I should specify, quit jobs for moral reasons, and then are unable to find work and are now begging others for money.
The first person I know worked for a well known big time weapons manufacturer but was basically an IT specialist for them, mainly just doing routine computer fixing issues on-site so they weren’t designing or building weapons directly or anything like that. They were there for a few years, already making great pay and benefits but I think Israeli and it’s destruction of Gaza really shook them so they decided to quit because the company had a few weapons contracts with the IDF.
So they quit and got a job with the school district with half the salary but they felt it morally better. Now though they’re constantly complaining they can’t pay the bills with half their salary now and also in constant fear of state cuts to the school district and are asking people they know for money on GoFundMe.
The second person I know basically was a server at a restaurant. They lived in a blue city of a blue state, but a month after the 2024 election somebody in a red MAGA hat came in with their family and the person decided this was the best time to exchange words with the hat wearer, apparently this escalated into almost a physical confrontation and they were immediately fired by their boss for started a fight with a customer. Now they’re jobless and begging people for money now.
Now Person #1 I’m more sympathetic for but they have an entire family to take care of honestly don’t quit your job knowing you were getting a massive paycut and still expect to live your current lifestyle. I have absolutely no sympathy for Person #2 though.
I wonder how many posts it’ll take for this to become a discussion about Nazi guards…
It’s always a balance, right? No job is 100% benevolent, especially for those people who don’t entirely believe in capitalism to begin with. At the same time, there are very few employers & jobs where your individual work is going to cause substantial, measurable harm to others. Where each individual draws the line is entirely up to them, and I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here.
If #1 or #2 were in my friend network, and I could afford to help them with some money, I would. I would also encourage them to find more mainstream, middle-of-the-road jobs that maybe aren’t as lucrative, but also aren’t so subject to political polarization and ethical swings, which would also exclude a lot of the highest-paying careers (AI, finance, cloud IT, etc.). Pick your battles, I suppose.
I’ve quit jobs on moral grounds before, too, as in when the first startup I worked for decided to sell their anti-spam technology to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party) for censoring dissidents instead. I quit the next morning. The owner of that small startup was a ex-hippie turned technology founder, generally a really nice guy, but justified it to himself as “Well, I have two kids now and I need the money for mortgage and tuition”.
Didn’t have to beg for money, thankfully, but that was only because I had family help and those were the boom days anyway. But under no circumstances could I have lived with myself continuing to work there. Even if I hadn’t quit immediately, I would’ve started looking for another job and left as soon as I found one.
I think quitting a job for moral reasons is one of the best reasons to quit a job, but you have to be prepared for the consequences. It sounds like #1 wasn’t really thinking through the full cost of sticking to their values, and I’m also not clear on why they took the job if they had a moral issue with it.
#2 just sounds like a loose cannon type. I would expect them to have problems at other jobs.
I’ve quit jobs for moral reasons, FYI. The first was a flagrant and repeated violation of informed consent on the part of the CEO, the second was for violating about a dozen fundraising codes of conduct.
I didn’t really think either through, TBH. But the wisdom of my years, looking back, tells me I should have.
For the first one, in a professional job like that, they should’ve known to find another job before quitting the one they had, no matter how morally repulsed they were. It would have been much easier to find a new job with similar skill requirements while working. It seems like they quit on impulse, not really thinking it thru. The second one I agree with what @Spice_Weasel said.
Seems to me like it’s more typical to do this in youth, when moral convictions tend to be more strongly felt (if not necessarily more steadfastly kept), and life stages are such that they may have less to lose – though that wasn’t the case in the OP’s #1.
Having dependents brings even more ambiguity into the moral equation. Is it wrong to do something morally disagreeable if it’s for your family’s sake? Does your family need to know ahead of time? How much say should they get?
I came in to say this. It does depend, however. Taking an IT job for a big-time weapons manufacturer is no more moral when people are not destroying Gaza than when they are. It’s all right to have an epiphany which leads to a change in how you apply your moral convictions, but I think it’s different when YOU change as opposed to Reply’s example of quitting after the employer / company has done something to change the context.
Regardless, I’m always suspicious of begging for money. The OP’s person #1 doesn’t get much sympathy from me: if they’re working full time, why can’t they support themselves? Do they need to move to a cheaper place, give up expensive hobbies, or is it really the case that the school district salary doesn’t pay enough to live on?
The second person gets even less sympathy, because it’s generally not hard to get a job as a server elsewhere.
I work in the food business. There is a lot I don’t like about the business from an ethical/moral standpoint.
But I feel like this is a critical industry, and operating efficiently is critical to welfare of people in communities we serve.
I’ve posted a lot here about all the dysfunctional behaviors at my current and former employers. But I feel like what I am doing makes a positive difference.
The second person didn’t quit their job for moral reasons. They were unable to control themselves and got fired. I can have sympathy for being raw after the election and doing something stupid, but they get no more money than anyone else.
The person who did quit their job? I mean, if you want help, you kinda need to explain what you’re doing to help with the issue. If you can convince me that it wasn’t your fault and you have a plan to live more frugally, then sure, why not?
And, of course, this is in a vacuum and not considering them as people and what else they’ve done for me.
#1 Knew he was going to help kill people, but didn’t like to help kill those specific people. Sorry, not much sympathy from me.
#2 Knew they were going to be serving food, but didn’t like serving that particular person and decided to pick a fight. Nah, not much sympathy there, either. Hell, I don’t even think that’s a moral reason. That’s just being pissy.
Depends on how much involved one was in making the big moral decisions or difference. The two examples the OP cites are of people who had a rather over-inflated notion of their importance at work. Their quitting made essentially no difference to their employer or the moral ‘cause.’
Now if a moral person were assigned to draw up the genocide plans for the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, that would be very different.
Huh? I don’t see any evidence either one thought they were in some way important to their cause. When you stop doing something “for moral reasons,” that doesn’t mean you think doing so will change anything. It just means you think it’s so wrong you can’t bring yourself to do it.
I do think the first guy couldn’t do the job anymore when he realized that he was helping people who were enacting a genocide. I don’t think he thought his actions would stop it from happening, just that he wouldn’t be a part of it.
Imagine it this way: you have done a really good proofreading job one time. Imagine if you were asked to do this for, I dunno, one the Ku Klux Klans. You said no, for moral reasons. Obviously that’s not going to harm the KKK in any way. But it doesn’t mean you want to do it.
(Now the second guy I think just didn’t think at all and let their emotions take over. I mean, it’s possible they could have made a conscious decision and wanted to quit, and took the opportunity to let loose, but that seems unlikely given they can’t find another job.)
I should say I have no idea why #2 hasn’t gotten another job, I legit think they thought they’d be able to spring board FIRED AT MY JOB OVER MAGA REDHAT into a career but after only getting a few hundred in sympathy money online they decided to try as little as possible to get a new job since out of spite.