System Adminstration and Corporate Ethics?

Posted by Cliff on Friday October 18, 2002 @02:34AM from the have-you-been-in-this-hot-seat-yet dept.

Not-a-BOFH asks: "About seven years ago while SysAdmin'ing for a (then) small software company, I was approached by the CEO regarding a technical issue. He explained to me that he got a bit hot headed at another employee and sent said person an email that he now wished he hadn't sent. His request to me was to dig through this person's email and delete it before he came in that morning. As the SysAdmin, this was certainly possible for me to do, but I've always tried to remain ethical when having such access to sensitive documents. In the case of email, I explained to the CEO that to me it was like tampering with the U.S. Mail, and I wasn't comfortable doing it. Long story short, my boss had no issue with it, and wound up doing it anyway. Looking back now, I'm not really all that surprised that that decision of mine led to my getting fired, but I've always wondered how many other people have had similar situations happen to them, where personal ethics and CEO heavyhanding came into play, and their job security suffered from the clash."

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Dumbass, I'd fire you too. by sudog · 2002-10-18 05:02 · Score: 0, Troll

It's internal, corporate email. You aren't a rep of the U.S. Postal Service, you're not an arbitrary third party entrusted with the delivery of a letter, and besides that, it was the guy who requested it who sent the letter to begin with! What difference does it make?

Anal system admins like you give us all a bad name.
Re:BOFH with Ethics? by LWolenczak · 2002-10-18 07:06 · Score: 1, Troll

I agree with you, but the majority of companies (were talking sub 100 employees) dont have proper HR deparments.

I understand your view, and I too have run into overzelus admins. I am not the judge, jury, or executioner. But view me as an officer of the court. If I see evidence that your doing something wrong, Its going to be brought up with your supervisors. Most employers don't even care about policy, they just want their shit to work. A person in MIS in this state(northcarolina), esp. now risks rocking the boat even discussing policy. Things for MIS are not pretty out there.

At least were not talking about being an IRC admin... They are the Judge, Jury, and typer of the G-Line. :)

I'm sorry if I somehow gave people that I just open people's mailboxes for the hell of it. Its not even worht the time or effort to see the porn spam, and the thousands of one liner emails.