My Job as a Computer Programmer

In my job as a computer programmer I was asked by my supervisor to develop a new system that will greatly increase the efficiency in the mail-room department. My supervisor estimates that the improvements will allow the company to decrease the number of workers in the mail-room from five to two. I have become friends with your co-workers in the mail-room, and I know that if I do what I was asked, three of them will be let go. I know that they are unskilled laborers and it will be difficult for them to find jobs as good as the ones they currently have, and that they will lose their health benefits and retirement as well. I also know that, because of your skills, it would be relatively easy for me to find work elsewhere. In fact, I have been contacted by several companies in the last few months with offers of employment. Do I develop and implement the system I was asked to develop, or do I seek employment elsewhere? Is there another alternative?

Analysis

I have to deal with the obligations to myself, my company, and my friends. I should be true to my own beliefs and not cause harm to others while carrying out my agreed upon duties. I have an obligation to be loyal to the company I work for in fulfilling the tasks assigned to me as best I can. After all they hired me to do a job and have every right to expect me to do it in return for an agreed salary and benefits. I also feel an obligation of loyalty to those I have befriended in the mailroom to look out for their best interests. My employer trusts me to do what I am instructed since that was the reason they hired me, but my friends in the mailroom also trust me not to do anything that would negatively affect them.

It hardly seems fair to reward three of my friends who h...

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...the scope of their job description is a desirable situation.

After following this process of justification, I have not altered my opinion of the original moral rule derived from the discovery process. I feel just as strongly that it is my duty to write and implement the program as requested by my employer which would increase the efficiency of the mailroom regardless of the impact on my personal relationship with the other mailroom employees. Out of respect for my friends as rational individuals who are capable of making their own decisions, I cannot use their situations as any basis for not carrying out my instructions. With that in mind, I have only my duty to the company to carry out their instructions to weigh against my own personal feelings. In keeping with the basic tenets of Kantian theory, the only possible outcome appears to be my duty to my employer.