got this in an email today:
Since the stimulus money is for “shovel ready” projects, I wonder if [our client] can get some of this for technology upgrades? I would think that updating their antiquated hardware/software would be a pretty quick way to spend some of the money.
Have they mentioned anything to you?
no. and unless they’re using a jack-hammer and a shovel to renovate the datacenter, I pray to God that they didn’t think computers and networks were the “shovel-ready” stimulus this was designed for.
this might just be the final straw — I don’t know how I can work for a firm so at-odds with my personal beliefs.
[this should go without saying; but no references to my employer here, please.]
8 Comments
March 10, 2009 at 6:34 am
wow…ethics. i didn’t realize “consultants” had those…
March 10, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Aren’t you glad you got that question in an e-mail and not face to face? Might have have been tough to stifle a reaction in person.
March 11, 2009 at 9:55 am
Believe me, when things like this were asked face to face or discussed in an open forum, it was haard not to have to re-tie your shoes just so you wouldn’t have to look at the one asking the questions…
March 11, 2009 at 1:58 pm
this isn’t an ethical issue in my mind — if the government is wastefully throwing this money around, it is [the sender's] responsibility to find things the government wants to do and help them spend their money in ways that benefit constituents — and these upgrades would help civil servants serve people in need. granted, it’s a trickle-down type of assistance, but there’s nothing unethical about that.
it just flies in the face of my personal Principles, which is why it made me feel icky.
March 11, 2009 at 5:35 pm
ethical- pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct
principles-an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct
they seem to be inexorably intertwined….so the question is can you allow your principles to be subverted by improper business ethics?
March 11, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Hey son, the sorry thing is that the Obama administration would consider ANY project that can employ people in the short term as “shovel ready”! The term has everything to do with expediency and almost nothing to do with actually adding to GNP. The fact that government entities and the vendors they count on to keep payroll headcounts down in the government ranks, have developed a culture that understands all too well how to capitalize on every dollar that can be generated by spending-crazed legislators (house and senate) is indeed a sad state. It is self-perpetuating and a symptom of the systemic disease that infects our legislative system today. The vendors are not bad people but the rewards of the culture should not be the easy access to money but rather we should have a system that rewards cost-effective, innovative solutions to creating intrinsic growth on a national scale. (Clearly the meanderings of a classic child of the ’50s)
March 11, 2009 at 9:52 pm
oh crap, the Dad is reading? (filter, filter, filter…)
I mean, welcome Dad.
killer: by the definitions you posted and in reality, they are not intrinsically entwined. one could have Principles that are highly un-Ethical (immoral)… easy examples would be racists and serial-killers.
everyone has Principles, we just don’t share a common set.
March 12, 2009 at 3:27 pm
true but to argue semantics while in your case your ethics and principles are intertwined is stupidity….i dont recall this post talking about racism or serial killers….