There are many ways to support the operations of an enterprise. You can buy their products, buy their stock, recommend the company to others, and you can work for them. I believe that if you work for a company that you know is being less than vigilant on social issues, you are responsible for their actions too - because you help those actions to continue.

Take for instance MLM - multi-level marketing. To date, I have only encountered one MLM which actually operates ethically and responsibly with regard to social issues, and believe it or not, it's a financial institution. However, I'm not holding my breath on finding another MLM with such a positive concept.

MLMs, by their nature, are a very blind business. The typical promise is hands-off easy money - which means you end up knowing very little about the product, how it is developed, how it is manufactured, how it is shipped, etc. This is just a recipe for disaster, but as I mentioned, there is one MLM I know of which doesn't operate as such.

Nevertheless, their reputation is somewhat sullied due to some aspects of the way they operate. The business concept is excellent, but some of the people that are drawn to this kind of business can be a bit questionable. And due to the fact you are "promoted" purely because of performance, some of these questionable people manage to get into leadership positions, and hence the complaints against the company.

I haven't worked for them in over 2 years, but the company I speak of is Primerica. They are a subsidiary of CitiGroup - and if you haven't heard of Citi, I would like to know what brand of earplugs you wear so I can wear them when I sleep.

My point here is - you should know who you work for, what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and as much about their ethics as you can. If the company you work for isn't straightforward about these kinds of things, then chances are they don't want you to know for good reason.

And that reason is - you shouldn't be working for them.