Ideas to consider when seeking out socially responsible employment...

Previous Page | A List of Issues

by Melissa Everett and Matt Nicodemus

Note: Certain issues are applicable to a variety of issue areas. e.g., access to employment, promotion/advancement. degree to which employee input is sought or valued, and harassment on the job are issues within the issue areas of age. ability. class, cultural background. spiritual/religious orientation, gender, race, and sexual orientation.

age, including:

-- forced retirement

-- retraining

ability, including:

-- advocacy

-- accessability of workplace, equipment, etc.

class

commitment to a vision for society

community (defined at a variety of levels) relations, including:

-- openness and accountability

-- tax-avoidance

-- contributions to local charity & social change efforts

-- other contributions to community

cultural preservation, including:

-- fostering healthy families

-- destruction of indigenous cultures

-- destruction of other cultures (e.g. fragmentation, alienation)

customers: who the employer serves (see all other issues for concerns here)

economic preservation (local, regional, national). including:

-- importing labor from outside the community

-- buying local/regional/national products/services

-- exporting jobs

-- exporting material resources

environmental pollution/ degradation. including:

-- materials acquisition (e.g. mining)

-- process of production

-- packaging

-- shipping/transport

-- pollution/degradation produced by product itself (e.g. automobiles)

-- pollution/degradation created by used/expended product (un)ethical/illlegal

business practices, including:

-- in relation to other Institutions, including:

** monopoly/oligopoly

-- in relation to customers. including:

** advertising

** pricing

** sales

** services

-- in relation to general public/government, including:

** Influencing government and non-gov't monitoring groups

relationship of employer to employees. including:

-- employees as mere means to ends. or as ends in themselves?

-- openness & trust

-- relationship with union(s)

-- understanding/"cooperative" with one's war-tax resistance

-- wages & benefits, including:

** health care

** childcare

** vacations

** continuing education

** retirement package

** wages

** maternity/paternity leave

** sick leave

** holidays

** family/emergency leave

-- job security

-- working conditions. including:

** flex-time

** safety

** work pace

** rest time/breaks

-- workplace democracy: worker input on employer decisions

-- concern for emotional well-being of employees

-- employee relocation

-- worker privacy. including:

** mgmt. searches of employees and their desks, lockers, etc.

** drug testing

** flexible work arrangements. including:

** Job-sharing

** part-time work

fiscal responsibility

-- safeguard interests of investors

-- full & fair disclosure of economic condition

gender

International operations. including:

-- connections to repressive governments

-- connections to other dangerous, repressive practices

-- acting inimically to national foreign policy

"ownership" of company/employer. including:

-- foreign

-- size

-- multinational

-- government

-- worker (co)ownership

-- degree of stockholder control/voice

-- degree of control/voice from members of general public

product/service costs and profit rates

product/service potential for harm, including:

-- abortion, pro-life, pro-choice

-- drugs

-- military contracting

-- nuclear power

-- weapons for personal use

-- disempowerment of people

-- contribution to the oppression of people

product/service quality, including:

-- lifetime of product

-- user-friendly/well-designed

-- reliability

-- service for product after purchase

product/service safety

product/service usefulness/constructiveness & responsiveness to public needs/desires

product/service understandability, including:

-- informing customers with details

-- unclear/deceptive packaging

race resource use

sexual preference

species, including:

-- animal testing

-- animal components in product or production thereof

-- impact of product/service on various species

spiritual/religion