Is it okay for me to decline a project on ethical grounds?

Question

I work for a big digital marketing agency as a Web Analyst. One of our clients is a sports betting website. In a recent meeting they asked us to help with a new strategy. It basically involves re-targeting people that have a lower income and have a high chance of losing. We recently did a study that confirmed that that segment makes the most money bottom line.

Most of the colleagues in my team don't care ("It's their money and their decision") but I feel really bad specifically targeting the poorest people that bet on their favorite team and end up losing most of the time. However, this task got assigned to me. I already voiced my doubts about the strategy but that was quickly waved away. Am I being too sensitive here about not wanting to do it? Is this crossing an ethical line? Would love to hear an opinion from outside the advertising bubble.

Edit: Thanks everyone for sharing their thoughts! Because of these I decided to not do the project. I had an open discussion with my team lead about this, and he understood my point of view. He took me off the project and gave it to one of my colleagues. Even though I still feel uncomfortable with the whole situation, I understand it's completely legal and for me there are hundred other people who would do the job. But, I'm glad I stood up for myself and I'm thankful my team lead was so understanding.

Answer 1

Ask if you can be reassigned to another project.

I already had some question in interview such as "would it be ethically ok for you to work for a military project?". Some companies do care about this kind of things, and could therefore reassign you to another project. After all, it's in their interest to make sure you are happy and motivated with your projects.

If your manager isn't very receptive to this request, it's up to you to decide if you want to stay on this project/company.

Answer 2

My opinion is that is a predatory practice and it is unethical. And it's the case that any decent moral or ethical system worth its salt is occasionally going to demand that you take a hit. It's easy for me to be an armchair quarterback and say, "Stand up for what's right and take the consequences." Still, that's what my advice is.

I did this once. I won't bore you with the details, but, while I didn't lose my job, things became so miserable that I quit with no new job lined up. But a wonderful thing happened a couple years later. One of my former co-workers patronized the restaurant where my daughter worked. He still had the credit card with the company logo on it and she saw it and said, "Oh, my dad used to work there." "Really, who's your dad." When she told him, the guy began singing my praises. "Your dad is a great man who will stand up for what's right and fight for the little guy. He's not afraid of the corporate goons...."

The whole nasty mess was worth it just for that moment. Anyone can be an employee. I prefer to be "that guy." Especially in front of my daughter.

Answer 3

When an ethical concern comes up in the workplace there's a couple considerations.

First, we need to understand Ethical. Ethical is sometimes legal and sometimes illegal. So find out if it's illegal. If it's not illegal, then we're in the more difficult part of the conversation.

Second, decide how important your values are to you. This is difficult. Often this needs to be weighted against your self interests. Is targeting marginal populations more important than the rent? Is the rent even a concern? (Maybe you're comfortable and organized?) How's the market? How easy / difficult will it be to transition to a new job? What are the risks to your well being? All difficult questions.

In short you're weighing your principles and values against your well-being. The best you can do it try to navigate it. So, organize a one on one with your manager and voice your concerns. BEFORE you do this, make a decision about what happens when they reject your request or continue to push you to do what you believe is not right.

Once that decision is made, write up your resignation email / letter and prepare it. Then sit down and have that one on one. Be clear about your position and intent.

I cannot do this task, because it violates my personal values. I feel this is unethical.

Make sure you also communicate this in email. You always want things in writing.

If they ignore your concerns, then you act. Give your letter or send the email and move on. Otherwise, bite the bullet and accept the result.

I cannot tell you what is the right course of action. I'm just advocating for making it as clear a process as possible.

Some additional side notes:

You just keep quiet while you look for another position and then leave once you've been hired. This is the "happy medium" in that you step away from an unethical organization. However, this also means you have engaged in unethical (by your definition) behavior.

Please consider your position. Think long and hard about it. It's an admirable thing to stand by your principles, but be prepared for hardship, because the world is not a principled place.

Answer 4

What you should do depends on how much you value your code of ethics. If push comes to shove, knowing that your conscience isn't edible, are you willing to quit your job or be fired rather than work on the project?

You can voice your concerns directly to your manager and see if they would be willing to reassign the project. If you do happen to be successful, there's a good chance this could be viewed negatively in a performance review as, while you can't be forced to commit a crime by your employer, what you've described doesn't seem to be illegal (at least not more than any of the mobile games with pay to win mechanics).

On the other hand there could be reputational repurcussions, but those seem to be few and far between so long as people aren't physically harmed - after all if successful all you'll be doing is advertising a service to gamblers.

Answer 5

Just a quick congrats on your stance and ethics. I'm the same as you and have a blanket rule that I will never work for a company that produces gambling software (huge industry where I live - Australia). Stand your ground, nothing wrong with not wanting to take part in destroying lives and tearing families apart. Its more than "their money their choice", it brings alcoholism (from desperation), domestic violence, suicides, theft, all sorts of things. When I had this discussion with someone here my response was that if I'm willing to take part and contribute to that I might as well cook meth and sell that, you're spreading just as much misery plus the money is better.

Answer 6

All my resignations from my previous positions were due to similar kind of issues. I just couldn't get over myself and cannot agree when companies are harming others to make their money or harming/ taking advantage of their employees. Somebody's going to replace me but at least it's not me. I'm happy to move on. I think you have to ask yourself can your live with yourself doing something like that? Clearly it's troubling you, if your company cares about their employee just a little they'll get someone else who's willing to do it or give it a 2nd thought. If they're giving you a hard time and causing you to lose sleep well you know you should move on to a diff company.

Answer 7

IMHO, it is your right to deny working on any project for any reason.

However, your employer have same if not more discretion to terminate your employment if your protest affect their bottom line.

As i see it, you have few options, such as asking to work on other project, refuse to work on this one, voice your objections and work on this project or resign.

Betting websites compose huge number of internet traffic, along with pornography and prostitution ones, there are also offline betting etc services run along the same lines.

Social Engineering is basis of most websites due to abundant supply, nether-mind its focus

Answer 8

If you honestly think the project you are about to work us goes against your morals, you should definitely refuse it unless you are in a critical situation (you have no other choice to feed your family or similar) Even if you lose your job, you can get another one, but I don't think there is any way of having a happy life after having knowingly done evil.

That being said, I don't think there is anything particularly unethical about your project. I do understand your point of view, but something similar can be said about any marketing project. After all, marketing is about fooling people into believing they need stuff they actually don't in order to get a profit. I don't see why fooling people into gambling is more harmful than fooling them into buying a fancy car they don't even have the money for in the first place.

And, in recent times, with online marketing and social media, I would say the sector has become even more "unethical", as entire networks of on-civilian espionage have being built, with a level of intrusion in our private lifes that is beginning to ressemble Orwell's 1984... and all of that just to make people click on ads!

In short, you can (and in my opinion, should!) absolutelly refuse a project/job that goes against your morals, but you may also want to think about whether the "unethical" part of such project is something isolated or is just a representation of a more fundamental problem within your entire sector.

Answer 9

Most likely your rejection based on ethics will be solely on yourself. If you do bring up that you are against the concept and will not do it, it all depends on what state you live in and if you are a at-will or contract.

Chances are your employer will simply fire you and give you a bad reference. At the next job interview, unless you rejected releasing a world-wide epidemic virus of some sort, they'd have a awful hard time believing you quit based on some ethics.

I recall in college a math doctoral student was working for the government. They'd give him matrices to solve, but never explain what it is used for or if it is correct. Basically he'd solve them, turn them in and never hear about it again. He said ultimately he quit because he simply didn't know what it was for and didn't feel comfortable solving the problems. Sounds interesting but he had trouble convincing folks he quit on those grounds since it sounded so bizarre. Could the story really play out that way? Sure, but his story is so vague and simplified that it just doesn't sound all that profound or convincing.

Ultimately you story will be, "I was asked to build an algorithm that made high-risk, low income gamblers gamble more money and I was against that idea and quit."