I quit my first job because it went against my conscience to work for a company that did not know how to treat its employees, even the CEO. The day the staff heard the owners had sacked the CEO they walked out. The stunned owners reinstated him. A few months later they did it again. They couldn’t stomach the loyalty the staff had for the CEO. People knew him more than they did the owners. I quit in disgust.
Then I learnt the hard way that it’s easy to leave but not to get a job. I sat jobless for a year and it was a friend who asked if I would work in a newspaper. I jumped at it. I worked there for the next 13 years, learnt my job from scratch. I quit when I was asst. editor because my wife said “if you don’t get out now, you’ll die here! We left for Delhi to an uncertain future but It was the smartest move I made. But I had learnt my lesson. I said to myself, “Shut up and do your job. Nobody cares if you quit. In the end you’re the only one on the losing side.” I did protest but only if it affected me. I learnt how to survive because there were a dozen guys waiting for me to fail.
People who came to me for advice got the right one: Never quit your job without having another in hand. Out of a job, your market value is zilch. You can’t negotiate your terms. Some listened, others didn’t. Those who did went on to better themselves. Those who didn’t sat at home for a while and came back to eat humble pie – same job, same salary and frustration. Conscience? Put it away in your back pocket. Do your job to the best of your ability. If you have a problem with the story you’re doing talk to your boss. If he wants you to do it his way, do it.
Don’t bother about the repercussions. As long as you weren’t asked to fake facts, you did your job to the best of your ability. What happens after that is out of your hands. Youngsters in journalism who believe they are there to change the world or who think their two byline stories will do the trick are in for a shock. Too cynical for your liking? Welcome to the real world. Journalism is littered with the corpses of idealists who listened to their conscience.
Think before taking a job with a company you believe is unethical. You knew the history of the place before you joined it. If you didn’t then find out before you join it. But for fucksake don’t clutch at the straw called conscience only when you’re asked to go full monty when all this time you had no problem going halfway. That’s convenient timing not conscience. But there’s no better place to see lack of ethics than the media. You don’t like the way a company works but you’ll happily accept 2 fullpage advertorials because they pay you a shitload of cash.
I remember working for a brief while for a business paper in the marketing dept. The editor was a great ethicist whose words of wisdom were followed by even the high and mighty. But his marketing dept had no qualms doing PR stories on some really shady characters who ran businesses because they were paid well. We knew they were thugs in real life but what the hell, when they were paying you a few lakhs, these minor hiccups could be overlooked. I wrote their story because I was told to do so. It wasn’t my place to question the judgement of my boss but I did. He laughed and said “bread and butter.” IOW, it pays the bills!
So, shut up and do it. Oh, and I have quit three out of the seven jobs I’ve held in 40 years, because I didn’t like the work ethic of the company – but not before I found another. It’s the smart thing to do even if you have a conscience. Sorry if I’ve bored you.
Been There Done That 