Have you ever left a job/company/industry due to your conscience?

[elehhhhna]

This conscience clause has me thinkin'.

I left an employer after 911 when I was told to keep the employees in the building even though the FBI suggested we evacuate (we were 2 floors beneath the Israeli Consulate in a very unsecure building). I refused, sent everyone packing, and no further mention was made of it. But a few weeks later (I swear it took that long to sink in) I realized I DID NOT want those "Managers" to make ANY decisions on my behalf, EVER, and resigned.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

1. Yes, I have, long story

but I've never regretted it. BTW, your former managers are sociopathic idiots-and plain morons for ignoring an FBI directive in time of crisis.

[elehhhhna]

4. YA THINK ?!! Their business decisions were equally moronic.

The "Oh they just want a day off" shit on 911 was the icing on a very stale cake!

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. What assholes!

Rethugs, surely.

[shadowknows69]

54. used to collect money for one of these shady fundraising groups

that people like the local police department inexplicably hire to raise money for them. After about the fifth door I knocked on that was a little old lady who obviously couldn't afford the 50 bucks these snakes weaseled out of her I gave up on it. These fundraising specialists keep about 70% of the revenue that comes in an IMO casts a very bad light on the groups that hire them.

[ohio_liberal]

2. Yes

I left a job with Heilig-Meyers corporation because I felt they were taking advantage of poor people with their credit policies.

[Horse with no Name]

46. They have all gone out of business in Texas

I bought a bed there--it was the cheapest--though not the least expensive-- piece of furniture I ever purchased.It lasted less than a year. I paid cash for it so I didn't have any recourse since the store was closed down.:shrug:

[livetohike]

3. Yes

I left a company because they refused to address the employees' safety concerns and I was the supervisor. This was a non-union manufacturing facility and the employees were treated as if it was a 1930's era sweatshop. I should have left sooner than I did.

[bryant69]

5. Yeah but the story isn't going to win me any friends

I worked in a clerks office with an experience similar to yours. We had a bomb threat and everybody left. A couple of days later the clerk of the court had us all get together where he explained that if we saw something that we thought might be a bomb we should alert the guards, but, and this is the important working, keep working. He tried to make it clear without actually saying it, but one of my coworkers (an annoying obnoxious guy who went up a few points in my book that day) asked the obvious question, and he gave his answer. Pretty much everybody in the office figured that sort of advice was total crap and that if we saw a bomb we were heading for the hills.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[radwriter0555]

25. The reality is, there are virtually no bombs. Bomb threats are almost q

always fake.

The occurance of an actual bomb being found after some freak calls in the threat is virtually non-existent.

[bryant69]

27. There's a big difference between

virtually non existance and completely non-existant. Particularly when it's my life we are gambling with.

Besides this wasn't about a call, it was about seeing something you thought might be a bomb.

Bryant

[radwriter0555]

49. In the past 20 years, how many bomb threats resulted in the

discovery of an actual bomb, in the USA?

[elehhhhna]

50. Does the 8/4/01 "airplanes as bombs" PDB count?

[bryant69]

52. It only takes one

I'm just saying if there was a bomb threat and I saw something mysterious I would alert the authorities and take off.

[Misunderestimator]

6. Yes

I worked for a small local computer company when I first moved away from NYC, run by a couple of cheats. I realized it when I was going to a client to install updates to our software, along with it I was installing a new PC. Before they loaded the PC in my car, they took out some of the new components and replaced them with old ones. I quit right then and there. I had only worked for them for two weeks, and both my paychecks bounced. Lovely people.

[BOSSHOG]

8. Kinda

I retired from the Navy during bush's term and I was happy for many reasons, not the least of which was getting away from his "leadership."

A servicemember can get a letter of congratulations signed by the President upon their retirement. I got mine signed by President Clinton and it was read aloud during my retirement ceremony. Pissed some people off, what a shame.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Worked for a corrupt 'buyer's club'

in 1980. They telephoned potential customer/victims and arranged appointments to see the showroom full of fancy merchandise they could buy at greatly discounted prices. The place was so currupt that the local TV consumer reporter did a story on it at least once a year.

Here's my favorite part - the owner's name was DICK NIXON. (and yes, he was pretty slimy)

Couldn't quit that job fast enough.

[Theres-a]

10. Yes,I walked out of a restaurant when the owner smacked his wife.

[jbond56]

11. yes

about 6 months after the company I worked for was purchased by Halliburton.

[lonestarnot]

12. Absolutely!

[Modem Butterfly]

13. Yes I did, I couldn't work for an H-1b importer anymore

When I was a headhunter, I left a company that employed H-1b visa holders because they abused the shit out of their employees. H-1b visa holders are essentially tied to the employers who bring them to the US because they process of transfering an H-1b is onerous and expensive, and the majority of employers willing to do it in the first place were consulting firms looking for fresh meat to exploit (these were technical employees). We would bring these folks over from India and put them to work on contracts all across the United States, only we would pay them far, far below market rates. We would provide corporate apartments near the client site and shoe-horn four or six guys in a two bedroom place then charge them all for the privelage. We would refuse to assit in family sponsorship for guys who wanted to bring their wives and children over, leaving the employees to figure out the then INS' insane paperwork merry-go-round on their own. We provided health insurance at absolutely astronomical rates. And the guys that were doing this were, for the most part, Indian and Pakistani themselves, who had been in just the same position when they came over. The American-born employees (which included some of South Asian heritage) would joke about someday seeing the owners on 60 Minutes. Not to stereotype, but the employees who had suffered under the system of glorified indentured servitude known as the H-1b program had little or no compunction or remorse about inflicting it on others.

One day, I had a consultant call me because his wife's doctor had told them to move away from Minneapolis and move someplace warmer because of an illness. I knew there was a project that needed his skills starting up in Austin, TX. I asked the owner of the company if we could move this guy and the owner said, "No, it will be summer soon enough," It was January. I quit that afternoon.

[BlueJazz]

14. I once was the Store Manager of a large Home Improvement...

..chain.
During one of the regional meetings the "Big Bosses" were talking about how employees were like toilet paper.
"Peel off one, use it and throw it away"

I had figured out (before that) that something was not right about the company when it was standard operating procedure to schedule employees work hours in a haphazard fashion: 6:00 am to 3:00 pm one day then 2:00 pm to 11:00 pm the next day then 12:00pm to 9:00 pm the next. When I tried to push for more even work hours, I was told.."We don't want them to stay to long, We'll have to give them raises"

I quit shortly after the "toilet Paper" speech and have NEVER set foot inside their F*cking stores.

ON EDIT: ..Almost forgot..To this day the Slim-balls give most of their money to the GOP.. Figures. :(

[quiet.american]

15. Are you talking about Home Depot?

Just nod or wink if the answer's "yes." :) --(I'm trying to get my church not to use them for an upcoming renovation and would like to share this info with them.)

[BlueJazz]

17. Well..I can't actually say the name but Yellow and Red Make....

:)

[quiet.american]

31. 'Nuff said -- thanks. :)

[Eloriel]

36. Why exactly can't you say?

Unless you hve some compelling reason that you really can't, an attitude like that just protects the guilty -- and there's no good reason to do that.

[AVID]

16. yes - I left Pfizer

after experiencing the most gluttonous drug "launch" in the history of reconstituted drugs marketed as "new".

Orlando FLA - 8,000 drug reps - two major Disney hotels (swan and dolphin) rented for 5 days - magic kingdom to ourselves - a headliner band "beach party" each night - all you could eat lobster feast last two nights - free swag everywhere (a new ipod for every rep) . . .

all to relaunch a drug that had been on the market for 11 yrs combined with a drug that has been on the market for 8. I was sick with disgust

I figured Pfizer marketing dished out at least $10,000,000 on that week.

:puke:

I resigned a month later

[SmokingJacket]

21. Wow...

there's our health care crisis in a nutshell!

:crazy:

[Blue Belle]

32. Truly

[Cleita]

44. No kidding.

These stories need to be documented. Author, author??

Here's is your next book if you care to pursue it.

[Bonhomme Richard]

18. Yes

About 20 years ago I was a Regional Sales manager for an english company and I was having a difficult time with the owner of the company (the owner came over about 4 times a year) and a co-manager. The co-manager, responsible for the office, was terrible at his job, didn't understand the product, would pop open a sixpack of beer Friday afternoons and then his secretarys (a great influence) started making mixed drinks in the office blender. All that I could take because I put a stop to it by riding the co-managers ass (by the way, a co-management system does not work) It made our working together very difficult. Then they wanted to hire a new sales guy for the Boston market that I knew would be out of a job in six months. They were going to experiment with someones future. I refused, even though it was my job, to be involved with interviewing and hiring someone. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing that the guy was being used. The straw was having to let go salespeople that I thought were doing a good job. The last guy I had to let go had just bought a new house and was doing a good job. I fealt terrible and told him that if it were any consolation that I was quiting. I was making 70K back then but it wasn't worth it. I had fired plenty of people in the past and had no difficulty doing it if someone was bullshitting me. I had zero tolerance for dishonesty. This guy just didn't deserve it.
The next week the owner came into the country and I resigned. He was shocked but I told him that it was his company to run any way he wanted but I would not be a part of it. We had always gotten along in a weird way. The co-manager was a yes man and the owner knew it so I, by default, became the devils advocate whenever he had an idea. If someone ask me what I think I tell them. I never played office politics very well.
Funny enough he gave me 3 months severence and covered my medical insurance.
Now I work for myself.
Sorry for the ramble.

[vptpt]

19. Yes

I stopped working in TV news. It was just on a local, small-town level, but I finally got tired of being even a small part of the machine.

[Stinky The Clown]

20. I left over ongoing borderline sexual harassment

I worked for a small company that, in its niche, was the largest in the world (about 100 employees at the time). The #2 guy was nice enough to us men, but a pure letch when it came to the women. Always with inappropriate remarks that would go up to the line, but never quite cross it.

I left and, with two former (women) coworkers, founded our own firm that competes with them head to head.

After 12 years, we're still in business and doing quite well. They're down to maybe 15 employees.

On a side note, but along the same lines, we (our own company) had a client who was a religiowhacko and a misogynist. Long story short, he was a crappy client, disrespected my partners (referring to them to me as "your girls" right in front of them, refusing to deal with them professionally, etc.). In the process he ran up a $14,000 bill that went unpaid for a long time. We stopped work on the project. He finally paid because he needed our work desperately. We took the payment and then fired him! We then took $1,000 of his payment and signed him up as a lifetime NOW member. Our joke was that we hoped some plumber named Bertha delivered his membership card in person!

[jandrok]

22. Yes.

I used to work for a building materials manufacturer and distributor. We sold wholesale to contractors and builders. Problem was, the stuff that we sold was crap. They had all kinds of manufacturing defects in the product lines. We were always filling out and researching warranty claims against the products. I hated selling that shit. Didn't help that my boss was a dork.

I got out as soon as I could find another job.

[doodadem]

23. Yes--retalitory employer

Many years ago, I worked as an office administrator for the local branch of an insurance co. for 3 years. I was responsible for submitting the branch manager's expense report. He regularly submitted expenses for afternoons I knew he was out playing golf with his buddies, or off on other personal business. Along with that, he started sexually harrassing one of the new young saleswomen. I mean, I caught him pinning her in the hallway.
I finally reported all this to the regional manager. He came down, had a big meeting with the guy. The next day, I was fired. To top it off, they filed an action to demand I pay back unemployment that I collected afterward.

[H2O Man]

24. Yes.

When I was young, and just out of college, the first job I found was for a defense industry. I made a good salary, but I knew it was the wrong job for me. I took a job in human services that paid a heck of a lot less, but I was able to look in a mirror.

[kcass1954]

26. I worked for an S&L in Miami in the early 90's...

I was an underwriter. The President and CFO were 2 guys I had worked for at another S&L, and they were terrific. We were a one-branch community type institution, and all of our lending procedures were by the book. We went out and solicited accounts and loans from our CRA area. We made exceptions to our lending rules when it made sense to do so, even if we went "outside the lines".

Then the Board sold the S&L to a new group of investors whose sole purpose was to grow into a big bank and make bucket-loads of money. The new president had loans in process and approved that I didn't even know about until he asked me to cut a check to the attorneys for closing. (Aside, the new attorneys that were brought in were investors in the bank.) Disclosures weren't made, logs were not kept up-to-date, APR's were incorrect on closing documents. I said something to Steve about not making the appropriate disclosures, that if these loans ever went into foreclosure, that would be the borrower's first line of defense. I was told, "These aren't the type of people who default on their obligations." My reply was, "I don't approve loans that I think will go bad," and in fact I had a very low delinquency rate. He wasn't concerned that the regulations were being ignored, or that we were doing all of our lending outside of our CRA area. I decided it was time to go job-hunting.

Shortly thereafter, the idiot turned my clueless loan processor trainee into my supervisor and I basically had to have her permission to go pee. Three days later, he made HR can me late on a Friday afternoon when he was out. (She felt so bad that she noted my official termination date as the next week, because they had just hired a several new tellers and waiting would qualify me for COBRA.)

I was trying to leave - this asshat just beat me to it.

[Blue Belle]

28. Yes...

I am a personal trainer and I quit a job at a gym because I wouldn't sell my clients The Gym's regimen of dietary supplements. The Sales Manager told me I was a terrible trainer because I wasn't giving my clients every opportunity that they had to achieve their fitness goals. Besides the fact that her idea of fitness was borderline at best... I am of the mind set that Dietary supplements do more harm than good (especially those loaded with Ephedrine as these were) and felt sleazy pushing something I didn't believe in. I tendered my resignation the next day and never looked back... especially when about 3 months later, the FDA banned the use of Ephedrine in dietary supplements.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. Does getting out of the marines count?

In '65 they asked me to extend my enlistment to go and kill Vietnamese "commies". I told them to shove it because I thought the war was immoral. I got 30 days mess duty as a reward for expressing my thoughts about Vietnam and the Marine Crotch (aka "The Suck"). Got my beloved discharge (Honorable) a couple of months later. A couple months after that they weren't "asking" the cannon fodder anymore.

[hfojvt]

30. In one sense, I guess

I worked for the Air Force in 1986. A major reason for my quitting was that I did not want to be part of the war machine. Honestly though, another part was that I was fresh out of college and it felt like the job was sucking my life away because it took most of my time. I was not prepared for the reality that you have to have some job that will suck your life away.
Still, I might have kept the job if it had not been for DOD, but under Reagan, it seemed like DOD was doing most of the hiring.

[lostinacause]

33. My boss is the best boss in the world and would never do anything wrong!

OK so I'm self employed

[demgurl]

34. I have quit over ethics.

I worked at a company that worked for other companies giving them reviews of their employees customer service. Every employee was supposed to get reviewed x amount of times and it was a secret review - they never knew that you were there critiquing them until they got the report.

Well it was hard for my company to keep employees since they did not pay well. So what my boss wanted me to do is call up stores across the country, confirm an employee that needed to be reviewed was there, and write a made up report about them!

Now what I did not say is that we were told that x-amount of employees were to be graded excellent. X-amount would be graded average and x-amount would be graded poor. This was not a rule by our company but rather the store chain that hired us to do that.

So not only were the reports false, but some employees would get a 'poor' without ever really being watched in order to be graded. We were told to write up vague reports so that it could almost be any transaction - just so they would not be able to say it was made up.

Originally I did do this because I was bedridden, after a terrible car accident, and I had NO income coming in. I really needed the money. But I felt the company was full of it and I was not getting paid well either. I decided that crap was not for me. Those poor people getting reports that were falsified. I wanted to go to the other company and let them know they were not getting what they p[aid for but I signed a confidential agreement. Isn't it ironic that this company hired me and asked me to do those illegal things and the thing that saved them from losing the account was that I was honest enough to keep my agreement?

[Mutley]

35. yes

i worked for a retail store. one of the main reasons i quit was when one day i witnessed a father hitting and pushing his child (a boy of about 7 or 8) and the manager told me i could do nothing about it because the company did not want to lose customers. not only that but they treated employees like crap.

[DARE to HOPE]

37. I walked away from a well paid job for the Chicago Commodity Exchange...

In the process of completing graduate school, I had had many jobs which were "almost for free," including research and teaching. This pattern continued in the political world. Then a friend whose 60's values husband worked at the exchange offered me the opportunity to come in, researching things like platinum for future's markets.

The interview with the female VP was the easiest I'd ever had. She walked me down the hallway, and was ready to hire.

I turned it down.

A week later they called, and offered it to me again.

It would have meant financial security, approval from my parents, a sign of "success" I could point to.

I gnashed my teeth from time to time over the years, thinking of the alternatives which might have been, especially financial. But at the time, and certainly since, I have seen the wisdom of my "Get behind me, Satan" response.

After working in elections and other related efforts, and teaching, all jobs more expensive to drive to than they paid--I went home, dusted off my music degree, and worked with my husband in his working class parish instead.

[Commendatori]

38. Yes. I left the military. (n/t)

[Cleita]

39. Many times. In my line of work integrity is a priority.

I'm a number cruncher and often have had to handle large amounts of cash as part of my job not to mention other assets. If a manager or employer is unethical it reflects on me and worse than that could be blamed on me. Rather than get mired so deep in the quicksand that I can't get out, I have always opted to leave the job. I also stated that as the reason on my resume. Some potential employers have taken exception to that, but I figure I wouldn't have wanted to work for them anyway.

Sometimes in unusual and dire circumstances like 9-11 you can't always follow orders. You did the right thing.

[RetroLounge]

40. Yes, I left a consulting firm

after I dicovered their pattern of billing for work that was not done, or for more hours than were actually worked.

If I fixed a problem in the software in an hour, they wanted me to bill 2 or 3. ALways padding the hours.

When I quit, I called my main client and told her about the billing practices and why I was quiting.

RL

[raccoon]

41. Kudos to you

and whatever you're doing now, I hope you're very happy & fulfilled.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

42. When I was temping

I refused to work the jobs that came up occasionally handing out cigarettes at conventions and trade shows. (I was younger then. :-) )

I eventually left academia because I no longer believed in what I was doing, at least not in the jobs that were available to me. I was officially a professor of Japanese, but I felt as if I was doing service courses (two years of Japanese) for the business department, which was fuil of future Republicans who wanted good grades without learning anything and who showed no interest in Japan or its culture. They didn't even take advantage of the opportunities that required no effort, such as taking their lunch trays to a side room to see a Japanese exchange student perform a tea ceremony (8 out of 80 attended). Another year, 3 out of 100 watched even one episode of The Pacific Century, a really fine PBS series on East Asian history.

To top it off, the academic dean refused to listen to any complaints about lackluster students. Instead, he blamed us for having "too high expectations." "You're all academic success stories," he always said. "You can't expect your students to do as well as you did."

Of course, that advice not to have high expectations didn't apply to the coaches, who not only required daily practice but also extra hours in the gym, morning runs, and weekly movies of old games.

Although I was denied tenure at the last school I taught at, a look at the nationwide job listings showed that even if I got another job, all I could look forward to was more of the same. (The academic job ladder is such that it's virtually impossible to move upward to a more selective school.)

I felt not only that I was perpetrating a fraud, i.e. pretending to teach people who had no interest in learning, but I was also not using the talents I had.

Although I miss some of the interactions with colleagues, I'm much happier as a translator. I have even more freedom than I did as an academic, and I get to use my language and writing skills on the level that I'm capable of.

The only time ethical considerations came in to the picture in my translation career was when I refused to translate promotional materials for what was clearly a pyramid scheme.

[elehhhhna]

47. Have you read "The Ugly American" ? You would probably enjoy it...

I'm reading it now and your story woudl fit well in that book...

[Lydia Leftcoast]

53. Read it?

Yes, I read it when it was a recent bestseller. :-)

I was a very precocious kid.

[sharonking21]

43. Well my departure wasn't all that heroic because

I got another, more amenable job first, albeit at slightly lower pay. I had been a Ph.D. student in history, but my husband started heaving heart attacks so I had to quit and get a job rather quickly. I landed in a law firm as a legal assistant doing collections investigations and tracing work concerning commercial (not personal) debt collection.

I was very good at tracking people down; I discovered that there is a large bit of "huntress" in me. But usually (not always) then I felt sorry for the person.

A few deserved no compassion or mercy because I knew from investigating that they were either scam artists (one established an airline with one non-working airplane and a yellow-pages ad) or a few were contractors who were protecting large assets and purposely not paying their hungry sub-contractors. (One of these lived close to me and I kept eying his garbage, but my husband dissuaded me.) Catching those few was delightful, but the rest were just hapless people "caught-out" by the 1987 bust here in Austin.

I worked there 10 months but finally got a job back in the public sector where I had previously worked, this time as a statistician then as an epidemiologist for a state health agency. Much more my style. I slept at night knowing I was doing some small good.

[Domitan]

45. I wonder if I would have left General Dynamics

Years ago, I was at crossroads for my career. I just finished my Master's degree. I had a choice between going for my PhD candidancy and applying for a manager's position at General Motors where they make light armoured vehicles (LAV). Today, it's General Dynamics as they took over that factory soon after I considered. I decided that going for my PhD was more important and right for me than going for an immediate 40 grand annual salary. A close family friend (at that time) was the head of personnel for GM. She took me on a full tour and encouraged me to apply for a manager's position. At first, it was a tough decision, but I opted for the PhD program. A good friend of mine ended up taking that position. He's doing very well as a top-notch manager there. Now I wonder if I would have felt any inner conflict working for GD (formerly GM), given their role in the Iraq War. To be honest, I cannot say for sure what I would have done if I actually applied for the manager's position, got accepted, and still worked there to this day.

[elehhhhna]

48. Excellent topic for your 666th posts, Dom.

[Delphinus]

51. Yes.

I have. Good job too, tons of money, lots of vacation, insurance, pension, etc.

And, even though I'm scraping to make ends meet, eating lots of salad and other cheap food, haven't seen a doctor in years, I'm so much better off. The other job, if it hadn't killed my body, would have killed my soul.

[Technowitch]

55. Not exactly, but...

...when I graduated from college, I received two job offers.

One would require me to move 350 miles away from the city in which I grew up, far from everybody I knew. It was for a major computer company in New Jersey.

The other was in Ohio, but only about 100 miles from my home town. It would've been with Goodyear Aerospace -- their defense weapons division.

Of the two offers, the second had a higher salary and really good benefits. However, I was so turned off by the gleeful way my prospective manager talked about the weapons systems they worked on that I knew which was the right choice.

A month later, I was towing a U-Haul to the other side of Pennsylvania... Never regretted it.

[Donailin]

56. I know someone who claims to be a democrat but works

for NPO that distributes mass mail for the republican party. She justifies it by saying, "yeah, but I make a lot of money."

I dunno man, I think if I had to print out "Bush For President" or "Delay for Congress" cards,I'd feel like I was contributing to the demise of a a good planet.