.

It was not a nice feeling to read on your way to work that you've been helping to fund a despot, and had I been in a position to, I would probably have left that very day. Sadly, as someone said yesterday about NOTW staff, it's fine to have morals if you can afford to.
( Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 8:34, 8 replies)

Dont feel bad.
A friend of mine works for BAE, something to do with programming guidance systems for missiles.

My dad used to work for a company that handled all the PR for Blackwater after their PMC's (mercenaries) killed a bunch of civilians.

You didnt even know what the company was doing. I wouldnt beat yourself up for it.
(tyrellsOwl, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 9:00, closed)

hurr hurr hurr "tiny cog"

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 9:33, closed)

Welcome to the world.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 9:43, closed)

There's a subtle difference.
Unless you assume every role you take is for a multinational corporation defending the likes of Mugabe, then this is diffrent to the usual "dog eat dog" stuff.
If you really are used to having the rules of despots in your hands then I apologise -- but it wasn't anything I ever expected to be in my world.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 19:00, closed)

I work for a co. that enables this kind of thing.
Lots of us are cogs, but it is hard to tell the truth sometimes.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Fri 8 Jul 2011, 18:53, closed)

You dun good, Joe.
But I've barely got a knackered pot to piss in, and it's easy to act ethically and within the law.
( Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Sat 9 Jul 2011, 1:22, closed)

And some of the shareholders...
...are probably paedophiles and granny murderers.

Seriously, I don't understand your logic here - the company (Pearson presumably) doesn't do anything immoral in its own right, and doesn't have even the theoretical ability to control who buys its shares.
(stalinism, Tue 12 Jul 2011, 8:50, closed)

Precisely
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Tue 12 Jul 2011, 22:54, closed)