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I'm a software engineer in a consultancy company. I've worked there for several years and until last November, I worked in the main offices on internal, deep learning-based projects.

My company then sent me to work as a consultant for a client, and my mission has nothing to do with deep learning anymore. However, my company sometimes calls me for coming back temporarily and work on deep learning projects that they recently came up with.

They've called me to come back a couple of times since I'm at the client's offices and I'm sometimes very uncomfortable with what they're asking me to develop. Most of the time they want me to design solutions that would fulfill purposes that I personally find unethical (for instance, targeted advertisement in stores based on body appearance. Although it's legally authorized, I think it's dishonest because people know they're under video surveillance but they don't know that their data is processed for commercial purposes).

Could I be blamed for refusing to work on the projects that I think are unethical? Should I tell management why I'd rather not work on those?

Additional info:

• I should add that I'm the most skilled in feature recognition in my company (and the only one who's skilled in artificial intelligence). They don't have much choice but to ask me.


• My contract only says "software engineer". I'm not required by it to work on a particular field or with whatever language. It's a permanent contract.


• I'm however engaged to work for the client until at least the end of the year, and could actually use the fact that I'm too busy there to find the time to do those projects.


• I'm working in the French offices of an international corporation.


• Also, please note that I'm not looking for opinions on whether such projects are indeed unethical.

I will add a personal experience because it's a good example of how to do this right.

A few years ago, I was a manager at a consultant company that works with my nation's government. We do a lot of software, management consulting, research, and so on.

I had an employee that was precisely in your situation; we had asked this person to participate on a project that was perfectly legal but they were personally opposed to because of their morals. Not that it matters much for this discussion but it was a military application, and this person is a pacifist.

They came to me and laid out their concerns, and were clearly very nervous about having to tell me that they weren't willing to work on a project with military applications, especially since that's a non-trivial part of our business.

I thanked them for their candor, and told them I'd find them something else to work on. My boss felt that this wasn't a tenable position and would seriously limit this person's career in the company long-term. I held firm and the boss let me retain the person.

It's now several years later, this person is still with the company and is one of our top researchers in their field. They still don't work on military applications, but provide a tremendous amount of value to company and our government.

I share this with you because there were a couple key points here:

1. The person was willing to lose their job over their ethical choice.


2. The person was clear with their management (me) about what the concern was, and what their ethical boundaries were.


3. The person was willing to throw all their passion into the next projects (that didn't violate their ethics and really show their worth.


4. The person happened to have a first line manager that was willing to stand up for them to seniors.

I think that as others have said, the key is to be up front and honest, but also be clear on what exactly the concern is and where your boundaries are. If you approach it from the perspective of an honest discussion, you'll be more likely to have success.

I would also point out that this all presupposes that you're not ethically opposed to working for a company that makes money doing something you're ethically opposed to doing yourself. Something to keep in mind.

Sure, you can refuse to work on any given project for any given reason, you're not a slave; but then your employer's response likely will be to let you go. (You don't mention any details of location or contract; it's possible these have some relevance, but you'd need to edit those in.)

If you're asking how to do so without being fired, I'd suggest you have a conversation with your boss about it. If you're one of their top employees, it's very well possible that your boss may be willing to hear your side of this, and take some action; much of this depends on how you approach it, and how your boss feels about retaining you. Assuming you're free to leave (and don't have a contract requiring you to stay particularly long), you have significant leverage here if you're one of the top performing employees in the company.

Just make sure to approach your boss in a positive, constructive way. "I think the work you're doing is unethical and refuse to do it" isn't going to get you very far.

Hi [boss], I wanted to talk to you about some of the work you're having me do. I love working here, and love the challenge of deep learning, but I don't like the idea of working on [xyz], because the subject is not something I'm morally comfortable with. Is there any way we could find a middle ground here that would allow me to keep working here, which I love, and not have to work on projects that aren't in concert with my morals?

The key is to not make it sound like your boss is unethical, but that it's a problem of yours that you want an accommodation with; and make it clear you want to work with them to find a solution.

They might say 'no', in which case you have a choice of finding another job or keep working on it; but it's worth a shot, if you're able to do it in a positive, constructive way.

Yes, you can refuse to work on projects you consider unethical. But if you do, they might fire you and replace you with someone who doesn't.

When the task you were supposed to perform was covered by your job description and was not strictly illegal, then you might have a difficult time to sue for wrongful dismissal. But I am not a lawyer and I am not familiar with the employment law of your location either, so you should not trust me on this. Ask an employment lawyer for details.

You would be better off finding a company that aligns with your ethics. If you attempt to take a stand here, you probably won't be fired outright for it, but you may not get assignments, at best.

At worst, they'll attempt a constructive firing.

Very few people would consider what you're speaking about as unethical, and while you asked we not cover that point, it is very relevant to your situation.

If you take a stand on your ethics over this one, you could get the reputation in the industry as being "difficult" or worse. If this were a stand that more people could see as a principled stand, my answer would be different, but as it stands, the fact that many, possibly most people won't see this as an ethical stand could create problems for you.

In the future, direct yourself away from companies that might have principles and ethics that do not align with yours. You cannot, however, start dealing with a company, then decide that some projects are against your ethics, then try to pull out of those specific projects unless you want to risk damaging not only your job security, but your career as well.