= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Elo comments on Wild Moral Dilemmas - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (106)
Separate comment post for a separate top-level moral dilemma. (x2)
I have been aware of safety failures in a workplace. (several in the same workplace) Recently in this country the laws were changed to impose a duty of care to any person who visits a workplace and knows something is unsafe. Each worker has a duty of care to themselves; and to other workers as well as other visitors to the workplace. (this includes for example - if someone walks onto a building site without a hard hat, and an incident happens where they would have been protected if they had a hard hat - you as a worker are liable for not stopping them from being there unsafely)
Various equipment that has had safety features disabled and a culture of unsafe practices. whenever I mention to either the person doing something unsafe; or the supervisor - the response seems to be, "don't worry" or "the person does that at their own risk".
At some point I believe that an intervention should be made; but I feel like to try any harder would be to overstep my authority in the workplace. (there are systems in place to report a workplace that is unsafe but I don't feel like I can use them).
Another example is that the workplace is a very loud environment (well above safe levels); and people should be wearing ear protection for long exposure. Because there is a culture of unsafe behaviour; any new worker does not start wearing earplugs and just joins the rest of workers in being equally unprotected from loud noise. when I raised this with the highest boss - he replied that they don't wear ear protection when they are provided anyway so they don't bother to provide it any more.
I expect in 10+ years a worker will become deafened and will complain to the workplace; I don't know who will be to blame, but I also don't know what I can do to make a difference. (I wear ear protection always, and surprise myself if I take it off just as I leave)
Dilemma: Things are wrong, people are harming themselves | I can't seem to fix it by talking to them, the bosses or demonstrating the right things to do.
Do you think this dilemma is similar to the situation of having an acquaintance who smokes?
The ear protection part is definitely similar - where by gradual harm people are causing themselves damage. Part of what makes smoking bad is that it can take so long to see the effects, and the peer pressure can keep you there.
where the question might be, "how much are you morally bound to go out of your way to encourage someone to quit smoking for their benefit?"
One version of the question is "encourage", but there is also another version which replaces the verb with "force". Bringing in authorities and/or legal enforcement doesn't exact fall under "encouragement".
where the legal encouragements around not smoking are weak at best; (no one is compelled legally to not smoke) (side note: underage obtaining of cigarettes is not related to actually smoking). I was talking about a peer-effect of encouraging people to not smoke and a possible moral drive to encourage others to be healthy.