Comments on: Rejecting Work Based on Ethics

By: Posts On Writing April 2008 | Get Paid to Write Online

Posts On Writing April 2008 | Get Paid to Write Online — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:46:52 +0000

[...] wondered what to do if a potential job just didn’t feel right? Maybe you should think about rejecting work based on ethics. It might help with career [...]

By: Janet Martin

Janet Martin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:47:21 +0000

Hey thanks Chad – great to find this blog and thanks for your comments about my site. It’s definitely a work in progress. I take a bit of pride in being my own coder-monkey, but then again, I should probably be spending more time working on copywriting.

By: Chad

Chad — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:58:58 +0000

I went and checked out his site again the other day…he’s loaded it with the worst copy I’ve ever seen. At least I can feel good in knowing that nobody’s buying his plagiarized product.

Oh – and welcome to the blog Janet, great to have ya! Your website is probably the cleanest, most appealing site I’ve seen for a copywriter. Great job!

By: Janet

Janet — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:55:12 +0000

I would have done exactly the same thing if this was my client.

Luckily I haven’t come up against a suitation this bad, but I have been handed small snippets of plagarized copy halfway through a project. In that case I called it for what it was and the client agreed to remove it so all worked out well in the end.

By: Chad

Chad — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:41:33 +0000

Janet – It was definitely a strange thing to deal with, especially since he seemed like such a nice and appreciative guy.

AnnaLisa – Interesting, I’ve noticed a lot of people hide their citations. To me, it looks better if you admit where it’s from. Not only do you have the info, but you also build credibility by showing off some research.

James – Thanks…as a religious person myself from a rather conservative background, I agree with you. It’s sad to see how judgmental people can be. Regarding health products, there’s definitely fine line especially when it comes to promotional articles or sales letters.

By: James Chartrand - Men with Pens

James Chartrand - Men with Pens — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:33:10 +0000

You did the right thing. You wouldn’t have felt right had you gone ahead – even had it paid.

I’ve turned down jobs myself. Ones that are steeped in religion (the intolerant kind) or ones that were anti-divorce or anti-abortion or anti-gay marriage. Sorry, but where I’m from, we’re really big on respecting everyone and their choices.

I’ve turned down jobs that were dangerous for the health of others. An article exploring Resveratrol but only the positive side? An article promoting 5-HTP? Um, no.

I have kept jobs on dangerous topics like the Resveratrol and 5-HTP, though – because had I not written the work as objectively as possible and with an underlying message of “caution”, the client would’ve gotten someone else to write pushy “TAKE THIS!” crap.

Hang onto your ethics, Chad. There are enough people out there that don’t have enough.

By: AnnaLisa Michalski

AnnaLisa Michalski — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:38:37 +0000

Isn’t it shocking the lengths adults who know better will go to to cheat?

I’m glad you spelled out exactly why you must refuse the job. That’s such a tough conversation to initiate but so, so necessary. I had to do that with (gulp) my supervisor once. I actually had to refuse more than once before Supervisor accepted that, yes, I really expected that those citations would be left intact and visible, and no, I really didn’t think it was OK to move them to a later (unused) slide in the presentation.

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:07:49 +0000

That is truly disheartening and sad. You obviously did the right thing. I have never been put in a situation like this, though I have turned down projects that countered my personal values, such as adult and political sites.