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Subject:Interviews and Ethics From:Candace Bamber <cbamber -at- CASTEK -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 13 Jun 1997 09:09:38 -0400
All,
The recent thread about interviews and the weird things people say at them
reminds me of an ethics problem I've been meaning to ask for some advice
about.
The situation:
I worked in a really bad place, and I knew it was a really bad place, but
for a variety of reasons, it wasn't a good time for me to leave. I was
looking for another job, of course, but that takes time, and I was holding
out for something that really met my needs - the last thing I wanted was to
end up some place as bad, or even worse. The only upside of the place is
that my team was a really close team and we got along really well. We'd
been through a lot together and it created a bond.
We had tons of work and not enough staff, so we were trying to hire
someone. At the interviews, I would be sitting there with the
responsibility of finding someone good to be part of our team. They would
ask me questions about the company, and I would be at a loss about what to
say. On one hand, professionalism and responsibility to the company that
wrote my cheque every month, on the other hand, literally a living
nightmare of a place to work. To meet my professional obligations, I
needed a really good writer with some solid experience - not easy to come
by in this market. To meet the dictates of my conscience, I needed them to
understand what they were getting into, and for whatever reasons they might
have had, to choose it for themselves.
I'm ashamed to say I never once handled the situation in a way I feel proud
of. I didn't lie outright, but I put a good face on the situation and did a
"sell" of the company. I decided that for as long as I worked there, it
wasn't appropriate to say negative things about them. But I still feel
guilty.
Surely I'm not the only one to ever be in this position. I would be very
interested to know what other people did, or what they think. And what
about people who accepted jobs under " false pretenses"? What do you think
of this whole issue?
Thanks
Candace
cbamber -at- castek -dot- com
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*********************************************
Candace Bamber
now thankfully at: "Whatever you can do or dream,
Castek Software Factory Begin it.
Toronto, ON, Canada Boldness has genius, magic and power in
it."
416-777-2550 X 331 --- Goethe
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