Re:Ask HN: Do you prefer to work for socially conscientious ...
by datashovel on Thursday April 10, 2014 @04:05AM
(#7564771)
I agree. I think the problem is a very nuanced one, and probably very difficult to get right. The critical thing, in my mind, is to find the specific "types" of things that matter most to people. Another critical thing will be to find the combination of things that are non-intrusive enough that a company would feel comfortable sharing. There will, in the end, I think be a sweet spot where certain companies will be willing to share or openly oblige themselves to certain rules / restrictions while others won't. And that refusal to discuss those issues, that their competitors are willing to discuss, will of course be noted in that company's profile.
In the end it may not even be a huge gap between different companies in different industries, but the public perception behind a company who openly discusses their willingness to push certain initiatives vs the company who refuses to take a stand or create transparent policy on certain issues will APPEAR to be a huge difference.
Suddenly once you have companies thinking about these things and informing public opinion about their decisions / policies, the needle starts to move and all of a sudden you have a thing that matters and makes a difference.
I have a serious medical condition. I have spent 13 years getting myself well when doctors said that could not be done. I get a shitshow off of other people when I try to share information about what I did to get well.
I think real health companies include things like GNC and gyms and "green" construction companies. I am aware we will always need medicine (both the field of it and drugs) but the framing of what works is very different in my mind from how you are framing it. It isn't a case of "socially conscious drug testing" versus "blithely torturing animals to get product to market."
I am not trying to discourage you from creating a database to help people make job hunting decisions. I am just saying that this isn't and apples to apples comparison and isn't even necessarily an apples to oranges comparison. What kind of data/metrics you include matters. I am just trying to encourage you to think more broadly about the topic.
Best of luck.