My answers to HWcase 2, Q1

 Q1 (33 pts. max, 16.5 min) Prepare case notes on an ethics case related to ethics in the workplace. (A case about moral injury is an option you could consider.) An ethics case is an example, event, experience, legal case, medical case, and so on from real life, a movie, your imagination, and so on, which has some ethics related aspects to consider. Post your notes to your blog. Your notes should include the following.

• A link or other citation to the case you are using, or if it is from personal experience, point that out.
• A list of 8 or more important facts about the case, in your own words. You can refer to these as reminders when you tell your group members about the case.
• A list of questions (3 or more) you could ask your group members in order to get an interesting and enlightening discussion going (for in-class students), or that you could consider yourself or ask someone else about (for online students); see the “Questions to ask during discussion” tab on the course web page for some suggestions in developing your discussion questions.
• A 4th discussion question about how computer security relates to or could relate to the case. The computer security question could be about hacking, viruses or worms, theft of information, piracy, abuse of privileges, destruction of assets, information privacy, disruption of operations, unauthorized access, corporate abuse of information or computing, government abuse of information, physical harm, or any other issue in the general area of computer security.

Hint: For your case for this unit, one option you have is to look for a case involving moral injury. Some types of work (military work is one example) can cause that type of injury. Whatever case you decide on, you can use news articles, personal experience, things you found on the web, on paper, etc.

• Add the following three additional questions to your list of questions:
  • What does virtue ethics say about this case?
  • What does utilitarianism say about this case?
  • What does deontology say about this case?

Answer: My case study is located at https://ethicalunicorn.com/2019/01/12/how-ethical-is-amazon/.

Eight important facts are:

1.)     Amazon has a long history of barely paying any taxes.

2.)     For many years Amazon workers were chronically under paid relative to their industry.

3.)     In 2018, Amazon raised the pay of all their warehouse workers to at least $15 an hour.

4.)     Amazon workers report being highly pressured to meet quotas that leave them constantly in dread of losing their jobs. Workers have responded by avoiding bathroom breaks and refusing to call in sick because they are afraid of losing their jobs.

5.)     UK amazon workers reported greater incidence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.

6.)     Ambulances were called much more often for UK amazon warehouses than for other warehouses.

7.)      Amazon is accused of mistreating both temporary and Chinese workers in numerous ways

8.)     Even for white collar workers, workloads are often extreme and employees complain of a toxic work environment.

 

Three questions to ask about the case are:

1.)     These workers all freely chose to work at amazon. Does that make amazons treatment of them alright?

2.)     Amazon views its practices as being necessary to provide the best service to its customers. If it did not do these things then it might not be able to hire so many people. Does that make amazons treatment of their workers alright?

3.)     Amazon barely pays taxes because they continually reinvest profits to expand their business. Considering this, is it still unethical that they barely pay taxes?

 

A fourth question about how computer security relates to this case:

4.)     Amazon employees are under tremendous pressure to perform. Good security often gets in the way of good performance. Do you think Amazon is more likely to have bad security since they would probably view this as an obstacle to performance?

 

 

Three additional standard questions:

• What does virtue ethics say about this case?  Virtue ethics views would probably view Amazon’s treatments of its workers as qualities of an unkind person. It would also say that treating Amazon workers better fits with qualities of justice as compassion. So, I think virtue ethics would view Amazon’s behavior as unethical.
• What does utilitarianism say about this case? Utilitarianism would try to view the harm done to Amazon workers and compare it to the gains to society brought about by Amazons logistics services. Ultimately it would view as ethical whatever led to the greatest utility.
• What does deontology say about this case? It depends on what the Deontologist views as the more important rights. On the one hand, they would say humans have the right to be treated with basic dignity and have their needs considered. However, they might also believe the owners of Amazon have the right to use their property as they see fit since the employees freely decided to go work for them.