On Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:00:47 +0300, Eero Ahonen wrote:

> On a sysadmin job (or janitor, or any other really important
> caretaker-job) there exists that little something called "work ethics".

Exactly.  I think that's why I get so angry about unethical behaviour in 
other jobs (and particularly in politics); if I behaved unethical in the 
ways some of these other professions seem to allow, I'd be out of not 
only a job, but a career.

But it's perfectly acceptable, for example, for the co-chair of a 
committee for election for a particular candidate within a state to 
*also* be the person to certify a vote in that same state.  That's just 
mind-blowing to me.

Yet at the same time, one of my employers' ethics policies wouldn't let 
me update a book I wrote because the book would compete with the class I 
was teaching - and doing so, I would have been fired.  I also know of 
situations where a conflict of interest existed like that in a private 
sector job, and the person *was* fired.

Jim

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