When considering whether or not I would accept a job at Facebook, I would look towards the framework that the article “Working for Ethically Complicated Organizations” provides. One of the arguments that the article brought up was that even if you are a strict believer in the “duty to honesty,” you can still argue that you have a more compelling duty to provide for your friends and family. For me, if I got an offer from Facebook, I would see it a high-salaried, prestigious job that would open other doors for me as well. It would let me provide for my family and establish a good quality of life. Despite the ethical dubiousness of Facebook, I would probably take the offer.
Now, onto the matter of justifying that choice, the article provided 2 directions for consideration, which were 1) How seriously wrong do I beleive the company’s actions are and 2) How close is my work to those actions I believe wrong. First, while I’m sure there’s a ton of hidden secrets / unethical things that Facebook is doing that lead to negative events in the world, I would probably rationalize my decision as nearly every large technology company probably also has negative impacts on the world, in one way or another. As for the second question, I would do my best to work on something that isn’t related to the direct negative impacts (such as the team that works on curating the feed/algorithm). If I end up working on a team that just does UI/UX button placement or work on Meta AR/VR stuff, my direct negative impact would most likely be way less. Either way, I don’t see myself staying there long-term, so I would view it as a necessary stepping stone.
