Speechwriter.

You have just been hired as a speechwriter for the political campaign of the mayor of your city. It is your dream job, and the mayor so far has been running on a platform that you truly believe in. He believes in creating jobs, in the working class. He believes in helping end the cycle of poverty in your city. You believe he has the chance to change lives. You give your blood, sweat, and every waking hour to this job. You give all your good ideas to his speeches, you make him sound smart and funny. You make people love him. You have aspirations of one day being a community organizer, an ombudsman, and then who knows what else from there? Maybe senator, even president. He has promised to take you with him through every public office he occupies; he has even promised to have you as his adviser in Washington, DC when he eventually becomes a high-ranking senator. You believe in his dream and your political future together.

Everything is going smoothly with the campaign until the politician’s poll numbers start falling, and he decides to make a sudden change in his platform. His advisers have decided that he needs to take a stand against illegal immigrants and make harder rules for undocumented immigrants in the United States. You are taken aback by the abrupt change in policy. You have been asked to write several speeches that demonize illegal immigrants and blame high unemployment rates on their presence in the country. The politician is calling for the immediate deportation of all illegal immigrants.

But as a speechwriter you have a conflict of interest—because not only were your parents illegal immigrants who came to the United States to give you and your siblings a better life, but you also still have aunts, cousins, and uncles who are currently undocumented workers. You have even been seeing someone for a year who is an illegal immigrant. You are not comfortable with writing the speech, since you know this public policy would affect your family and loved ones if the politician makes it into office. It feels disingenuous to write a speech that you find morally wrong. However, you’ve worked so hard, and given a year to this job. The salary is excellent, and it helps you support your family. What do you do? Do you stay and support a political platform you don’t believe in, to write speeches that will persuade voters to deport your very own loved ones? Or do you follow your ethics and resign? Do you keep the job and the high salary to continue supporting your family? Do you stay and keep yourself in politics so that you can one day achieve your dreams of also running for office, even if that means your family is more likely to be deported?

Hiring a Friend

I am the hiring manager at a mid-sized technology company that is looking to fill an open product manager position. This position requires someone with strong technical skills, as well as the ability to work closely with engineering and design teams to shape the direction of our products.

My good friend Sarah recently lost her job at another tech company that had major layoffs. Sarah is very smart and I enjoy spending time with her, but I know she does have a little experience with technology, but her experience is limited. Her experience is primarily in marketing and communications roles.

I want to help my friend out as she supported me in the past and is currently unemployed. However, I have ethical concerns about referring Sarah for this position when she does not meet the key qualifications. I know there are other strong candidates in the application pool who do have the requisite experience and background that would set them up for success. If I refer Sarah and she does poorly in the role, it may also reflect poorly on my judgment and credibility as the hiring manager.

Sarah approached me, asking if I could hire her or at least get her an interview for the open position. She said she could learn the required skills on the job and that with my help and recommendation, she is confident she could do well. She also reminded me that she helped connect me with my current job years ago when I was unemployed for almost a year. Sarah is a fast learner, and graduated top of her class.

Data Scientist

I am a data scientist at a thriving tech startup that just developed a new mobile app allowing users to take photos, apply fun enhancements and filters, and seamlessly share them on other social platforms. The app is gaining popularity especially among teenagers and young adults.

While analyzing data to improve the app’s performance and user experience, I uncovered some concerning behavioral trends. The data shows that teenage users who spend over 10 hours per week in the app start demonstrating dropping grades, worsening mood, loss of interest in social activities, and potential signs of depression.

However, the data also indicates that the more time teenagers spend in the app, the more profitable and valuable they become to the business through ad revenue, premium subscriptions, and influence on their friends to join the platform. My data analysis has been shared internally with the executive team, and leadership wants me to bury this data on declining teen well-being rather than address how it may reflect deeper issues with overuse of the product.

On one hand, teenagers and parents should take responsibility for monitoring their own technology use, and it is not the company’s fault if some misuse the app against their own interests. On the other hand, I feel we have some ethical obligation to consider how overuse of the app may be impacting vulnerable segments of our users. I am concerned burying data that could help spark an important discussion on healthy social media use is questionable ethically, even if addressing this issue may hurt our growth.

Do I push harder for us to publicly discuss this data on teen behavioral trends, risking my job and ability to influence leadership decisions in the future? Or do I follow leadership’s guidance and stay silent, against my personal values but in the company’s financial interest?