Last week at our Monday morning team stand-up meeting, some of the guys said that they didn't approve of us continuing to do more work for an old client who we had helped with their website and online marketing.
The client's business is an escort agency. Whilst any money that changes hands between the girls and customers is officially for their 'time and company', and that anything more than that is an act between two consenting adults, the industry is associated with prostution (which is legal in the UK, but illegal for a company or 'pimp' to make money from.)
When we first began talking to this client a few years ago, concerns were quickly raised by members of the team about whether this was the type of company that we wanted to work for. As a democratic company, we sought to find out more and then put it to the vote.
We contacted the Sex Worker's Union who represent the rights and interests of people in sex industry globally and they looked into the company for us. They were registered for VAT and appeared to be a legitimate business. They could find no mention of any causes for concern from any of their members. They said that as far as they were concerned, there were no reasons for us to not do business with them. When it came to the vote, a few people said that they did not want to work on the site, but the majority said that we should take the client on and so we did. We have been able to service the client without making someone who didn't want to work on it do so.
That was all several years ago, and we have a mostly new team since then who weren't a part of the original decision. Since several people shared the concerns I explained how we reached the decision to take the client on originally, but that I was prepared to put it to the vote again, and stop working for the client should the team want us to.
The arguments put forward for dropping the client were that an escort agency is off-brand for us and that we wouldn't want to case study the work or shout about our involvement. They also said that they wouldn't feel proud of their work or be able to get passionate about working for a business like this. Some members of the team were also concerned about our reputation: "What if person X from client Y knew that we did work for an escort agency - what would they think of us?"
This time around, the vote went the other way by a large majority and so I called the client to explain that we were unable to continue working for them.
Initially in favour of continuing to work for the client based on what the Sex Worker's Union had said, and also my liberal worldview, I actually voted against continuing to work for the client this time. My personal reason was that I could see from the faces of the team, they didn't want to work for this client, and that was more important to me then the loss of one client and some revenue.
However, it hasn't quite felt right to me since then. I'm concerned that what we have done is to effectively discriminate against sex workers. Are we different from a shop with a sign outside saying 'No Irish, no blacks, no dogs?' Are we discriminating because of our fears about the prejudices of others? Is it the same as the shop keeper saying, 'Some of my favourite customers don't like blacks, so I don't have them in my shop.'
Or are there flaws in this analogy, and is it actually an ethically sound decision? Perhaps it's fair enough to simply not want to look at and think about an escort agency whilst you're at work.
What do you think?
Recent Comments