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ETHICS IN THE
WORKPLACE
-
FOSDEMx
2018 - 05 - 03
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ETHICS IN THE WORKPLACE
Or “all the things I wish I knew when I still was a student”
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HELLO!
I am Eric Gazoni
I am the founder of a software consulting company
You can find me at @ericgazoni
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DISCLAIMER
⊡ Consultant for 13 years ( 5 as employee )
⊡ Worked in a lot of different industries
⊡ Receive avg. 20 applications per month
⊡ Based on what I witnessed, not scientific
Make your own opinion
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WHAT BROUGHT
YOU HERE ?
?
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“
Ethics
1. (philosophy) The study of principles
relating to right and wrong conduct.
2. Morality.
3. The standards that govern the conduct of
a person, especially a member of a
profession.
Ethics. (2017, October 4). Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary.
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IT CAREERS IN 2018
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PRODUCT COMPANY
Pros
⊡ One product, in depth
⊡ Team spirit
⊡ Niche issues
⊡ Open source
Cons
⊡ Involves maintenance
⊡ Commercial pressure
⊡ Success depends on
marketing
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CORPORATION
Pros
⊡ Bigger is the company,
lower are expectations
on newcomers
⊡ Diversity
⊡ Money
⊡ Job security
⊡ Internal training
(sometimes)
Cons
⊡ Bureaucracy
⊡ Politics
⊡ Arbitrary management
pressure
⊡ Difficult to identify
“success” or “goals”
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LARGE CONSULTING FIRM
Pros
⊡ Money
⊡ Cars
⊡ Get to see many
industries
Cons
⊡ Equivalent to modern
slavery
⊡ High turnover
⊡ Low technical
competency
⊡ Get out broken or a
mercenary
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NON SOFTWARE COMPANY
Pros
⊡ Part of a greater scheme
⊡ Short feedback loop
⊡ Usually small teams, low
turnover
Cons
⊡ Competing for resources
with other activities
⊡ In-house IT leadership
not always consistent
with industry standards
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FREELANCING
Pros
⊡ Money
Cons
⊡ Legal responsibility
⊡ Marketing
⊡ Sales
⊡ Taxes
⊡ Dire competition
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PLANNING YOUR
CAREER
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STUDENTS
Work on yourself
⊡ Know yourself
⊡ Find your weaknesses
⊡ Work on them
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STUDENTS
Be social
⊡ Student associations or clubs
⊡ Organize meetups
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STUDENTS
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EVERYONE
Build your portfolio
⊡ Maker / DIY
⊡ Open source software
⊡ Work for an NGO / charity
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APPLYING FOR A JOB
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Recruiters
⊡ Low technical knowledge
⊡ Contact often look like spam
⊡ Hit-and-run mindset
⊡ Fill your resume with buzzwords
⊡ Pimp your qualifications without your consent
Nope, nope, nope
JOB SEARCH
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JOB SEARCH
Self search
⊡ Twitter Search (#job #python #belgium)
⊡ LinkedIn job search
⊡ Aggregators (Monster / Indeed)
⊡ Hacker News (“who’s hiring”)
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WHAT RECRUITERS ARE
LOOKING FOR IN A CV
Motivation
⊡ No cover letter = SPAM
⊡ In the body of the email is fine, no separate
PDF
⊡ Customization beyond “Dear Company”
⊡ Point to company’s past projects appealing to
you
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WHAT RECRUITERS ARE
LOOKING FOR IN A CV
Character
⊡ Pictures: not required, but help putting a face
on a name
⊡ Avoid confusion, link to your own online
persona
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WHAT RECRUITERS ARE
LOOKING FOR IN A CV
Spelling
⊡ If unsure, apply in English
⊡ You only have one shot, check spelling and
grammar. Twice.
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WHAT RECRUITERS ARE
LOOKING FOR IN A CV
Technical skills
⊡ Be honest
⊡ Only list if professional proficiency
⊡ Avoid buzzwords
⊡ You can break a requirement, but justify it
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JOB INTERVIEWS
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DISCRIMINATION
⊡ Gender or (perceived) sexual preference
⊡ Children, family situation, ...
https://5085.f2w.fedict.be
⊡ Skin color, place of birth, cultural
background, handicap, ...
https://www.unia.be
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⊡ Be relax. Seriously.
⊡ This is only a job, not your whole life
⊡ Smile and remember what you replied at my
first slide
⊡ Feel ok to say “I am not comfortable
discussing this topic”, this is not the police
⊡ Examine how (new) employees are valued
JOB INTERVIEWS
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⊡ “Mensa” tests, logic puzzles
⊡ Whiteboard coding
⊡ Multiple choice question
Only capture your fitness to a model, not your
actual abilities, again, failing them is OK
JOB INTERVIEWS
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ONCE YOU HAVE THE
JOB
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“We only work with long-term freelancers”
⊡ No job security
⊡ Lowered legal protection
⊡ “But ... money ! $$$”
Don’t fall for it
FAKE INDEPENDENT
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BAIT & SWITCH
“You will receive internal training”
“You will be coding on your next project, for
now we need an administrative assistant”
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SALARY SCAM
“You will start with a two months internship”
“We don’t pay overtime”
“The salary is low, but we will give you shares of
the company”
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GOLDEN HANDCUFFS
⊡ Salary is twice what competitors offer
⊡ Lots of paid holidays
⊡ Free food / video games at the office
⊡ Luxury company car
⊡ Stock options
Think about your dependency to the company
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HARASSMENT
⊡ Personal attacks
□ Origin, religion, culture, language
□ Physical condition
□ Perceived intellectual abilities
⊡ Inappropriate language or gestures
⊡ Asking out
Contact HR/manager/safe person immediately
(do not rationalize behaviour)
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ABUSE
“Take your laptop with you on vacation, in case
we need you” - No
“Since we provide you with a phone, you should
be reachable at all time” - No
“Please dress more feminine” - No
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UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR
⊡ Writing code to conceal CO2 emissions in cars
⊡ Stealing and selling personal information
⊡ Reading customers private messages
⊡ Not working “too fast” so the mission lasts
longer
⊡ Selling unnecessary software/technology to
naive customers
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SIGNS YOUR JOB IS
KILLING YOU
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OVERPERFORMER BURNOUT
⊡ “You never disappointed us so far”
⊡ “You are our only hope”
⊡ Feeling oppressed
⊡ Anxiety or panic attacks
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OVERPERFORMER BURNOUT
Delegate, set clear expectations, stand for
yourself
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THE DEATH MARCH
⊡ “Oh you took your afternoon off ?” at 5PM
⊡ “Everyone will have to do overtime from
now”
⊡ You are tempted to sleep at your desk
⊡ Personal hygiene is time wasted
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THE DEATH MARCH
Overtime is not a fix for poor planning
Schedules can always be changed
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ONE MORE BEER
⊡ You start drinking every day
⊡ You need to drink to relax after work
⊡ You start contemplating substance abuse
⊡ Your relatives are being worried for your
health
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ONE MORE BEER
You are exposed to an unhealthy amount of
stress, discuss it with your family doctor
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THE DEAD END
⊡ Nothing to do for most of the day
⊡ Your supervisor does not care if you work or
not at your desk
⊡ You start wondering about your purpose in
life
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THE DEAD END
This is either harassment, either a fool’s job.
Quitting is advised.
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THE SCAPEGOAT
⊡ You are globally criticized, without specific
details
⊡ You are always working alone on failing
projects
⊡ You shut yourself
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THE SCAPEGOAT
Another form of harassment, seek help from HR
or management.
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DON’T BECOME PART
OF THE PROBLEM
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“HUMOR”
⊡ Some jokes are not funny for all
⊡ Racial / physical / sexual jokes are not
appropriate in a work environment
⊡ Think before you speak
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“HUMOR”
Immediately correct people, don’t close your
eyes / ears
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ENTITLEMENT
⊡ Degrees
⊡ Gender
⊡ Age
⊡ Place of origin
⊡ Previous employer(s)
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ENTITLEMENT
Put yourself in other’s shoes from time to time
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BE A DECENT HUMAN BEING
“Sorry, I was wrong earlier”
“Instinctively, it looks very simple. Am I missing
an important detail ?”
“Is there something I can do to help you ?”
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MAKING MONEY
WHILE DOING
OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE
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INTEGRATORS
Companies providing support / custom
developments around an existing open-source
platform
Example: B2CK around the Tryton project
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COMMISSIONS
Development performed on behalf of someone
else to add features to an existing codebase
Example: Charlie Clark, OpenPyXL maintainer
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GRANTS
Universities, foundations, companies can spend
research funds to finance open source software
that fills a specific need
Example: Mozilla financing the Django project
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SEE THE FULL LIST
Nadia Eghbal (@nayafia) has compiled a guide to
financing your open-source work
https://github.com/nayafia/lemonade-stand
Be sure to star the project and share
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“
“We have developed speed but we have shut
ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance
has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical, our
cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little: more
than machinery we need humanity; More
than cleverness we need kindness and
gentleness.”
The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin, 1940
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CREDITS
Special thanks to all the people who made and released these
awesome resources for free:
⊡ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
⊡ Photographs by Unsplash