Ideology > Professional Ethics in Professional Environments

I thought this was a dying out trend but I’ve recently been noticing there still are people who prioritize their ideology over professional ethics in a workplace and they try to treat other people based on their ideology. 

Just imagine getting an email from someone out of nowhere “dear XYZ, I’m cutting off your access to data because I don’t like what you said about my community and I don’t tolerate that” or someone casually bringing in “oh no one should ever behave - [never talk bad about XYZ ], [never question ABC], etc… every chance they get and trying to create consensus about how to treat people that’s outside the company’s policy or the really common sense. 

I’ve seen this all across the spectrum in pockets which is so strange to me. Just seems to be becoming more coy and and more “ambush” -like. When it happens I just feel like it’s so patronizing and almost bully-like behaviors. 

Some people might not even notice it but I’ve been reading some studies that this is a real social issue. I feel that it can’t be good for productivity or morale.


Does anyone else find this at their workplace or at professional events they go to? Is this a problem we should be worrying about our whole careers? How have you learned to navigate it?


 

17 Comments
 

What this means is that if this is now suddenly an issue for you it is because you are entrenched into the ideological bubble that has been doing this shit for the past 15 years. 

 

I think you do a bad job of explaining why this is a problem.

If you treat people of a certain background like garbage, then that is bad professional ethics.  You should be taken to task for that.  In a vacuum, you seem to be arguing for the right to be an offensive prick without having to suffer any consequence.

I am aware that bigots rarely think of themselves as such, but maybe the problem is with your professional ethics and you are simply trying to rationalize away the fact that you're a pariah among your peers.

 
Most Helpful

You can take it face-value or bring your own prejudices and projections. Honestly, merely a data point for me but I do have to empathize with every data point to some degree and treat them without a bias of the mind.

But my goal is always to study people's perception of various net negative behaviors that sort of transmit like the flu and try to find cures for them. Why? Because honestly, I'd rather have more long opportunities than short opportunities.

Jerks exist everywhere in any identity and their behaviors spread like a flu. Some people wear their sense of entitlement like an armor and a sword. And when they decide to use their sword because "their feelings were hurt" by trying to discredit you professionally or trying to make your work difficult that's a pretty shitty thing to do. That's a destructive behavior for themselves and others who fall prey to it. 

Honestly, I don't think the way people bring in ideology as any different from how entitled trust fund kids try to resort to "do you know who my father/mother is". I mean I love hearing deeply about specific problems people have because that always leads to great investment/trading opportunities but when someone's response is equivalent to "do you know who my father/mother is" version of some BS identity politics rhetoric and with no usable anything, that's a giant waste of everyone's time and energies.

But I'm especially irate when they unsheathe their swords and intentionally try to discredit someone or make someone's life difficult just because "their feelings were hurt". There are more constructive ways to manage conflict than being vindictive. Unfortunately, organizations that tolerate net negative behaviors like being vindictive is bound to sink. But again, would rather have more long opportunities than short opportunities...

Anyways, uptick in number of people who are vindictive in work environments and package it under some sound-good BS needs to end right now. 

Would feel better going to bed if I made more money through a long than a short.

When in doubt, use more peanut butter
 

pbandjpartners

You can take it face-value or bring your own prejudices and projections. Honestly, merely a data point for me but I do have to empathize with every data point to some degree and treat them without a bias of the mind.

But there really isn't anything to take at face value, and attempting to take someone to task for inserting bias or prejudice into the discussion, when the entire issue boils down to bias and prejudice, is silly.

Jerks exist everywhere in any identity and their behaviors spread like a flu. Some people wear their sense of entitlement like an armor and a sword. And when they decide to use their sword because "their feelings were hurt" by trying to discredit you professionally or trying to make your work difficult that's a pretty shitty thing to do. That's a destructive behavior for themselves and others who fall prey to it. 

Again, you haven't actually shown that someone else is the jerk in this scenario, or that they're not entitled.  All of this is subjective, obviously, but my entire point is that it's difficult to sympathize with you, or even take your word at face value, when we simply don't have any context.  

You are obviously inclined to look at yourself as the hero of your story, as someone relatively free from entitlement, and as the victim of someone else's poor workplace ethics.  If you didn't have that bias you wouldn't be complaining.  But everyone else feels the same as you do, and you seem to have ignored the possibility that the person whom you think is trying to discredit your professionally, is right now on some other internet forum complaining about the bigot injecting tons of hostility into their work place.

Honestly, I don't think the way people bring in ideology as any different from how entitled trust fund kids try to resort to "do you know who my father/mother is". I mean I love hearing deeply about specific problems people have because that always leads to great investment/trading opportunities but when someone's response is equivalent to "do you know who my father/mother is" version of some BS identity politics rhetoric and with no usable anything, that's a giant waste of everyone's time and energies.

OK but maybe you could provide an actual example, instead of just going on and on about "identity politics"?  Your refusal to actually provide detail on the incident(s) you're complaining about is a far stronger argument against your position, than for it.

If you told a Jewish person to go lie down in a ditch and die for what they're doing in Gaza, and they got upset, that would fit the bill of what you're describing.  If you started describing your black colleagues as n***ers on a daily basis, they might have some cause for complaint.  Those are extreme, but it isn't hard to imagine a whole constellation of workplace behaviors that people might find offensive to the point of distraction, and which they complain to HR/management about, and now you're here complaining about "identity politics".  Maybe you're refusing to use someone's preferred pronouns.  Maybe you're constantly making jokes about your gay colleague.

Anyways, uptick in number of people who are vindictive in work environments and package it under some sound-good BS needs to end right now. 

Would feel better going to bed if I made more money through a long than a short.

And maybe those people would feel better going to bed if they didn't think they're coworker was an entitled bigot!

I am always suspicious of people, on WSO and elsewhere, who do a lot of complaining about how "sensitive" their coworkers are, while being extremely light on the details about what they're being sensitive about

 

Yeah you're in a good spot then. Going off the beaten path is an option but you'd have to be ready to see some ugly shit and deal with some nasty people. That's the hidden cost of "Being entrepreneurial".

My job requires me to literally be at every environment that I can think of is that is pushing the edges in variety of fields. And usually new areas are either full of the worst or the best kind of people - nothing in the middle.

In NYC, it's not that difficult to find people pushing the edges of things because there's enough people "trying to innovate". Sometimes I forget I live in the Wild Wild West.

When in doubt, use more peanut butter
 

How'd you get cut off from some sort of data because you said something bad about a group of people?

Did you bully your Indian programmers or something?

 

bruh that's kinda racist to assume Indian. Anyways, I don't hold that against you I'm sure you don't mean it that way (see what I did there?)

Just imagine some asshole trying to make your life difficult because they think that's the only way they'd feel important in life. Then they nitpick literally everything you ever do and say. 

When in doubt, use more peanut butter
 

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When in doubt, use more peanut butter

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