Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To apply for a job in a commpany with nasty reputation?

74 replies

MrsBirdseye · 27/10/2017 15:01

would you? job would be somewhere on entry level, not really involved in doing anything nasty, but the company isn't exactly respectable in public eye. (not Monsanto, but something that's known for nasty shit)

OP posts:
ReanimatedSGB · 27/10/2017 16:16

It's a decision only you can make, really. And, BTW, I don't have a lot of time for smug wankers who are themselves comfortably off but who get all finger-pointy at people who do entry-level jobs for 'unethical' companies because they need the money. Don't forget that the DWP aren't going to be all that compassionate over your personal ethics if you turn down a legal job because you disapprove of the employer - that might be a short cut to benefit sanctions. (Because the Government doesn't think poor people are entitled to moral choices - 'morality' for the poor is all about obeying your betters...)

There are plenty of jobs that some people disapprove of: gambling companies, doorstep lenders, vivisection, factory farming, the nuclear industry, the sex industry, the weight-loss industry, chuggers, bailiffs, traffic wardens... yet people still take on these jobs. I've had acquaintances who got all arsey about someone joining the police as it was a 'class betrayal' FFS.

Librarybooksandacoconut · 27/10/2017 16:17

I know someone who was approached by a recruiter for a job at the daily mail (in a business role rather than journalism side). He turned it down and told the recruiter it was because he seriously disagreed with their agenda. The recruiter said he wasn't the first person who had said that...

ReanimatedSGB · 27/10/2017 16:19

I did work at the Mail for a while (Mail on Sunday, as if it makes any difference). Some people I knew were appalled. I used to say I considered that spending their money on booze, shagging, sex toys and supporting an erotic photography studio could be considered a revolutionary act, and those people shut up after that.

sizenines · 27/10/2017 16:23

Companies can also lose respectability for being involved in bribery and corruption too, and unless you are one of those in the know it can happen in unexpected places. Take Rolls Royce, Balfour Beatty or Sweett for instance.

Do your due diligence and find out more about the company's poor reputation unless you have a moral objection, in which case pass them by.

StepAwayFromGoogle · 27/10/2017 16:27

It depends how uneasy it makes you, OP. I applied for a job at a pharmaceutical company working across global markets. When I started looking into them they were about to pull a drug that they had been selling at a reduced rate in India. Basically it meant that a lot of people would die because they wouldn't be able to access the drug due to how horrendously expensive it would become. I couldn't live with that so I withdrew from the interview.

BernardBlacksHangover · 27/10/2017 16:28

Depends on the company and how you feel about it. I know a few people from university who now work for big oil companies. I also know a few people who wouldn't consider that. None of the oil workers seem especially evil.

If it was an animal testing company or a campaign group for something political which I disagreed with, then I couldn't work there, but that's not how it sounds.

FeelingAggrieved · 27/10/2017 16:41

@Vitalogy Wtf is that supposed to mean?

Jesstheblackandwhitecat · 27/10/2017 16:47

I wouldn't work for a meat or dairy company. Nor would I work for a bailiff.

Everything else though I would.

HerOtherHalf · 27/10/2017 16:52

I did work at the Mail for a while (Mail on Sunday, as if it makes any difference). Some people I knew were appalled. I used to say I considered that spending their money on booze, shagging, sex toys and supporting an erotic photography studio could be considered a revolutionary act, and those people shut up after that.

TBF, they were probably just worried you were fishing for an article. I'd shut up sharpish if a Mail employee tried steering me towards a conversation about booze and sex toys. :)

Piffpaffpoff · 27/10/2017 16:52

Amazon?

Floellabumbags · 27/10/2017 16:57

Nestle?

Vitalogy · 27/10/2017 17:03

Wtf is that supposed to mean? The Op seems to have little or no conscience. Something pricked her conscience to start this thread but still going ahead with the application anyway.

Kailoer · 27/10/2017 17:04

It still makes me feel giddy relief that I told him to fuck off.

Grin
allthecheese · 27/10/2017 17:17

I work for one of the companies mentioned above. People have a bad perception of part of what they do, but the truth is so far removed from what the internet rumours say. They do a lot of good, and are no worse than any other similar business. Don't think it's as black and white as what rumours say. And it sounds like you need the job.

WingsofNylon · 27/10/2017 17:23

I thought Nestle. My job is fairly directly linked with ethics so my list of places I wouldn t work is fairly long. However I do see the hypocrisy in the I do shop with some of thier companies or certainly industries. So I would never work for pharma but am happy to take whatever medication I need.

My list of no would be:
Tobacco
Defence
Nestle
Primark
Apple
Monsanto
McDonald
Coca cola
M&S

As people say, it is a preference more than anything else. If you would feel embarrassed to tell others that is a good indication.

EssentialHummus · 27/10/2017 17:35

Why is l’Oreal bad? Sorry for ignorance

From vague memory I think it was to do with animal testing (?). Not sure.

I did actually work for the Mail during the phone hacking scandal, or the firm I worked for did. It mainly entailed “document reviewing” photos of boobs and letters to the editor. With lots of overtime.

Vitalogy · 27/10/2017 17:42

What's the matter with M&S apart from the clothes that this?

C8H10N4O2 · 27/10/2017 17:50

The Op seems to have little or no conscience. Something pricked her conscience to start this thread but still going ahead with the application anyway.

Since the OP picked up the leaflet at the Jobcentre, rather than casually leafing through the job section of The Times I'm assuming she actually needs a job.

Being unemployed doesn't deprive you of a conscience, it does usually limit your ability to act on it in job applications. Dear gods have people forgotten that Jobcentre site which was accepting adverts for the sex industry and expecting women to apply for them?

OP: only you know what your choices are. I'm pretty picky about clients, for but that isn't my superior morality, I've simply had the luxury of choice.

Jesstheblackandwhitecat · 27/10/2017 17:52

I'd work in the sex industry but not the meat industry.

WingsofNylon · 27/10/2017 17:55

vitalogy M&S have seem to heavily support Zionism and Israel which just doesn't sit well with me.

RebelFreddyVSRogueJason · 27/10/2017 18:08

@Vitalogy conscience does not feed your kids or get the Job entre off your back,or stop you being penalised for not job hunting hard enough.

Anatidae · 27/10/2017 18:20

Every single drug you’ve ever taken has been tested on animals, both human and non human

The cancer drugs I’ve worked on? Tested on mice. In vitro testing as far as we could, but right now there’s only so much you can do in culture. At some point you’ve got to test things on a living system. Then you spend a few years testing it on humans.
Do we enjoy doing it? No. Do we keep to the highest ethical standards we can? Yup. We have vets supervising and the UK licensing regime is one of the strictest in the world. I’ve seen pets in shops in conditions I’d have been prosecuted for.

There’s thankfully no need these days to test most non drug products on animals (although pretty much everything you use day to day has at some point been through animal based testing.) it’s a good thing thatcthe climate has changed on that.

Life saving drugs though. Yup they do. And I have no problem with that at all.

I’m wondering what my personal nono list would be... I’ve turned down work in Saudi because no way. Probably tobacco. That’s about it (in terms of my field, which is science based.)

Big pharmaceutical companies are not Satan - the scientists working in them (I do NOT work for one) are dedicated to improving health. Their marketing departments and the bean counter side however, have been known to support famine very dodgy practices. And that is changing, and that is needed. But please don’t tar some poor chemist working for Pfizer on a drug for melanoma with the evil brush.

Anatidae · 27/10/2017 18:21

Famine? Should read some.

RobotGoat · 27/10/2017 18:31

The Op seems to have little or no conscience. Something pricked her conscience to start this thread but still going ahead with the application anyway.

So without having any knowledge of what the company actually is or how desperate the OP's situation is, your passing judgement. Well, that says a lot about your moral compass, at least.

OP, it's difficult to say without knowing what the company is, but obviously understand why you wouldn't want to say. For me, it would completely depend on how strong my objections were. If it was a company that had bad press but I didn't have any personal issue with it, I wouldn't think twice.

As it is, I can think of a few companies I personally wouldn't work for. But then, I'm already in a fairly secure job and it's easy for me to say I'd be happy to pick and choose. I'm sure if I was struggling to find work any concerns I had would take a backseat.

To those posters passing judgement, keeping a roof over my kids' heads and food on the table would be the most important thing to me, even if I then spent all my free time looking for an alternative job to move to.

ForalltheSaints · 27/10/2017 18:43

There are some I would avoid, but Ryanair would not employ me anyway as I have a clue about scheduling holidays.