> Majority of employees often don't have much say in policy.
Going to have to disagree with you there. I think you'd be surprised how far you can take your ideas and concerns if you're willing to be assertive enough. I've worked in start-ups and companies with over 100,000 employees and if I've found something I felt needed to be changed I was able to find someone in the right place to talk about it with.
This isn't a retail employee trying to talk to corporate scenario (which, let's face it, good luck enacting change company wide when you're in retail). This is a technology company. Almost everyone I know at the major tech companies have at least chatted with the CEOs and other executives from time to time.
> Quitting is the right thing to do. If no one quits everyone, both leadership and employees, thinks "It must be me as no one else has a problem with it". It applies to customers as well.
I've been in a scenario where 7 out of 10 people on a team quit within weeks due to ethical concerns. I can assure you management had zero thoughts about anything being wrong, etc. They all thought it was simply a coincidence.
Now this is anecdotal but I was part of a large group who also quit in a similar fashion (approx 70 of 130 quit within 3 months IIRC). As far as everyone who was left could find out, their management felt almost exactly the same way.
Maybe Facebook and others would "get it" if people quit I'm just not convinced.
Management that takes critism positively without tit for tat attitude is not everywhere. By your own account you said "if you could find the right person to talk to, things could be changed from within". Well, is it employees' job to find the right feedback channel? Its the management's job to set up the right channels and make their employees aware of existance of such channels were they can give their feedback without fear of retaliation in any form. This feedback shouldn't be discarded or go into a black hole inbox. It should be openly addressed and appropriate action taken.
For bad examples for such process Snowden for one told he did go through such internal channels. Also Manning. Whistleblowers seems to be retaliated against with so much prejudice.
Also quitting a company that displays many such questionable ethical choices would feel good for my morale. Most people don't have such financial independence (runway) to quit and so they keep their jobs and keeps their opinions to themselves.
> Management that takes critism positively without tit for tat attitude is not everywhere. By your own account you said "if you could find the right person to talk to, things could be changed from within". Well, is it employees' job to find the right feedback channel? Its the management's job to set up the right channels and make their employees aware of existance of such channels were they can give their feedback without fear of retaliation in any form.
Sure. But a company that won't take feedback seriously I don't see why they would do anything when a large amount of people quit either.
At least in my experience if they're not receptive nothing but massive failure will actually change anything.
> For bad examples for such process Snowden for one told he did go through such internal channels.
To be fair we still don't know the extent of his attempts. He claims he sent emails to district heads but many in the DoD space know those typically are figure heads with little ability to change anything and there are better channels to go through. Granted I have no idea if it would have made any difference but I'm hesitant to use his example as one where a feedback channel failed.
> Also quitting a company that displays many such questionable ethical choices would feel good for my morale. Most people don't have such financial independence (runway) to quit and so they keep their jobs and keeps their opinions to themselves.
Going to have to disagree with you there. I think you'd be surprised how far you can take your ideas and concerns if you're willing to be assertive enough. I've worked in start-ups and companies with over 100,000 employees and if I've found something I felt needed to be changed I was able to find someone in the right place to talk about it with.
This isn't a retail employee trying to talk to corporate scenario (which, let's face it, good luck enacting change company wide when you're in retail). This is a technology company. Almost everyone I know at the major tech companies have at least chatted with the CEOs and other executives from time to time.
> Quitting is the right thing to do. If no one quits everyone, both leadership and employees, thinks "It must be me as no one else has a problem with it". It applies to customers as well.
I've been in a scenario where 7 out of 10 people on a team quit within weeks due to ethical concerns. I can assure you management had zero thoughts about anything being wrong, etc. They all thought it was simply a coincidence.
Now this is anecdotal but I was part of a large group who also quit in a similar fashion (approx 70 of 130 quit within 3 months IIRC). As far as everyone who was left could find out, their management felt almost exactly the same way.
Maybe Facebook and others would "get it" if people quit I'm just not convinced.